The important Classic period site of Teotihuacan is renowned for its great size, ancient influence, and intricately decorated polychrome murals. The latter are the focus of the present study, in particular the unique landscape scene from Murals 2 and 3 from Portico 1 of the North Patio of the Atetelco residential compound that depicts a row of toponymic hill signs. The three hills have identical qualifying elements embedded, identified as combinations of an owl and a spearthrower. The murals thus make a repeated reference to a place named “Spearthrower Owl Hill.” The dating of the murals to the Early Xolalpan phase (ca. A.D. 350–450) makes them contemporary with the so-called Teotihuacan entrada into the Maya lowland sites such as Tikal, where hieroglyphic texts make mention of a Teotihuacan-affiliated individual known as “Spearthrower Owl.” From these findings—and based on Mesoamerican naming practices—we go on to suggest that the Atetelco toponym and the historical individual share the name of a common forebear, possibly that of a previously unidentified Teotihuacan martial patron deity. As such, the Early Classic Teotihuacan “Spearthrower Owl” deity has much in common with the legendary Huitzilopochtli of the Late Postclassic Mexica. Our reexamination of the murals from Atetelco shows the enormous potential that further studies in Teotihuacan writing and iconography still have for our understanding of the history and religion of this major Mesoamerican site.

Se abordan cuatro temas en la replica a Iriarte et. al (en este volumen): 1) Reconstrucciones paleoclimáticas, analizando la baja resolución del registro de Iriarte (2006), limitaciones del procedimiento de muestreo, sistema acuático elegido y dataciones. Se responde a las criticas sobre las inferencias paleoclimdticas realizadas, indicando que no consideran el total de las líneas de evidencia utilizadas ni la escala del registro y señalando la buena correspondencia con reconstrucciones propuestas para la región. 2) Evidencias de aldeas estructuradas en sitios con estructuras monticulares. Observamos las argumenlaciones esgrimidas para el sitio de Los Ajos, refiriendolas al contexto arqueológico de la región. Se responde a nuestra supuesta falta de observation de cambios culturales y ambientales, señalándose los problemas de las secuencias culturales propuestas. Se retoma el problema de la mecánica de construcción de los montículos como cuestión inicial a la horn de interpretar el registro y postular secuencias culturales. 3) Dataciones, desarrollando el concepto de fechados de baja resolutión y su pertinencia en la propuesta del Modelo de Crecimiento Continuo para las estructuras monticulares. 4) Por último se observa las implicaciones de la confusión entre la cuenca del Plata y la cuenca de la Laguna Merín.

Starch and phytolith analyses of an assemblage of chert microliths from the Three Dog site, an early Lucayan settlement on San Salvador, Bahamas, yielded Zea mays, Capsicum, and possible manioc indicating that these domesticates were present by at least A.D. 800 or earlier in Cuba or Hispaniola and brought to the central Bahamas during its early peopling. The presence of corn at this site contradicts previously held ideas that it did not appear in the Bahamas until the A.D. 1200s. Starch granules tentatively identified as root/tuber starch were also found on the microliths, although we were unable to discern if these represent wild species and/or culturally transported wild or domesticated species. The presence of more than one species on the microliths, initially believed to have been manioc grater chips similar to those documented ethnographically, demonstrates multifunctional use. A broad-based plant diet that included maize and root/tuber crops was in place at least by the Archaic age in parts of the Greater Antilles and brought to the Bahamas, along with chilis, during its colonization by Ceramic age peoples.

An assemblage of modified bone remains from the site of Dos Pilas, Guatemala, in the southern Maya lowlands, is used to describe the raw materials, tools, techniques, and reduction strategies of Classic period Maya bone working. Most Maya bone artifact assemblages are not closely associated with production locales, are sparsely distributed across sites (rarely more than a few per household), and include primarily finished artifacts. In contrast, this large collection includes high frequencies of debitage from all stages of artifact production in a single spatially and temporally discrete locus—a residential group close to the main plaza of the site and occupied both before and after political disintegration of the Petexbatún hegemony. Comparative Petexbatún materials are used to suggest that although the Dos Pilas assemblage is unusually dense, the methods used by the bone crafters in this complex were similar to those used in all other periods and locations in the region and likely in the southern Maya lowlands as a whole. The Dos Pilas assemblage presents therefore an excellent model for Classic Maya bone-working.