The ceremonial architecture of Late Postclassic Mayapán (A.D. 1268–1441) in Yucatán, Mexico, included repetitive arrangements of buildings known as temple assemblages. Archaeological investigations conducted by the Proyecto Maya Colonial in Petén, Guatemala, revealed a pocket of temple assemblages in a zone occupied by the seventeenth century Kowoj Maya. The Kowoj claimed to have migrated from Mayapán sometime after the city’s collapse in A.D. 1441. Indigenous documents also describe Kowoj in Mayapán and linguistic data indicate migrations between Yucatán and Petén as well. A specific variant of temple assemblage defines the location of the Kowoj in both Mayapán and Petén. I argue that these assemblages were the exemplary centers or microcosms of the Kowoj social and physical universe and they were transplanted as the Kowoj re-centered themselves in new or, perhaps, reclaimed lands. The temple assemblages also communicated a prestigious connection with Mayapán and differentiated the Kowoj from their neighbors in Petén.

More than 1,200 artifacts from Tikal provide new information about the presence of Mexican obsidian in the Maya Lowlands and Teotihuacan"s possible role in its transmission. In addition to the source of green obsidian near Pachuca, six other Mexican sources were identified in the Tikal sample. These artifacts date from the early Late Preclassic into the Early Postclassic periods. Over 96 percent are prismatic blades and thin bifaces, whose recovery contexts, spatial distributions, and signs of use-wear indicate they were predominantly utilitarian and domestic artifacts used by all social groups. They were commodities that were transported over Highland-Lowland long-distance exchange networks of considerable time depth. This long-standing, interregional exchange of goods is essentially different from the relatively brief adoption and integration during the Early Classic period of objects, art styles, and behavior of Teotihuacan origin. Obsidian sequins and eccentrics of Teotihuacan style were material components of this latter phenomenon. Their forms and recovery contexts suggest use in rituals borrowed from Teotihuacan, but by lesser elites or wealthy commoners rather than by Tikal"s rulers.

This article examines the cultural and ecological history of a single Maya territory from circa 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1100. An ancient Maya territory is defined as an area of land and population under the jurisdiction of a particular capital. In addition to the capital, there are minor centers, household groups, and temporary settlements, which together comprise the population of a territory. Here, the San Bartolo-Xultun territory in the northeastern Department of the Peten, Guatemala is used as a case study. During more than two thousand years of occupation the natural landscape and cultural settlement pattern changed dramatically. This study isolates major factors contributing to broad changes in local culture history by employing data from archaeology, geography, remote sensing, epigraphy, and iconography. It is argued that reconstructing regional culture histories using a conjunctive approach should be a major goal of Maya archaeology in the coming years as we strive for a more holistic understanding of the past.

The Moche was the last complex society to develop on the Peruvian north coast during the Early Intermediate Period (200 B. C.-700 A. D.). While archaeological research on the Moche has traditionally concentrated on the impressive marks of political and religious power, we know relatively little about Moche household organization and patterns of residence. In this research, conducted at the eponymous site of Moche, I identify three types of architectural organization relating to both residential and nonresidential spaces. An analysis of building materials and architectural superposition suggests a close relationship among construction quality, household size, and occupational continuity, in the case of residential architecture. The observed differences, I argue, reflect strategies of household social reproduction among Moche's urban population that depend largely on socioeconomic status. I also contend that different forms of labor were responsible for the construction of residential compounds and other specialized areas, the function of which may not be primarily residential. This research emphasizes the great potential of studying domesticity in prehistory as well as the dynamics of urban construction and suggests methods effective for the reconstruction of household forms and change in sedentary societies.

I criticize recent applications of the “cosmogram” concept to ancient Maya architecture and cities. Although cosmograms—graphic representations of aspects of the cosmos—are known from Late Postclassic and early colonial Aztec and Maya sources, there is no textual suggestion that buildings or cities were viewed as cosmograms. Numerous authors, however, assert confidently that architectural cosmograms abounded in Classic Maya cities. I examine known cosmograms, describe recent studies of architectural cosmograms, and discuss problems that occur when highly speculative interpretations are phrased as confident empirical findings.

