Using data from several well-preserved pyres, which are rarely found well preserved in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, we examine cremation customs and their associated pyrotechnologies at the site of Cerro de Trincheras in northern Sonora, Mexico, from AD 1300 to 1450/1500. We explore variations in pyre construction and use, thermal alterations of the deceased, the deceased individuals’ biological profiles, the performance of mortuary rituals, and the sensorial experiences of both the mourners and the wider Cerro de Trincheras community. The residents of the site were masters of the pyrotechnologies associated with cremations, making efficient pyres for the deceased and maximizing their resources. The group also created transformative funeral rituals that may have facilitated and mediated a wide range of emotional responses toward their deceased.

A core region is the first place for expected shifts in archaeological materials before, during, and after political changes like state emergence and imperial consolidation. Yet, studies of ceramic production have shown that there are sometimes limited or more subtle changes in the ceramic economy throughout such political fluctuations. This article synthesizes recent efforts to address political economic changes via geochemical characterization (neutron activation analysis; NAA) in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin in western Mexico. This region was home to the Purépecha state and then empire (Tarascan; ca. AD 1350–1530), one of the most powerful kingdoms in the Americas before European arrival. The combined ceramic dataset from four sites in the region result in eight geochemical groups. Our analysis indicates that the region experienced long-term and relatively stable ceramic production that was not substantially altered by the emergence of the state and empire. In addition, we find evidence for (1) dispersed, localized production; (2) long-lived compositional ceramic recipes; and (3) a complex ceramic economy with differential community participation. We discuss why documenting local ceramic production and craft production more generally is important for the study of past political economies.

Polities require individuals who envision and materialize them; in turn, people's political identity as residents depends on them. The polity and the resident are self-evident only in hindsight, and we discuss their co-constitution. During subjectification, people create and submit to an authority. Our case study is the Early Classic (AD 350–600) emergence of Tamarindito in the south-central Maya Lowlands (modern Guatemala). The Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project and the Tamarindito Archaeological Project have extensively studied this capital of the Foliated Scroll polity. Although its divine rulers present themselves as fully formed since time immemorial, we discuss how they built their authority through self-serving narratives. Tamarindito originates in the Early Classic, and in the late fourth or fifth century, rulers selected a 70 m high hill as seat. Plaza A's monumentality conceals a small-scale labor effort and a slowly growing polity. Only two non-elite households attached themselves to the royal court during the fifth and sixth centuries, suggesting that non-elites recognized the royal authority only slowly. The formation of the Foliated Scroll polity was an immanent process. Self-aggrandizing divine kings struggled to claim authority, and non-elites subjectified themselves over several centuries.

Este trabajo busca discutir los alcances y limitaciones de la aplicación del concepto de comunicación visual en el arte rupestre. Con este objetivo, se evalúa la presencia/ausencia de reglas de composición en el arte de Viuda Quenzana (Patagonia centro-meridional, Argentina), y se discuten sus variaciones a través del tiempo. Para tal fin, se analizan las características estructurales de las reglas composicionales actuantes sobre la producción de 367 motivos, distribuidos en 39 paneles correspondientes a 11 sitios, y sus cambios y/o continuidades a partir de la evaluación de cinco estratos de color. Los resultados muestran que las reglas vinculadas con las características visuales de las imágenes (forma y técnica), tienen mayor peso en la potencial codificación y decodificación de información visual, que las reglas vinculadas con el emplazamiento de las imágenes en los soportes y sus relaciones con otras imágenes.

Uno de los temas centrales de discusión en la arqueología de Patagonia se enmarca tradicionalmente en torno a la profundidad temporal de las ocupaciones humanas y su relación con el estudio de las estrategias de movilidad de los grupos cazadores-recolectores que habitaron diferentes espacios. A partir de la calibración y la suma de probabilidades de una muestra actualizada de dataciones radiocarbónicas obtenidas para la cuenca inferior del río Deseado, se identifica una secuencia ocupacional discontinua que se desarrolla durante el Holoceno medio y tardío. La información paleoclimática a escala regional y el carácter exploratorio de las ocupaciones humanas sugieren que un hiato cronológico identificado hacia el final del Holoceno medio (4988-3978 cal aP) podría estar vinculado con estrategias de abandono y relocalización del área, en función de dar respuesta a condiciones de aridez que habrían configurado un ambiente con escasa disponibilidad hídrica. Durante el Holoceno tardío final (entre ca. 1500 y 300 cal aP), el registro de espacios costeros ampliamente habitados y la identificación de un marcado crecimiento de la densidad de probabilidad de la curva de distribución de dataciones sugieren una trayectoria hacia un aumento poblacional en el marco de estrategias de movilidad asociadas al litoral atlántico.

En este artículo se describe y analiza los últimos hallazgos realizados durante la investigación del conjunto amurallado Gran Chimú, en la ciudad de Chan Chan, capital del reino de Chimo (900-1470 dC), en la costa norte de Perú. Después de analizar las características arquitectónicas de las entradas y la presencia de hornacinas con estatuillas de madera en Gran Chimú y en otros conjuntos de Chan Chan, planteamos que las hornacinas y estatuas son adiciones arquitectónicas tardías. Proponemos que los personajes representados están asociados con los rituales funerarios y el culto al ancestro representado por la momia del rey. A partir de ello, reforzamos la idea de los conjuntos amurallados como palacios que se trasforman en mausoleos reales a la muerte de los reyes chimúes.

