Differentiating the material patterning between domestic refuse from squatters and ceremonial trash generated from termination rituals has been difficult for Maya archaeologists. Rich floor assemblages, especially from elite contexts, have been interpreted as “decadent” squatter refuse by some researchers and the remains of abandonment rituals by others. The identification and separation of these classes of behavior are essential for interpretations of floor assemblages. In this paper, we examine data from numerous contexts, in order to contextualize the debate over the interpretation of these two models. Ethnoarchaeological, ethnohistoric, and archaeological data indicate that close scrutiny of the context and material composition of such deposits are needed to distinguish these very different classes of behavior.

In this article we present a synthetic overview and preliminary analysis of the data collected by members of the Sierra del Lacandón Regional Archaeology Project (SLRAP) during four field seasons of research from 2003 to 2007. We examine the growth, development, and transformation of the Classic Maya polities of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, and Yaxchilan, Mexico, located in the Middle Usumacinta Basin. This analysis uses a conjunctive approach, incorporating analyses of iconography, epigraphy, settlement patterns, ceramics, mortuary patterns, and architectural styles. During the Late Preclassic period (c. 250 B.C.-A.D. 350) settlement was scattered widely across the study region and Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan were only two of a number of other equally powerful Preclassic communities. In the Early Classic period (c. A.D. 350-600) royal dynasties were established at both Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan and the population of the region became concentrated at these two sites. During the Late Classic period (c. A.D. 600-810) the political frontier between Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan was repopulated and transformed into a contested border zone surrounding a political boundary. This territorial expansion culminated in endemic warfare by the eighth century A.D., which may have ultimately led to the demise of these two Maya polities.

Time is an abstract concept that has been examined relatively less by Americanist archaeologists as compared to Europeanists. The lack of consideration of time is particularly curious among Mayanists, because the Classic Maya assiduously recorded events in the lives of rulers and their kingdoms according to time's passage in multiple, precisely calibrated calendars. This essay examines some of the ways in which time has been conceptualized, and its political and economic roles explored, by anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and others. I apply these findings to the evolution of calendars in Mesoamerica and their function in underwriting early leadership positions, such as that of shamans or “daykeepers.” I explore the role of time in structuring late (Postclassic) Maya geopolitical organization and the possibility that such principles also guided that of the Classic Maya. Time, calendars, and particularly the movements of the sun came to be viewed as being “controlled” by Maya sacred kings, aided by their retinue of daykeepers/calendar priests. This awesome cosmopolitical power led to the identification of the king with the sun and his legitimization through control of the means of social and cosmic reproduction.

Spanish colonization of the Yucatán Peninsula altered traditional patterns of subsistence after Spaniards imposed labor demands and controlled the movement of indigenous Maya. Spaniards established an encomienda and Franciscan visita at Ek Balam in the northern lowlands of the peninsula during the mid-sixteenth century. Complementary forces of doctrina and encomienda fostered the religious, political, and economic subjugation of the Maya. An analysis of zooarchaeological material from an Early Hispanic period feature at the archaeological site of Ek Balam indicates that Spanish restrictions of population movement and restructuring of indigenous labor altered pre-Hispanic patterns of faunal use. Under Spanish hegemony, Maya residents raised small-sized animals of Eurasian origin, especially pigs and chickens, while maintaining the indigenous dog as a primary food source. The animals used at Ek Balam could have been either raised or hunted locally; there is no indication that animals were obtained through either trade or exchange. The pattern of faunal use by indigenous people at Ek Balam differs from Early Hispanic sites in the southern Maya lowlands and elsewhere in the circum-Caribbean. This contrast demonstrates that tropical environmental variability, population density, and Spanish control tactics affected subsistence behavior and the incorporation of introduced fauna in the indigenous diet.

En el apéndice de su articulo reciente, Bracco (2006:511-540) realiza una serie de comentarios e interpretaciones de la evidencia científica interdisciplinaria producida por nuestro equipo en el sitio de Los Ajos en el sureste de Uruguay. Entre otras cosas, Bracco nos imputa: (a) de haber retrocedido la problemática de investigación en el área veinte años atrás, (b) de desconocer los trabajos anteriores realizados en la región, (c) de forzar nuestros datos paleoambientales a la secuencia cultural, y (d) de alegar, sin evidencia, la naturaleza doméstica de los montículos durante el período Montículo Precerámico en Los Ajos. En este comentario, nosotros respondemos a las alegaciones de Bracco.

Se abordan cuatro temas en la replica a Iriarte et. al (en este volumen): 1) Reconstrucciones paleoclimáticas, analizando la baja resolución del registro de Iriarte (2006), limitaciones del procedimiento de muestreo, sistema acuático elegido y dataciones. Se responde a las criticas sobre las inferencias paleoclimdticas realizadas, indicando que no consideran el total de las líneas de evidencia utilizadas ni la escala del registro y señalando la buena correspondencia con reconstrucciones propuestas para la región. 2) Evidencias de aldeas estructuradas en sitios con estructuras monticulares. Observamos las argumenlaciones esgrimidas para el sitio de Los Ajos, refiriendolas al contexto arqueológico de la región. Se responde a nuestra supuesta falta de observation de cambios culturales y ambientales, señalándose los problemas de las secuencias culturales propuestas. Se retoma el problema de la mecánica de construcción de los montículos como cuestión inicial a la horn de interpretar el registro y postular secuencias culturales. 3) Dataciones, desarrollando el concepto de fechados de baja resolutión y su pertinencia en la propuesta del Modelo de Crecimiento Continuo para las estructuras monticulares. 4) Por último se observa las implicaciones de la confusión entre la cuenca del Plata y la cuenca de la Laguna Merín.