In this article we discuss the Prehispanic earthen causeways (calzadas) that traverse the llanos (humid savannas) of Barinas state, Venezuela. A salient question is why the calzadas in this area connect some archaeological sites but not others. Some scholars have proposed that the calzadas were constructed primarily as an adaptive response to seasonal flooding. We assess this proposition by examining Late Gaván phase (A. D. 550-1000) data from along the Río Canaguá and find a lack of positive association between sites that experience seasonal inundations and linkage to the calzada network. Instead, we conclude that the configuration of Late Gaván calzadas is better explained by a series of economic, military, and religious factors, all related to the political dynamics of chiefdom organization on the regional level.

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.

We examine the ways that textile production, exchange, and consumption were integrated into the political economy of the Gulf lowlands, Mexico, over the course of two millennia. Archaeological, botanical, and historical data concerning cotton textile production reveal that changes in the industry resulted from alterations in the cotton plant, shifts in the local political economy, and changes in the relationship of the Gulf lowlands to other key regions of Mesoamerica. Initially, textiles did not figure prominently in social displays, and there is little archaeological evidence for spinning of cotton thread. Subsequently, textile production may have been stimulated by elite substitution of locally crafted items for increasingly scarce exotic imports toward the end of Olmec times in the Preclassic period. The political and cultural stature of the Gulf lowlands increased during the Classic period in conjunction with a greater emphasis on cotton processing and use of textiles. During the Postclassic period, ruralization of once-key localities and possible conversion of the western lower Papaloapan Basin to a tributary status correlated with changes in the attributes of whorls and in representations of textiles.

Located on the northeastern flank of the Popocatépetl volcano in the state of Puebla, Mexico, the Tetimpa region was buried under volcanic ash from two major eruptions: the first, at the beginning of the present era and the second, between A.D. 700 and 850. We review the volcanic and cultural sequences based on 12 radiocarbon dates, and then focus our discussion on the well-preserved house compounds of the occupation destroyed by the first eruption. The village at Tetimpa was abandoned rapidly in the face of disaster, and domestic goods were left in situ, providing us with a unique, almost ethnographic, view of rural life in the Terminal Preclassic. The house compounds follow a highly standardized pattern, consisting of two or three structures set at right angles to one another around a central patio, in a layout similar to that of the three-temple complexes at Teotihuacan. The wattle-and-daub walls of the rooms are built on stone talud-tablero platforms with a central staircase. Small shrines, located at the midpoint of each patio, provide evidence that volcanic activity formed part of the domestic ritual focus.

The 200-year period from A.D. 230 to 430 witnessed the transition from chiefdom to state in the Maya Lowlands and the founding of several early political dynasties. Considerable information on that era is known for major cities like Tikal and Copán, but we knew less about the Calakmul area until recently. Previously, Calakmul's earliest dated monument was Stela 43, carved at A.D. 514. On the other hand, Tikal's earliest text dated to A.D. 292, and its ruling dynasty claimed that its founding date was A.D. 230. The ruling dynasties of most other cities that eventually became Maya regional capitals were evidently founded later, between A.D. 330 and 430.

With the 1994 discovery of Stela 114 at Calakmul, we can now push Calakmul's written record back to A.D. 431. The oldest stela in Calakmul’s realm was erected in A.D. 406 at Balakbal, to document the reign of a Balakbal ruler who was a contemporary of the Tikal ruler Curl Snout. Some 25 years later, Calakmul erected Stela 114 to commemorate a Calakmul ruler who was a contemporary of the Tikal ruler Stormy Sky. Even though we had expected Calakmul's dynasty to have greater time depth than A.D. 514, it was not until the discovery of Stela 114 that we were able to confirm that point.

Mortuary practices rank among the best sources of archaeological data from which to infer social organization, ideology, religious beliefs, and to a certain extent, the political structure of past societies. This essay (1) reviews mortuary practices among prehistoric groups of Puerto Rico, (2) proposes a possible sequence of changes through time, and (3) presents explanations that account for the observed changes. Aside from evident correlation with broad cultural developments, changes in mortuary practices can be understood best in the context of parallel developments in social, political, and economic complexity. We argue that in Puerto Rico a shift in mortuary practices from burying dead relatives in centralized cemeteries to the disposition of the dead in domestic contexts was strongly related to a shift from largely kin-based societies to the ranked organization of cacicazgos (chiefdoms). Particularly, we conclude that the shift in social organization from emphasis on extended descent groups that acted as corporate groups to nuclear households reflects a strategy utilized by the emerging elite to dismantle and reorient previous communal institutions. This shift was accomplished through the monopolization, by the emerging elite, of the tenets surrounding the cult of the ancestors to create a legitimizing ideology.

