Se presenta una nueva interpretación de un importante grupo de la nobleza teotihuacana, cuyos miembros portaban tocado de borlas, como parte de su vestimenta. En base al análisis iconográfico se establece que los señores portadores de la versión más compleja de este tocado (el Gran Tocado) eran gobernantes sagrados que poseían poderes sobrenaturales: se dedicaban al servicio del Dios de la Lluvia y en la guerra eran capaces de usar como arma el rayo del propio Dios. Los miembros de menor rango de dicho grupo también eran ofrendantes del Dios de la Lluvia y aparentemente cumplían funciones políticas. El grupo tenía varios niveles jerárquicos, planteándose la hipótesis de que quizás pudo haber sido regido simultáneamente por varios señores con Gran Tocado. Se sugiere que el ejemplo de este grupo de principales puede servir como clave para descifrar la naturaleza de la clase gobernante de Teotihuacan.

On January 16, 2001, on a gravel road in the Maya Mountains of Belize, one of archaeology's most prolific and colorful superstars was fatally injured in the crash of his rental car. Having endured for 82 years despite cancer, heart attacks, a near-drowning, and double bypass surgery, the seemingly indestructible “Scotty” MacNeish was taken from us by accident. Had he lasted 102 years, I would still consider his death premature.

The New Fire Ceremony is one of the few Aztec rituals documented in both the archaeological and historical records. The Spanish chroniclers described the New Fire Ceremony as an imperial celebration of the renewal of cosmic time that was observed on the local level by the renewal of household goods. George C. Vaillant first proposed the identification of artifact dumps at Aztec sites with descriptions of these local celebrations. We describe unpublished artifact dumps excavated by Vaillant at Chiconautla and Nonoalco in the Basin of Mexico and by Smith at Cuexcomate in Morelos and show that their context and content support Vaillant's hypothesis. Our data suggest that the New Fire Ceremony was an ancient and widespread ritual in Postclassic central Mexico that was appropriated by the Aztec empire as part of its program of ideological legitimization and control.

Conflicting Colonial accounts of the Aztec conquest of Oztuma are resolved by correlating new archaeological data, a collection of Early Colonial documents from the town of Ixtepec, and other better-known sources. The correlation of archaeological and ethnohistoric data suggests that, contrary to some interpretations of the histories of the Aztec Empire, the Aztec fortress of Oztuma was separate from and contemporaneous with a Chontal fortified site known by the same toponym, and that the Chontal of Oztuma were not exterminated by the Aztecs during the rebellion of 1487. Instead, Chontal Oztuma maintained internal political cohesion while integrated into the Aztec hegemony. The Aztec and Chontal sites together formed the defensive line of the imperial frontier facing the Tarascans. This study represents a shift in focus in Aztec studies from the Aztec imperial core to its constituent hinterlands, emphasizing the complexity of political and strategic interactions.

This paper discusses the results of recent instrumental neutron-activation analysis (INNA) work identifying the obsidian sources relied upon in the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz in pre-Hispanic times. Our research indicates that Guadalupe Victoria and, secondarily, Zaragoza obsidian were the main sources imported to the Tuxtlas during the Early and Middle Formative periods. In contrast, Zaragoza became the dominant source relied upon from Late Formative times onward. Data on obsidian color and raw-material quality make it possible to extend the INAA results to the entire obsidian assemblage from the Tuxtlas.

In the early 1880s, a finely carved Maya shell picture plaque was found at the Toltec capital of Tula, central Mexico, and was subsequently acquired by The Field Museum in Chicago. The shell was probably re-carved in the Terminal Classic period and depicts a seated lord with associated Maya hieroglyphs on the front and back. Here the iconography and glyphic text of this unique artifact are examined, the species and habitat of the shell are described, and its archaeological and social context are interpreted. The Tula plaque is then compared with Maya carved jade picture plaques of similar size and design that were widely distributed throughout Mesoamerica, but were later concentrated in the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza. It is concluded that during the Late Classic period, these plaques played an important role in establishing contact between Maya lords and their counterparts representing peripheral and non-Maya domains. The picture plaques may have been elite Maya gifts establishing royal alliances with non-local polities and may have become prestige objects used in caches and termination rituals.

An analysis of oxygen-isotope ratios in skeletal phosphate was used to assess the possibility that the Early Classic period (a.d. 280–550) Maya elite male in Tomb F/8-1 from the eastern Belizean site of Altun Ha had originally come from Teotihuacan, Mexico. When compared with four other individuals used as controls for spatial and temporal variability in δ18Op values at Altun Ha, this individual falls at the high end of the expected range of local intrasite variation but does not have a δ18Op value consistent with that of Teotihuacan. The mortuary and isotopic data have been compared with those from the previously analyzed Maya site of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, in order to examine regional and temporal differences in the influence of the powerful state of Teotihuacan. It appears that Teotihuacan was not the homeland of any of the tomb individuals analyzed from either site. Thus, models of ideological or symbolic power are supported over those of political or military imperialism.