Arguments for the cosmological significance of ancient Maya city layouts are plausible, but empirical applications are subjective and lack rigor. I illustrate this contention through brief comments on a recent article by Ashmore and Sabloff. I first discuss some of the complexities and pitfalls in studying cosmology from ancient city plans, and then focus on one component of the authors’ cosmological model—the hypothesized north-south axis at Classic Maya cities. My goal is not to down-play or rule out the role of cosmology in Maya city planning, but rather to encourage the use of explicit assumptions and rigorous methods that will provide the study of Maya city planning with a more secure empirical foundation.

Recent research on the Tiwanaku state has documented the evolution of regional settlement patterns and agricultural systems, but little is known of changes at the subregional level outside the capital. Analysis of a sequence of domestic occupations excavated at Lukurmata, Bolivia, provides information on how individual households within the Tiwanaku core area were consolidated into the Tiwanaku polity. Changes in residential patterns and artifact assemblages suggest that Lukurmata households were initially connected to the Tiwanaku polity through exchange and religious ties. A new level of assimilation developed in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. These changes, including agricultural intensification, illustrate the increasing integration of individual households into the Tiwanaku political economy and social order as the landscape developed. The nature and timing of these changes are consistent with current hypotheses of a transformation in Tiwanaku political and economic organization near the end of the Tiwanaku IV period (A.D. 400-800).

The increasing attention devoted to the investigation of prehispanic houses in Mesoamerica owes much theoretically and methodologically to the early household archaeology undertaken decades ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. Yet despite the large sample of Formative period houses excavated in this region, little is known about domestic life during the later Classic and Postclassic periods. In this paper we broaden the database of Classic period houses by reporting on excavations on five residential terraces at El Palmillo, one of many large hilltop terraced sites in the valley that collectively housed as much as two-thirds of the region"s Classic period population. Occupied for centuries, the terraces and their associated domestic compounds at El Palmillo underwent a series of coordinated episodes of wall construction, repair, and spatial modification. Craft activities-especially the production of chipped stone tools and maguey fiber for cordage and cloth-were an important part of domestic life. The relative importance of these different household economic activities varied from terrace to terrace, indicating that domestic production was specialized and operated at the household level. Maguey and other xerophytic plants also provided important subsistence resources. Differences in access to nonlocal goods have been documented between terraces, although the extent of such variation is not marked in the present sample. Although preliminary, the El Palmillo findings provide a new empirical basis from which to examine domestic life and the economic and organizational foundations of Classic period hill-top terraced settlements in Oaxaca. These findings reflect on larger issues about the basic economy of later prehispanic Mesoamerica and the articulation of domestic units and household production into larger socioeconomic networks that theoretically extended well beyond ancient Oaxaca.

Our work in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Haiti, and Jamaica has revealed significant patterning in apparently unretouched molluscan shell objects. In the present paper we conclude that repetitive patterns in shell breakage, especially of queen conch (Strombus gigas), reflect the specific manufacture of forms for use as expedient tools. Expedient tools exhibit only primary modification in which a portion of the source material is removed and shaped, but there is no specific evidence for the preparation of a work edge. Alternatively, expedient tools may display no modification of the raw material except that produced through use. We hypothesize that through controlled breakage large S. gigas and other mollusk shells were modified to create numerous smaller pieces for everyday domestic activities. The key factor here is human intent. Experiments clearly demonstrate that controlled breakage of adult shells produces predictable fragments. Among these are forms that occurred in prehistoric sites throughout the West Indies; many of these forms also exhibit signs of use wear. This type of regional comparison and analysis is important for all archaeologists who work in coastal settings. It is only through such general studies that the sample size is sufficient to facilitate a more complete reconstruction of the aboriginal tool kit.

Two Terminal Formative (ca. 100 B. C.–A.D. 100) domestic areas of La Laguna, Tlaxcala, are compared to examine variability in residential structures, assemblages, and practices, and their correlation to status differences at this midsize regional center during the period of initial central Mexican urbanization and state formation. Combining multiple lines of evidence, the study assesses the applicability of previous frameworks for investigating household status to this particular community. It demonstrates significant differences between elite and commoner residences in architectural elaboration, labor mobilization, access to certain foreign goods, and particular ritual practices, but general similarities in domestic economies and more restrained differentiation informs of personal adornment and domestic ritual. These conclusions are consistent with demarcated lineage ranking but relatively minor wealth accumulation by a more rural elite located peripherally to larger cities and polities.

