Greenstone is commonly used to produce culturally significant items across Mesoamerica, including axes, earspools, figurines, and beads. This research characterizes the mineralogy of greenstone materials recovered from sites in the Jovel Valley, Chiapas, Mexico, to document the range of green minerals utilized by the inhabitants. Our analysis of the objects suggests that the Late Classic and Early Postclassic Maya of the Jovel Valley had access to a variety of greenstone minerals, including serpentinites, green micas, grossular, and jadeite. X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry characterization of reference materials suggests procurement of greenstone resources from the well-documented sources of the Motagua–Polochic Fault Zone, and also potentially from sources in the Chalchihuitán–Chenalhó area of Chiapas, Mexico. The Jovel Valley had access to materials over long distances through historically documented trade routes that allowed the movement of greenstone materials west from the Motagua River Valley into highland Chiapas or south from the Chalchihuitán–Chenalhó area.

We present a synthesis of treatment of the dead from before 700 b.c. to the fifteenth century a.d. in the lower Ulúa River Valley of northern Honduras. Building on evidence of burial alignments to a prominent mountain first identified for the Classic period, we argue that mortuary rituals served to integrate politically independent communities within a shared cosmological landscape. We identify alignment of burials toward the same mountain beginning in the Middle Formative period. At this time, a cycle of mortuary treatment resulted in bodies of some of the dead being commingled in shared secondary burial sites in caves, significant locations in the cosmological landscape. During the Classic period, secondary mortuary treatment continued, now performed within settlements again united by orientation to a shared cosmological landscape. The addition of solar alignments may be evidence of adoption by some families of Lowland Maya cosmological beliefs. This impression is solidified in Postclassic burial practices that align closely with those of specific Lowland Maya societies. We argue that the afterlife cycles through which the living interacted with the dead, in a tension between individualization and communal belonging, included strategies through which social relations, community histories, and ties among communities were created.

In 2017, the authors supervised the recovery of a pre-Hispanic stone sculpture near the community of La Victoria, in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, southern Veracruz, Mexico. The fortuitous discovery of this monument afforded a rare research opportunity to conduct a controlled, systematic archaeological investigation of a known, but poorly documented, Early Classic–period (a.d. 300–450) sculptural tradition. Moreover, this archaeological salvage project facilitated a crucial dialogue with local stakeholders regarding the recovery and final disposition of the monument. This collaborative effort enabled researchers to wed governmental oversight and academic interests with the concerns of local stakeholders, thereby furthering the investigation, conservation, and public appreciation of Classic-period archaeology along Mexico's southern Gulf Lowlands.

In the present discussion, I will focus on the creation of baby warriors in Mesoamerica in a twofold manner: as human beings and as blade stones. The emphasis will be on central Mexico, complemented with essential data from other parts of Postclassic Mesoamerica. By juxtaposing information from historical sources in a novel way, this investigation seeks to offer new insights that should reinforce the idea that warriors captured on the battlefield were considered to be children. Although this idea has been suggested before, this article aims to contribute new historical evidence that not only confirms this notion but also widens our understanding of the creation of nonbiological offspring. Making kin out of Others aims to satisfy a cosmological need to incorporate vital energy and elements for individual and collective personhood from outside of the community. The second idea of this investigation focuses on a related productive variant of this gestational dynamic, suggesting that by stone flaking and chipping, children (of stone) were fabricated. Some of them were indeed “child blade stones” who personified warriors and fed themselves with sacrificial victims, securing sustenance for the hungry gods. I argue that the birth of these warriors should be integrated into a major mythological theme—namely, the Child Hero and the Old Adoptive Mother.