Desde principios de siglo se ha propuesto la coexistencia de los gliptodontes con los cazadores recolectores pleistocénicos de la región pampeana, pero las evidencias presentadas para apoyar esta hipótesis fueron ambiguas. El componente inferior del sitio La Moderna (región pampeana, República Argentina) indica que un representante de esta familia, Doedicurus clavicaudatus, fue faenado a orillas de un pantano, utilizando un instrumental expeditivo de cuarzo cristalino, hacia ca. 7,000 a 7,500 a. P. En este artículo se presenta una síntesis de los hallazgos de La Moderna y se resume y discute también el registro de restos de gliptodontes y de un armadillo extinto (Eutatus seguini) de otros sitios arqueológicos pampeanos. Los hallazgos de La Moderna y de otros sitios con fauna pleistocénica, tales como Arroyo Seco 2, apoyan la hipótesis de que en la región pampeana, la mayoría de las extinciones faunísticas se produjeron luego de los 10,000 a. P. y que en consecuencia, varios géneros pleistocénicos sobrevivieron hasta el final del Holoceno temprano.

In Inka mythology, a large sandstone rock on the Island of the Sun, in Lake Titicaca, was the origin place of the sun. It was there that the sun first emerged and designated the Inka as his children. Under Inka rule, and perhaps before, this rock was a destination of pilgrims who went to worship and make offerings to the sun. We present evidence that a set of solar markers existed on a ridge northwest of the sacred rock. These structures framed the sunset for groups of watchers on the June solstice, near the time of the sun festival, Inti Raymi. Historic information coupled with the organization of archaeological sites within the sanctuary area on the island suggests that elites and common pilgrims may have observed the sunset from different locations.

A long-running debate in archaeology is the analytical priority given to local vs. interregional-scale factors in the origins of complex societies. These alternate approaches have often pitted local-scale, environmentally determined models against the large-scale, sociopolitical demands of ancient cities and states. In the archaeology of Oaxaca, Mexico, these distinctions are apparent in efforts to model the impact of Monte Albán on the development of complexity outside the Valley of Oaxaca. Huamelulpan, located in the western Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, was one of Mesoamerica's first urban centers. But despite several decades of intermittent work, the site had never been surveyed, and nearly nothing was known of the surrounding region. A systematic archaeological survey of Huamelulpan and its environs studied the urban transition from a regional perspective. Huamelulpan's urbanization was strongly correlated with the formation of a state-level polity. Interaction with Monte Albán occasioned these developments, albeit in ways more indirect than colonization or conquest. An approach to culture change is outlined that uses archaeological survey data to shift the scale of analysis between local, regional, and interregional levels to interpret the transition to city and state in Oaxaca's Huamelulpan Valley.

Las tumbas de tiro son bien conocidas en el registro arqueológico del Occidente de México. Empero, se sabía muy poco de estos entierros y los rituales mortuorios asociados porque la mayoría de estos monumentos funerarios han sido saqueados. En este artículo presentamos nuevos datos procedentes de tres tumbas de tiro selladas, fechadas en los primeros siglos d.C., las cuales fueron recientemente descubiertas y excavadas sistemáticamente en el norte de Jalisco. Los artefactos recuperados de las tumbas muestran afiliaciones estilísticas con materiales culturales provenientes de otras regiones de Jalisco y partes de Nayarit.