This paper describes 15 stone monuments documented until the 1995 field season at Río Viejo, the largest settlement in the alluvial plains of the Río Verde drainage in Coastal Oaxaca from 100 B.C. to A.D. 1100. The monuments, all seemingly dating to the Classic period (A.D. 600–900), include mainly carved stelae that most often depict elaborately dressed human figures accompanied by their calendrical names. The large size of these monuments and the political primacy of Río Viejo strongly suggest that the named individuals were local rulers. We posit that additional flattened sculptures and slabs riddled with small circular depressions were foci of sacred activities aimed at petitioning favors from supernatural forces. The analysis of the inscriptions is framed in terms of graphic similarities with highland scribal traditions in the central valleys of Oaxaca, the Mixteca Baja, and the Mexican Highlands.

The God C title, found in numerous hieroglyphic texts, refers to junior members of the royal court and is therefore crucial to our understanding of Classic Maya political structure. Over the past two decades, the amount of epigraphic work on the God C title has been significant. A consensus on its reading and meaning, however, has yet to be reached. In this article, we build on earlier research to suggest new ideas for reading this glyph, based on semantic and grammatical re-evaluations of the title. Our proposed readings are Ajk'uhulhun, which might be read as “he of the holy paper” (expanding on previous interpretations), or, alternatively, Ajk'uhun, “one who obeys, venerates” or “one who keeps,” based on a grammatical reassessment. In addition, we suggest a new understanding of the aj- and ix- agentive prefixes, traditionally understood as masculine and feminine markers, respectively. We examine these possible readings in archaeological and iconographic context, using subsidiary nobles of ancient Copan as a case study. Through our discussion we aim to illuminate the meaning and significance of the God C title, and in doing so to highlight the evolution of the methodologies employed in Maya hieroglyphic decipherment over the past two decades.

Cuando a fines de la primera mitad del siglo XVI los españoles concluyeron la conquista del noroeste de la península de Yucatán, encontraron que las mujeres mayas poseían una larga tradición en la confección de los tejidos de algodón. Los encomenderos y los franciscanos aprovecharon su disposición y organización del trabajo textil para obligarlas a tejer mantas de algodón con el fin de exportarlas al mercado novohispano. La crisis demográfica del último tercio del siglo de la invasión imposibilitó a los pueblos producir con su población femenina las cuotas tributarias y las limosnas textiles. Este fenómeno dio como resultado que los pueblos vivieran un periodo de desequilibrio que propició un proceso de simplificación social, de intensificación de la jornada de trabajo femenino y que la cuota de explotación colonial se incrementara.

Models of polity organization in the northern Maya lowlands are often based on the distribution of ceramic types. These models do not account for crucial links between the processes of ceramic production, distribution, use, and discard and sociopolitical relationships. We discuss several models of ceramic economy. These models suggest that the distribution of some serving vessels may encode information concerning sociopolitical relationships. These models are evaluated in light of stratigraphic evidence from Yaxuna and Uxmal, in order to elucidate the nature of polity at Chichen Itza. We argue that the ceramic data are ambiguous concerning the proposed existence of a large conquest state centered on the capital.

In the paper by Hristov and Genovés (1999), the main supporting argument for their hypothesis of pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts is a thermoluminescence (TL) age of 1780 ± 400 b.p. obtained for a small terracotta head found in central Mexico. This age value and the reference cited are not correct. In this contribution, we clarify the context and give for the first time our final results of the TL age analysis of the figurine. Due to methodological problems, we were not able to perform a traditional TL age determination. It was, however, possible to calculate an age range from A.D. 1270 to 870 B.C. for the small head, corresponding to firing in antiquity. This resulting age probably rules out a Colonial manufacturing date, but because of its low accuracy, it certainly cannot be used as an argument in the debate over the head's origin, or even as central evidence for pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts.

In the present “Reply …” we discuss a correction of the thermoluminescence (TL) age limits of an apparently Roman terracotta head found in Mexico (Hristov and Genovés 1999), as well two recent objections to the reliability of the find: (1) that the artifact may have been imported to the New World after A.D. 1492; and (2) that the head was “planted” at the archaeological site during the excavation. The corrected TL age limits oscillate from 2870 B.P. to 730 B.P. (cal. 875 B.C.–A.D. 1265), which excludes the possibility of Colonial manufacture of the artifact and makes the hypothesis of its Roman origin and importation into Mesoamerica applicable. However, an examination of the political and economic relationships between the Aztecs and the Matlatzincas, as well as the circumstances of the discovery, make highly unlikely the suggestion of post-Columbian importation of the artifact into Mesoamerica (and especially into the Central Mexican Highlands), and of the “planting” of the figurine at the archaeological site. Finally, we summarize some recent finds of Berber, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Roman objects and inscriptions in the Canary archipelago that strongly support the possibility of a few sporadic, perhaps accidental, transatlantic voyages from the Mediterranean to Mesoamerica in antiquity.

Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, was the most prominent Maya ceremonial center from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-fifteenth century. The city was a religious center for surrounding Maya populations. Its construction was linked through cyclical reasoning to a chain of antecedent centers, the ultimate link of which lay in creation. In the heart of Mayapan lay its exemplary center, an architectural model of cosmogony composed of five temple assemblages. The central building of each assemblage was a temple decorated with serpent imagery. These five serpent temples were depicted on a mural in Structure Q-80 at Mayapan, with additional symbolism suggesting that each building was tied to a specific elite official, likely the Ajaw B'atab'ob, Jalach Winik, and AjK'in as described in ethnohistoric documents. The serpent temples also depict the primordial flood crocodilian, who was both the world and the world destroyer—hence, a symbol of both order and chaos.

In this issue we present the second part of the special section on recent research on Late Aztec Otumba, Tepeapulco, and Teotihuacan by Thomas H. Charlton, Deborah L. Nichols, Cynthia L. Otis Charlton, and their colleagues. The background to this research was discussed by those authors in our previous issue (Charlton, Nichols, and Otis Charlton 2000), and, as I pointed out in the introduction to the first part (Fowler 2000), a distinct advantage provided by the Otumba research is that the data generated allow us to assess general models proposed for the origin and development of city-states in the Basin of Mexico during the last few centuries before the Spanish Conquest. To summarize briefly, two general models have been proposed—one emphasizing economic symbiosis and craft specialization and the other focusing on regional political competition among elites. The Otumba data and analyses allow us to perceive and explore further valid aspects of both models.

This issue's special section presents a series of papers focusing on recent research on ancient Maya causeways, or sacbeob (“white roads”—a reference to their gleaming, plastered surfaces). Often relegated to the status of “minor architectural features,” even a casual perusal of the literature quickly convinces one that sacbeob were a major feature of the ancient Maya landscape. Throughout the Maya lowlands from at least the Late Preclassic onward, these elevated roads facilitated internal and external transportation within and between Maya centers for a combination of economic, political, social, and ritual purposes. Constructed as an organic element of the built environment, road systems grew in size and expanded in complexity as the Maya centers themselves did (Andrews 1975:89, 323, 428).

The Aztec period city-state of Otumba in the upper Teotihuacan Valley was integrated into the Acolhua domain from the early 1430s to about 1515. It then became independent, demonstrating the fragility of city-state organization as a means of regional political integration. A close look at Otumba and other city-states in the Teotihuacan Valley reveals that Acolhua strategies of social engineering welded together the potentially-autonomous city-states into an elaborate political system with impressive structural strengthening and improved flow of services and materials through it.

This article reviews currently available data on Lowland Maya sacbeob (raised roadways) to create a tripartite system of road classification and explore why the Maya built such constructions. Rather than simply classify sacbeob as “intrasite” or “intersite,” roads are divided into “local intrasite,” “core–outlier intrasite,” and “intersite” based on length and function. This classification system is then employed on a data set of 190 sacbeob to explore the degree to which it may have been some sort of a reality for the ancient Maya. The practical and symbolic aspects of roadways are also discussed, with the aim of beginning to explain why sacbeob are present at some sites while absent at others. Possibilities from environmental to temporal variation are reviewed, as are the ways in which plazas may or may not have been able to substitute for constructed routes. The Inka road system is also briefly summarized to provide an analogy to better understand Maya systems. Finally, an appeal is made to researchers to view sacbeob not as a single type of artifact, but as a class of features with a range of types and functions.

Statements concerning the function of intrasite Maya causeways often focus on inferred ritual purposes or on symbolic kinship alliances rather than on the more practical roles that such roads may have served. Data collected on an extensive intrasite causeway system at Caracol, Belize, demonstrate that the primary role of its sacbes lay in facilitating the administrative control of people, goods, and services. An estimated 75 km of roads not only served intrasite communication and transport; they also affected the political and economic integration of this huge center.

Obsidian was an important commodity in the Aztec empire. The obsidian industries from several Late Aztec sites in the northeastern Basin of Mexico are briefly summarized. These sites represent both urban centers and their rural dependencies. Site TA-80, the urban center of the Otumba city-state, contained numerous surface concentrations of obsidian debris, representing refuse from workshops where obsidian tools were produced or consumed. Seven of these concentrations represent debris from specialized production of large quantities of prismatic blades. Others represent workshops where blades were consumed in substantial numbers in the process of producing some other commodity. Households at rural sites in the Otumba city-state did not produce blades but probably obtained them through exchange from the specialized producers at TA-80. However, some rural sites did contain evidence of specialized quarrying, preparation of macrocores, and production of bifacial tools, apparently for export to urban centers. Similar evidence is found in the Tepeapulco city-state, which also had evidence of specialized production of prismatic blades in the urban center and of consumption of blades by both specialized producers of other commodities and in domestic contexts, in the urban center and at rural sites. Some rural sites in the Tepeapulco city-state, as in Otumba, also had evidence of specialized production of bifaces and macrocores. In both city-states, obsidian was extracted from local sources and shaped into macrocores and bifaces, which were then exported to the city-state center and to more distant locations beyond the boundaries of the city-state. Within the urban centers of each city-state, macrocores were reduced to prismatic blades. Large quantities of blades were produced by craft specialists, working at a few restricted locations within the city-state centers. The finished blades were then distributed to consuming households within the urban center of the city-state, as well as to rural dependencies and to more distant consumers beyond the boundaries of the city-state.