In this paper, I examine the role that irrigation played in the formation of the Southern Moche state in the Moche Valley, Peru. Specifically, I attempt to test Wittfogel and Steward's hydraulic model, which postulates that in certain arid environments, the managerial requirements of construction and maintenance of irrigation systems played a crucial role in the formation of centralized polities. I formulate and evaluate four hypotheses concerning the role of irrigation systems in the Moche Valley. Those hypotheses are then evaluated using settlement pattern data drawn from two surveys that cover the entire coastal section of the valley and provide information on 910 archaeological sites. Based on those data, I present a sequence of political development for the valley from the formation of the first autonomous village in the Late Preceramic period (2500–1800 B. C.) to the zenith of the Southern Moche state. Evaluation of the four hypotheses indicates that the managerial requirements of irrigation were relatively unimportant; rather, warfare, highland-coastal interaction, and political control of irrigation systems created opportunities for leaders to form a highly centralized, territorially expansive state sometime between A. D. 200 and 700.

The problem of finding the locations of ceramic production has limited interpretations of prehispanic Mesoamerican economies. A new method for locating pottery-making is offered that emphasizes ties between the process of clay extraction and the manufacture of ceramic goods at the same clay source. Observations at modern brick and roof tile-making factories (tejeras) in the Naco Valley, Honduras, show that an effective arrangement for intensive production of ceramic goods is to create the finished product at the clay source. The major topographic transformations caused by clay extraction at tejeras, such as borrow pits and escarpments, are also signatures of prehistoric clay removal and, in many cases, can contribute to the identification of ancient pottery-making locations. A potential production locus was identified at the previously unremarkable and peripheral Site 108, where excavations successfully uncovered a prehistoric pottery workshop. By expanding the scope of our research methodologies, in this case actually implementing ethnoarchaeological understandings to the archaeological record, and by gathering more evidence for ancient pottery production, in this case at clay sources in rural areas, we are better positioned to understand the complexities of Mesoamerican economies.

Throughout Maya history the left and right sides of the human body, left/right spatial orientation, and handedness have had important cultural and symbolic meanings. This essay examines left/right symbolism in relation to the body, which is generally overlooked in studies of archaeological societies and material culture, and discusses how it relates to ancient Maya ideology and behavior. New information from Classic Maya iconography, plus corroborative information from Maya ethnography and cross-cultural investigations, support the proposition that left/right symbolic differences and hierarchies were present in ancient Maya society. For the Classic Maya, as with contemporary Maya peoples, the right hand or side of the body often signified “pure, powerful, or superordinate,” and the left frequently symbolized “weaker, lame, or subordinate” in particular cultural contexts. Hence, in Classic Maya imagery, kings face to their right and use their right hands, while subordinates are oriented to their left and frequently use their left hands. Following comparative anthropological analyses, consideration of handedness and human body symmetry help explain the left/right dichotomy and the apparent primacy of the right in Classic Maya spatial reference, social order, and worldview. The findings of this study have important implications for the examination of left/right symbolism in material culture, images of the body, and ideology in other societies.

Excavations at two sites on the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca, called Ch'uxuqullu and Titinhuayani, discovered significant preceramic (ca. 2000 B. C.) through Formative period (up to ca. A. D. 400) occupations. Excavation data indicate that there was a continuous occupation from the first known settlements on the island up to the present day. The early occupations on the island were culturally linked to the populations on the mainland, as indicated by ceramic analysis and the presence of nonlocal obsidian from the Colca Valley source, 275 km to the northwest. Our excavation data also reveal that there was a brisk exchange network between the island and mainland beginning at least during the Formative period, and probably earlier during the end of the Late Archaic period. Furthermore, paleoenvironmental data indicate that the island has been isolated from the mainland during most or all of the human occupation. The Lake Titicaca region of Peru and Bolivia was characterized by a system of exchange that relied, in part, on watercraft beginning at least by 1600 B. C.

The record of a lizard (Tupinambis cf. merianae) and Caviidae rodents or “guinea pigs” (Cavia aperea and Galea tixiensis) in the archaeological sites of Cueva Tixi and Cueva El Abra, located in the hills of the Eastern Tandilia Range, Buenos Aires Province, is described. Hunter-gatherer exploitation of these species in the Pampean Region is proposed for the first time on the basis of cultural evidence. The Cueva Tixi sequence (late Pleistocene to late Holocene) has numerous remains of these species in archaeological context. Tupinambis cf. merianae was intensively exploited during the last 1,000 years in Cueva Tixi and Cueva El Abra. Arm and leg bones, vertebrae, and mandibular rami display cutmarks from lithic tools. Two Caviidae rodents were identified to the level of species on the basis of cranial remains. During the latest Holocene these rodents also display cutmarks from lithic tools, detected in mandibular rami, leg, and arm bones in the two sites. The lizard and rodents represent new small animal resources in the subsistence strategies of inhabitants of the Tandilia Range. It is proposed that the exploitation of these species occurred in the context of profound changes in subsistence strategies during the late Holocene.