We describe the development of a new chronology for the Postclassic site of Calixtlahuaca, Toluca, Mexico. We identify three ceramic phases using discriminant analysis of decorated and plainware types. These phases are consistent with excavated stratigraphy, as well as a series of 54 radiocarbon dates. We then assign absolute dates to the phases using Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates and historical information on the date of site abandonment. The resulting chronology identifies three phases at the site: Dongu (A.D. 1130-1380), Ninupi (A.D. 1380-1450), and Yata (A.D. 1450-1530). We then discuss the local and regional implications of the chronology. More broadly, our results demonstrate the utility of using multiple, complementary methods for developing more precise chronologies.

Archaeologists have long celebrated their unique ability to deal with the long term. But we are increasingly recognizing that we can and must also understand more rapid events. They are critical for many of the questions we now consider most interesting, such as distinguishing between changes that unfolded gradually and those that happened suddenly. In considering interactions among regions, we need something better than cross-dating on the basis of resemblances in material objects. That is especially so when we would like to know where something first developed and the tempo of its spread to other regions. As one particularly clear example of the beneficial effects of finer chronologies, Robert Santley (in Sanders et al. 1979:65-73) showed how shorter phases can drastically alter our picture of the ebb and flow of settlement history in a region. When Basin of Mexico sites in the Cuauhtitlan region are dated only in broad terms to the Middle and Late Formative periods, a rather placid picture of settlement change emerges.

This study focuses on trophy head taking during the transition between the Late Formative period and Tiwanaku period (A.D. 200-800) based on evidence from a dedicatory offering found at the site of Wata Wata, east of the Titicaca Basin. Although trophy-head taking was common in other precontact Andean cultures, evidence of the practice among cultures from this region is usually present only in iconography and not in actual physical remains. We explore the nature of this find and its placement within the trade and ceremonial center of Wata Wata. The three individuals included in the offering underwent various levels of violence at or around the time of death, including beheading, cranial and facial fracturing, defleshingjaw removal, and possible eye extraction. Such violence makes it unlikely that the heads were offered as part of a cult to revere ancestors. We argue that these heads, entombed in a ritual cache and sealed with a capstone, embody a strategic metaphor to remove authority and influence from the individuals, because skulls can be Andean symbols of power in life and the afterlife. The violent acts carried out on these crania may also have been a way to advertise broader changes during this transitional period in the Kallawaya region, a strategic exchange corridor between ecological zones in the Central Andes.

En este trabajo se analiza una Iápida tolteca de reciente excavación en el Edificio K de Tula, Hidalgo, México. Dicho objeto muestra a un anciano ataviado con un traje en forma de mariposa, que porta un báculo curvo o chicoacolli, además de una probable fecha calendárica. Se documenta el contexto de aparición de la Iápida y se interpretan los motivos iconográficos mediante una comparación con otros materiales arqueológicos toltecas y con algunas fuentes históricas del period Colonial Temprano. Entre los antiguos mexicanos, la mariposa se vinculó con el complejo simbólico de guerra y fuego, por lo que se postula que el anciano alado puede relacionarse con poderes calóricos, con el dios Quetzalcóatl, patrono mítico de los toltecas, con una probable fecha de entronización, así como con la legitimidad de los primeros dignatarios de la antigua ciudad de Tula.

As the Chimú empire (ca. A.D. 900-1470) expanded along the north coast of Peru, it employed a mix of direct and indirect strategies to administer conquered populations. In order to investigate the extent to which Chimú conquest reshaped daily life in the provinces, I explore evidence from Pedregal, a rural farming village in the Jequetepeque Valley. I use cuisine as a window onto daily life at Pedregal, in order to construct a “view from the kitchen” of Chimú expansion. Excavation data from Pedregal households indicate that production of agricultural staples such as corn and cotton intensified during the Chimú period, but that while the focus of household culinary practice shifted, the overall range of household activities remained the same. The Chimú seem to have been able to establish political control and intensify agricultural production in conquered provinces without a radical reorganization of rural domestic economies. These findings have implications not only for emerging models of Chimú imperial expansion, but also for our understanding of how household-level change and continuity are articulated with regional political and economic processes.

This paper assesses a set of ideological practices related to the growth and abandonment of ceremonial and administrative buildings from the southern Moche area of the north coast of Peru. The archaeological record at Huacas de Moche, El Brujo, and Guadalupito, three of the main settlements in the region, includes evidence for the deposition and manipulation of animal and human bodies, burning, and the alteration of wall iconography. These activities took place in the period between A.D. 300-750, and were related to either the construction and renovation of structures or the abandonment of monumental built spaces. The analysis of this data contributes to a better understanding of Moche ritual dedicatory behavior, contextualizing it in a broader perspective on place making and the marking of time in precolumbian South America.

We report on the archaeometallurgical analysis of eight pieces of copper recovered from the Villa JMC-1 cemetery (Pitren Complex, Early Ceramic period) in the locality of Labranza, La Araucania. These artifacts provide the earliest evidence of metal use in southern Chile. They are also the southernmost prehispanic metal artifacts ever found in South America. These contextualized results complement those obtained from the analysis of an earring from Kilómetro 0—Enlace Temuco (El Vergel Complex, Late Ceramic period), an archaeological residential site dated to almost 500 years after the Labranza cemetery. Particle Induced X-ray Emission, X-ray radiography, and stereomicroscopy analyses allow us to offer an elemental characterization of the pieces, an assessment of their manufacturing process, and a comparison between the metals and alloys discovered. We follow with a discussion of proposals regarding cultural relations in the Araucania region during different time periods.

Snuff trays are conspicuous objects that are found in archaeological contexts throughout Andean South America. At San Pedro de Atacama, in northern Chile, snuff trays that exhibit iconographic motifs similar to those found on Tiwanaku megalithic monuments have been assigned to the Tiwanaku style. In the present work, we propose a new definition for this style based on the occurrence of three morphological features: an overall trapezoidal shape, incurving sides, and sharp top corners. This group includes trays with iconography from the previously defined Tiwanaku style, as well as other trays without iconography. Principal component analysis shows that Tiwanaku-style trays with and without iconography make up a single group that is significantly different from plain, largely rectangular San Pedro-style trays. The relative proportion of Tiwanaku-style trays with and without iconography does not differ between cultural periods and archaeological sites. The results point to shape as an important trait for assigning trays to styles. Furthermore, the results show that during the Middle period four main types of snuff trays were in use: Tiwanaku trays with and without iconography and local San Pedro trays, also with and without iconography. We explore the possible social implications of this co-occurrence of styles.