A number of previous authors have suggested, based on limited data, that Pachychilus spp., freshwater gastropods often called jute, may have played a role in ancient Maya ritual. Data collected by the authors demonstrate that jute shells consistently appear as part of faunal assemblages in ceremonial caves across the southern Maya Lowlands. At surface sites, jute are often associated with ceremonial architecture, particularly ballcourts. Previous ethnographic accounts are reviewed for clues to ancient Maya jute use. New ethnographic data suggest a role not previously considered by archaeologists. A Q‘eqchi’ Maya informant states that shells are gathered up after meals and deposited in caves as an offering in thanks to “Mother Earth” (Madre Tierra) who provided the mollusks. This practice suggests that the ancient shells may represent a secondary deposition rather than reflecting consumption occurring in the cave. The presence of jute shells may document ancient religious beliefs and ritual activities surrounding an important subsistence resource.

It is known that the grid pattern characterizing the city layout of Teotihuacan incorporates two slightly different groups of alignments, skewed approximately 15.5° and 16.5° clockwise from cardinal directions. I argue that these alignments were dictated by deliberate and astronomically functional orientations of the Pyramid of the Sun and the Ciudadela. The two structures recorded sunrises and sunsets on two different sets of dates, allowing the use of an observational calendar composed of intervals that included multiples of 20 days and a 260-day period. The evidence presented suggests also that the location of the Sun Pyramid was not determined by the cave that is now underneath the structure and is probably human-made, but rather by a combination of astronomical and topographic criteria: the place allowed the temple built there to be oriented both to sunrises and sunsets on significant dates and, in the perpendicular direction, to Cerro Gordo to the north; furthermore, sunrises on the so-called quarter-days of the year could be observed from the same spot over a prominent mountain on the eastern horizon. The dates corresponding to the Teotihuacan alignments are attested also at other central Mexican archaeological sites and must have been employed, primarily, for scheduling agricultural and associated ritual activities in the yearly cycle.

Cinnabar ore is the source of a bright red pigment (mercury [II] sulfide, HGS), a substance that was highly valued in the Central Andes during prehispanic times. It is traditionally believed to come from Huancavelica in south-central Peru, although some scholars have argued that a prehispanic cinnabar source existed at Azogues near Cuenca in southern Ecuador. It has also been suggested that the cinnabar recovered at archaeological sites in northern Peru such as Baton Grande may have come from this putative Ecuadorian source. In this article, the historical and archaeological evidence supporting this position is evaluated and found to be insufficient to sustain the Ecuadorian Cinnabar Hypothesis. Moreover, recent mercury isotope analysis of archaeological samples from northern Peru supports the earlier hypothesis that the source of the bright red pigment, sometimes referred to as vermilion, was cinnabar ore mined in Huancavelica. This source is located over 850 km to the south of archaeological sites such as Batdn Grande, Chongoyape, and Pacopampa.

Artifacts made from Quispisisa obsidian are widely disseminated in the Peruvian Andes, but the geological source of the Quispisisa geochemical type was only recently located in southern Ayacucho. Following the positive identification of the source in 1999 by Richard Burger and colleagues, we found evidence of broad quarrying activities in unexplored portions of the source area. We describe 34 quarry pits, some as large as 80 m across, together with evidence of early-stage lithic reduction at the source. We encountered high concentrations of reduction debris associated with more extensive knapping in two localities, but our preliminary evaluation of surface evidence suggests that much of the material quarried was removed from the area as intact nodules or after minimal reduction at the source area.

The Classic-to-Postclassic transition in the Maya Lowlands is a focus of contemporary debate. At the site of Ek Balam, Yucatán, excavation of Structure GS-12 provided an architectural stratigraphy that spans this period. GS-12-sub was a Late Classic (Pure Florescent) building razed during the construction of GS-12-1, a C-shaped structure of a form generally identified with Postclassic occupations on the Yucatán Peninsula. At Ek Balam the building is associated with Cehpech-sphere ceramics and dated to the Terminal Classic. These data are in general agreement with the dating of such structures at other lowland sites including Uxmal. We contend that C-shaped structures, when found associated with Cehpech-sphere ceramics, are a horizon marker for the Terminal Classic-to-Postclassic transition on the Yucatán Peninsula, and that they illustrate the culture changes that occurred at this still poorly understood boundary. They may be the remains of administrative buildings used by the Maya following the cessation of monumental construction at major centers. Besides contributing to our understanding of the ancient Maya, the implications of this article extend to the general study of collapse and abandonment of complex societies.