How the ancient Maya of the central Yucatecan Lowlands managed their water and land resources remains poorly known, although crucial to an understanding of ancient political economy. Recent archival research and field data suggest the widespread use of artificially altered, natural depressions for the collection and containment of water, both for potable consumption and agricultural ends. During the Classic period (A. D. 250-900) several of the principal cities in the Maya area constructed their largest architecture and monuments at the summit of hills and ridges. Associated with these elevated centers—”water mountains”—were sizable, life-sustaining reservoirs quarried into their summits. The effect of this town-planning design was the centralization of a primary and fundamental resource. Although elite managers controlled the water source, other decentralizing forces prevented anything similar to Wittfogel's “total power.” However, by ritually appropriating the everyday and mundane activities associated with water by the sustaining population, elites used high-performance water ritual as manifest in the iconography to further centralize control. The significance of modifying the urban landscape in the partial image of the ordinary water hole defines the extraordinary in Maya ritual.

Archaeological syntheses of western Ecuadorian prehistory have been hampered by a lack of reliable absolute chronologies and detailed cultural sequences for many key areas, one of which is northern Manabí Province, known principally as the territory of the Jama-Coaque cultural tradition. This study presents a seven-phase cultural sequence for the Jama River valley of northern Manabí that spans over 3,600 calendar years. A statistical model relating the successive archaeological phases is established, based on prior knowledge of the stratigraphy and ceramic seriation from key archaeological sites throughout the valley. A Bayesian statistical approach is then employed to calibrate 37 radiocarbon determinations for the purpose of estimating calendar dates for the limits of these phases. Apart from its contribution to the prehistory of a poorly studied area, the analysis illustrates the value of a probabilistic Bayesian approach to radiocarbon calibration, especially when the determinations relate to archaeologically predefined phases. It also demonstrates the dangers of uncritically applying generalized periodization schemes to specific sequences of historical development and highlights the need for reassessing Ecuadorian chronology through more precise interregional correlations.

Recent archaeological study of the architecture at the Wari site of Pikillacta provides information concerning the function of one of three basic Wari architectural forms. These buildings, called Type II niched halls, occur at both Pikillacta and Viracochapampa, the two largest known Wari provincial sites. Their function can be deduced from a variety of evidence: data from excavations and associated artifacts, analogy with earlier, contemporary, and later Andean ritual/ceremonial buildings, and representations of buildings in Wari art. Based on this analysis, the niched halls apparently served as lineage halls where both real and fictive kin came to formally worship their ancestors. It is suggested that co-option of conquered elites by adoption, and thereby establishing a set of reciprocal obligations, may have been a strategy practiced by the Wari as a principal feature of their statecraft.

Pottery and clays from the Chalchihuites region of northwestern Zacatecas are characterized to examine ceramic production and exchange among settlements between A. D. 400 and 900. Instrumental neutron activation and petrographic analysis of 134 pottery and 26 clay samples from three Chalchihuites ceremonial centers identify pottery made from local clays and distinguish pottery found at each center that was not made from local clay deposits. Residents of Alta Vista, the region’s main center, acquired an elaborate painted ware from a second center located 30 km away after A. D. 650. The ceramic compositional data provide a basis for understanding the distance and direction that pottery was exchanged in Chalchihuites as economic activities increased in the region.

Archaeologists have long noted similarities between the lithic artifacts of the first colonists of the Greater Antilles (ca. 3500-2000 B.C.) and those from the eastern Yucatán Peninsula. Recent archaeological work in northern Belize has provided additional archaeological information on the characteristics and dating of the mainland assemblages. New findings by Caribbean archaeologists also have contributed to a clearer picture of the circumstances surrounding the first human migration to the Greater Antilles. A Yucatecan origin for the first Caribbean migrants is now considered probable.

Compositional analyses have long been used to assign obsidian artifacts to particular source areas. In most cases, the chemical “fingerprint” of a particular source area has been determined through the assay of only a few geological specimens from one or two outcrops. As a result, the full range of intrasource compositional variation has rarely been noted, and its spatial patterning frequently has not been studied. This report describes the results of geoarchaeological survey at the important Guatemalan source area of San Martín Jilotepeque. Neutron activation analysis demonstrates the presence of seven distinct chemical “fingerprints” corresponding to spatially discrete subsources within the region. Ancient procurement and production are associated with only three of these subsources. Statistical procedures that can be used to assign artifacts to particular quarries or quarry systems are presented. Several minor Guatemalan source areas also are examined, and one (Media Cuesta) also can be characterized as consisting of two distinct subsources.