Recently completed investigations in the Naco Valley, located within the Rio Chamelecon drainage of northwestern Honduras, suggest that, by 1200 B. C., emergent elites were experiencing variable success in their efforts to construct sociopolitical hierarchies. Though able to harness labor in the construction of large platforms, these scions apparently did not monopolize crucial economic processes nor could they command the exclusive allegiances of their subordinates over protracted periods. Political centralization, social heterogeneity, and boundary formation processes were, therefore, not mutually reinforcing and the polities that resulted were small and ephemeral. Comparison of Naco"s trajectory with contemporary developments in neighboring portions of southeastern Mesoamerica hint at the varied developmental paths that ultimately laid the foundation for the emergence of relatively stable, hierarchically organized polities in the subsequent Classic period (A. D. 200–900).

The emergence of public architecture in Peru's central highlands occurred during the mid-first millennium B. C. and is correlated with the expansion of the Chavín sphere of interaction. Atalla, a high-altitude site in Huancavelica, represents one of the first known centers with large-scale masonry constructions. Analysis of the ceramic assemblage reveals many similarities between the local ceramics and the Janabarriu phase pottery from Chavín de Huántar, located 450 km to the north. The inhabitants of Atalla emulated the ceramic style and cut-stone masonry of the much larger northern civic-ceremonial centers, like Chavín de Huántar, while maintaining local traits such as circular dwellings and burials in or adjacent to domestic architecture. Utilizing a core-periphery perspective, the unprecedented formation in the central highlands of a community like Atalla is hypothesized to be an independent response to demands for exotic goods from the more complex societies to the north. The largest mercury deposits in Latin America are located 15 km to the west of Atalla, and the center would have been in an excellent position to procure cinnabar and distribute this bright red vermilion pigment. Production of the pigment itself would have occurred at small villages like Chuncuimarca located in the zone of the mercury deposits.

The Cerro de las Conchas shell mound, located on Mexico's south Pacific coast, was formed between 7,500 and 6,000/5,500 years ago, during the Middle Archaic period. Few Mesoamerican coastal sites are as early or have been studied so intensively. Limited diversity in the artifact assemblage and faunal origins, the presence of bedded strata, and the absence of features associated with permanent residency indicate that the site was used intermittently as a processing station for aquatic foods. Seasonality studies on clam shells suggest that this occurred year round. The site likely was situated initially adjacent to a brackish water lagoon near a tropical rainforest because faunal studies indicate a strong focus on lagoonal taxa, whereas a forested environment is indicated by phytoliths. Toward the end of the Middle Archaic, however, an increase in faunal and artifact richness, an emphasis on fauna with a tolerance for marine conditions, and phytolith evidence for more disturbance vegetation compared to earlier times, may be due to marine transgression. Later, pottery-using agricultural peoples used the site for farming and possibly residency. This example of early human adaptation to a coastal environment of Mesoamerica permits a corrective to previous research that is weighted heavily in favor of upland settings.

Ancient civic centers materialize ideas of proper spatial organization, among the Maya as in other societies. We argue that the position and arrangement of ancient Maya buildings and arenas emphatically express statements about cosmology and political order. At the same time, the clarity of original spatial expression is often blurred in the sites we observe archaeologically. Factors responsible for such blurring include multiple other influences on planning and spatial order, prominently the political life history of a civic center. Specifically, we argue here that centers with relatively short and simple political histories are relatively easy to interpret spatially. Those with longer development, but relatively little upheaval, manifest more elaborate but relatively robust and internally consistent plans. Sites with longer and more turbulent political histories, however, materialize a more complex cumulative mix of strategies and plausibly, therefore, of varying planning principles invoked by sequent ancient builders. We examine evidence for these assertions by reference to civic layouts at Copán, Xunantunich, Sayil, Seibal, and Tikal.

This study addresses the political and military structure of early Teotihuacan through the analysis of oxygen-isotope ratios in skeletal phosphate from 41 victims of a sacrifice associated with the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. Oxygen-isotope ratios are markers of geographic identity. A comparison of bone and enamel values, which provides a contrast between environments experienced during growth and those of adulthood, illustrates that at least four different regions are represented in this sample. Those identified as soldiers had either lived locally since childhood or had moved to Teotihuacan from several foreign locations. Most had lived in Teotihuacan for a prolonged period before their death. This pattern suggests foreign “recruitment” or mercenary behavior. The women had either lived all their lives in Teotihuacan or had moved from there to a foreign location. Most of the individuals in the center of the pyramid (burial 14) did not come from Teotihuacan, nor had they lived in the city long before their deaths. We suggest that the choice of victims was meant to demonstrate Teotihuacan's powerful ideology to the rest of the Mesoamerican world. Notably, this isotopic evidence of physical interaction between Teotihuacan and foreign regions considerably predates the currently existing archaeological evidence.