This paper is about Monte Negro’s origins, and how this site fits the emerging pattern in studies of Oaxacan urbanization including the Zapotec capital at Monte Albán. Our settlement data from a multivalley regional survey in the Mixteca Alta including Monte Negro allows comparison with other urban centers that we have surveyed. Monte Negro’s origins are due to internal settlement shifts, but occurred in the external context of widespread militarism and multiple urban transitions. Examination of local, regional, and macroregional settlement systems through time reveals variation in urban trajectories that current models were not designed to explain.

El Proyecto Cantona 1992-1994, patrocinado por el Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia de México, ha recuperado importantes datos nuevos sobre este impresionante sitio prehispánico ubicado en la porción meridional de la Cuenca Oriental de Puebla. Basado en estas recientes investigaciones, este informe presenta las características claves del sitio, incluyendo la planificación urbana, el sistema de calzadas y calles, los grupos mayores de arquitectura y la asimetría patente en la arquitectura. Las fechas de radiocarbono colocan la ocupación mayor de Cantona en el período Clásico.

Este trabajo aporta información acerca de la cronología y distribución de las mayólicas panameñas, a partir de los datos obtenidos en las excavaciones que se realizan en Panamá La Vieja (1519–1671) y en otros sitios coloniales del continente. Incluye una referencia a los aspectos estilísticos de los tipos definidos, y analiza la incidencia de cada uno de ellos en perspectiva diacrónica. Nuevos datos de localidades con mayólica panameña, permiten circunscribir su distribución a la vertiente pacífica (desde Guatemala hasta Chile), contribuyendo a la verificación de la hipótesis enunciada por Florence y Robert Lister (1974). El trabajo intenta explicar la ausencia significativa de mayólicas producidas en la ciudad de Panamá (costa pacífica del istmo), en las localidades de la costa atlántica, en contraposición a la constante presencia de cerámicas europeas en la ciudad de Panamá (las cuales, durante el auge de la industria local, alcanzaron frecuencias de alrededor del 20%). Tal situación no podría ser entendida tomando únicamente en consideración el alto costo de los fletes transístmicos (los cuales afectaban por igual ambas vías): ante el mismo valor agregado, resultaba socialmente deseable adquirir las mayólicas europeas en la ciudad de Panamá, mas no las panameñas en Portobelo. Resulta clara la existencia de valoraciones sociales diferenciales entre las mayólicas locales versus europeas, modeladoras de preferencias estéticas y hábitos de consumo.

This paper explores patterning in ceramic data from an Early Formative component at the site of La Joya, located in southern Veracruz, Mexico. The discussion uses ceramic paste characteristics, in addition to vessel form and decoration data, to suggest that this Early Formative pottery assemblage undergoes an in situ transformation between the “pre-Olmec” Tulipan phase and the “Olmec” Coyame phase. This conclusion is then used to revisit the hypothesis of a Chicharras phase (ca. 1250 B.C.) immigration of Pacific coastal groups into the southern Gulf lowlands (e.g., Clark 1990, 1997; Clark and Blake 1989; Coe and Diehl 1980). A consideration of ceramics from several Isthmian lowland contexts does not support this scenario. The discussion suggests that an over-reliance on the surface characteristics of ceramics at San Lorenzo may have encouraged an erroneous Gulf Olmec origin story.

Accounts from the Spanish chronicles regarding Inka record-keeping practices by means of the knotted string devices called khipu (“knot”) indicate that these accounts were compiled in a system of “checks and balances.” Each community in the empire had a minimum of four khipu accountants, all of whom are said by the chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega to have kept the same records. This study examines several examples of matching khipu accounts identified among sets of two or three khipu. The identification of matching khipu accounts has been facilitated by the recent development of a khipu database at Harvard University. It is argued that certain three-term numerical sequences recorded in one set of three matching khipu from Chachapoyas, northern Peru, represent a type of numerical signifier that may have served as identity labels of the information recorded in this set of khipu. The long-range objective of this research is to investigate the information recorded on khipu from various provenience zones around the former Inka Empire that may represent the remains of khipu archives.