Pedro Rojas's 1961 excavation of numerous stone vessels at the Huayurco site has led scholars to suspect that the Jaén region of the northeastern Peruvian Andes was an important center of early ceremonial stone bowl production. This discovery not only provided clear evidence of an independent craft technology within the ceja de selva, or eastern Andean tropical montane forest, but the similarity of these stone vessels to examples found at coastal and highland Andean sites also suggested that the Jaén region produced these vessels as a means of participating within early interregional exchange networks. Because empirical evidence of tropical forest exchange items within coastal and highland sites is difficult to obtain because of these items’ suspected perishable nature, the stone vessels represented an alternative means for understanding early Andean–Amazonian relations. Despite the importance of this discovery, little follow-up investigation has been conducted. In this article, I define the Jaén stone vessel tradition on the basis of form, design, and technology. I then review the archaeological literature on early Andean stone vessels to show how these vessels help articulate Jaén's participation within Andean interaction spheres between 2500 and 800 BC.

In this study, we analyze extensive segmented and standardized agricultural fields in the marginally productive terrain of the Pampa de Guereque in the Jequetepeque Valley on the north coast of Peru. Although portions of the associated canal system were constructed continuously from late Formative to Chimú times, the segmented fields date to the late Chimú–Inka period and were only partially finished, apparently never fully used, and ultimately abandoned. We provide description of field plots and irrigation canals and discuss the implications of state-level construction and labor management of the fields, as well as the probable reasons for their abandonment.

Diversas líneas de evidencia sugieren la existencia de dos rangos de acción de cazadores-recolectores en el sur de Patagonia meridional durante el Holoceno tardío: uno oriental, concentrado en el campo volcánico Pali Aike y otro occidental, localizado a lo largo de una franja relativamente longitudinal que va desde el sur de Lago Argentino hasta Última Esperanza. Mientras el uso de lascas y dacita predomina en el primero, la tecnología laminar y la explotación de lutita negra es recurrente en el segundo. Sin embargo, instrumentos de filo largo (raederas y cuchillos) sobre láminas de lutita negra también se registran, en baja frecuencia, en el campo volcánico Pali Aike y espacios asociados. Este trabajo evalúa, a través de las técnicas de morfometría geométrica, si estos instrumentos pertenecen a una misma población artefactual de acuerdo con sus características morfológicas. Los resultados no muestran diferencias morfológicas significativas entre los instrumentos laminares de lutita negra según su área de hallazgo (oriental versus occidental). La información morfológica y otras evidencias sobre los tamaños de los instrumentos laminares y la disponibilidad de lutita negra, cuyas principales fuentes de aprovisionamiento se localizan en el área occidental, abren la discusión sobre distintos mecanismos de interacción poblacional involucrados en la dispersión de estos artefactos.

In the archaeological tradition of what is today Peru, studies of sedentary agricultural groups have accorded a minor role to the analysis of stone tools relative to other suites of material culture. Here, we illustrate the value of such lithic collections via a case study of settlement sites from the Chachapoyas region of northern Peru (AD 300–1500). This study demonstrates the potential of methods such as use-wear microscopy and raw material analysis to address questions of theoretical interest to archaeologists studying sedentary society, such as subsistence, household behavior, and ceremonial practices. A set of generalized linear models of the spatial distribution of volcanic stone indicates that lithic raw material acquisition at these ceramic period sites was likely embedded in other activities. In addition, we examine an unusual set of limestone and carbonate-patinated artifacts that suggest that lithic procurement and selection were informed and strategic, if not conforming to expected technological priorities. We suggest that, by taking the potential value of lithic artifacts into consideration from project design through field collection and assemblage sampling, researchers can minimize biases that may otherwise limit the value of lithic assemblages.

Children and childhood have emerged as important topics for understanding the history of African slavery in the Americas. In historical archaeology, analyses of subadult skeletal remains have provided valuable information about the biological and social conditions of captivity, yet children are infrequently the primary subjects of study in African diaspora bioarchaeology. Recent bioarchaeological research at Hacienda La Quebrada, a late colonial sugar plantation in central Peru, brings new data to bear on these subjects. Excavations at the cemetery for the plantation's enslaved African and Afro-descendant population recovered 158 subadults ranging from newborns to 20 years old, who represented 64% of the burial sample. Paleodemographic data and skeletal indicators of stress indicate that enslaved children were disproportionately affected by the conditions of life at Hacienda La Quebrada, particularly because of insufficient diets and susceptibility to infection and disease. Although these results are specific to the context of plantation slavery in Peru's coastal sugar economy, they contribute new information about the history of African slavery in Peru and about the study of childhood in conditions of captivity and colonialism in the Spanish Americas more broadly.

Se presenta un modelo teórico para abordar el poblamiento humano del noroeste y centro-oeste de la Patagonia (incluyendo ambas vertientes cordilleranas, en Argentina y Chile), a partir del análisis del registro funerario y no funerario de poblaciones cazadoras-recolectoras cuyas cronologías se extienden desde los últimos 12.500 años aP hasta el presente. Para su elaboración se consideró el modelo de poblamiento de la Patagonia planteado por Luis Borrero y los desarrollados por John Walthall y Gustavo Barrientos para el tratamiento y disposición de los muertos, y se tuvo en cuenta la ubicación de los contextos arqueológicos en los tipos de ambientes presentes (bosque/ecotono y estepa). Se definieron variables para caracterizar el registro funerario y no funerario, a partir de las que se identificaron las etapas del poblamiento humano. Los resultados sugieren que hay sectores dentro del área de investigación que presentan continuidad de ocupaciones humanas durante todo el período considerado, mientras que otros son ocupados de manera discontinua. En concordancia con esto, se manifiestan las distintas etapas de poblamiento. Este trabajo propone, en definitiva, un abordaje novedoso para el registro funerario y no funerario del área de investigación y la inserta dentro de la discusión regional del poblamiento humano de la Patagonia.