This report presents the provenance and technological analysis of two large obsidian bifaces recovered from a Middle Horizon (ca. AD 600–1000) ritual abandonment context at the coastal site of Cerro de Oro in the Cañete Valley, Peru. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis identifies Quispisisa as the obsidian source, thereby documenting its circulation beyond highland Wari contexts. Technological analysis indicates contrasting trajectories: one biface shows no evidence of use, whereas the other exhibits macro use wear consistent with woodworking. Its location in a residential complex suggests community participation in the acquisition and ritual re-signification of prestigious nonlocal materials.

Se presentan evidencias de la cadena operativa alfarera de la fase Cabuza del valle de Azapa, norte de Chile, detallando materias primas con microscopía óptica (n = 130) y mineralogía (n = 40), para ahondar en su relación con el estado altiplánico de Tiwanaku. Las técnicas de manufactura y el uso de las vasijas, junto con los grupos mineralógicos modelados, han sido contrastados con las categorías estilísticas establecidas, redefiniendo nuevos grupos estilístico-tecnológicos. Dos grupos mineralógicos agrupan los estilos Cabuza (Min1) y Tiwanaku (Min2), congregándose en tres clústeres según los modelos bayesianos: C1 y C3 (Min1) y C2 (Min2). Min1 tiene una mezcla natural de componentes máficos presentes en las variantes Cabuza C1-Cab A1 y C3-Cab A1, como también en el estilo local Maytas (C1-Maytas) y en cerámicas Tiwanaku locales de C3 con pastas grisáceas (Munsell 7,5YR 2,5/2 – 4/3) y con decoración Cabuza (C3-Tiw/Cab); además de cerámicas Tiwanaku B de cocción oxidante (C3-Tiw/oxi). Este conjunto sería local y diferente a Min2 y C2 que agrupan las variantes Tiwanaku con pasta gris (C2-Tiw/gris) y con cocción oxidante (C2-Tiw/oxi), además de cerámicas Tumilaca sin uso (C2-Tumilaca). La discusión de estas categorías estilístico-tecnológicas sugiere que las prácticas alfareras de la fase Cabuza son post-colapso de Tiwanaku.

Reconstructions of Moche ritual sacrifice have relied heavily on iconographic depictions of elaborate rituals conducted on mountains and sacrifices at adobe temples. Scholars have categorized mountain scenes, proposed that Huaca de la Luna symbolized sacred mountains, and argued that one of the main mountain scenes entails the liberation of a figure known as Dios A. However, the large corpus of mountain iconography remains underanalyzed, and few existing publications incorporate data from mountainside sites. In this article, I propose a more specific Mountainside Sacrifice and Cave Opening mythic narrative encoded in these scenes, comparable to the Presentation Theme / Sacrifice Ceremony. I argue that future surveys and excavations must include thorough investigations of north coast mountains of Peru.

Southern Patagonia hunter-gatherers were adapted to a region marked by cold and wind, yet characterized by significant climatic and environmental variability, particularly between the eastern and western slopes of the Andes. This diversity fostered the development of distinct subsistence strategies. The present study analyzes variations in skull shape and size in relation to ecogeographical regions. A sample of 54 Late Holocene adult skulls from Southern Patagonia archaeological sites was analyzed. Individuals were categorized according to ecogeographic regions and subsistence strategies. Using geometric morphometrics, 35 three-dimensional landmarks describing the splanchnocranium and the neurocranium were recorded and statistically compared across groups. Results revealed an ecogeographic latitudinal pattern: individuals from colder regions exhibited significant prognathism, heavier and bigger cranial forms, consistent with Bergmann’s rule. Additionally, an ecogeographic longitudinal gradient was recognized. No significant sex-related differences were detected in the sample. The latitudinal and longitudinal cranial patterns identified among Southern Patagonia individuals suggest an association with ecogeographical characteristics, supporting the environmental and climate hypothesis regarding skull morphology. Notably, the findings lend support to Bergmann’s rule, as more robust and bigger forms were observed in the coldest regions, not necessarily those at the highest latitudes, as in this case.

During the Terminal Classic period (AD 760–1000), Maya communities underwent a brief and violent political collapse, followed by a protracted period of instability that apparently culminated in an urban collapse as distinct from the earlier, political one. Rather than taking the kingdom or polity as the analytical unit, we propose to study the cities as actors in the collapse using the large and rich Terminal Classic datasets. A comprehensive database has been constructed encompassing 29 archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic attributes that capture urban political and socioeconomic activities in a hundred Terminal Classic cities and towns. A multivariate analysis of the distribution of 12 attributes forming five variables in 56 well-documented cities suggests that the urban transformation subsequent to the dynastic collapse is less attributable to this political collapse than expected. The urban datasets have the potential to reflect the trajectories of late lowland cities, and once distributed in Terminal Classic subphases, a comparison of the datasets should elucidate chains of causality in the two collapses.

According to various sources, Tenochtitlan was founded at the intersection of crags and caves from which two springs flowed. The east–west spring was known as “the fiery waters, the place where the waters burn” (tleatl atlatlayan), whereas the north–south spring was called “the blue and yellow waters” (matlalatl toxpalatl). The same metaphor of blue and yellow waters also appears in the early colonial sources in other contexts. It was associated with gods like Tlazolteotl or Tloque Nahuaque (identified with Tezcatlipoca), who cleansed people with these waters. Likewise, the blue and yellow waters rested in the hands of the tlatoani, who bathed his vassals in them. Finally, they played an essential role in the dedication of newborns to water, which the Spaniards likened to baptism. Although the presence of blue and yellow waters at the Mexica capital is often seen as a reinterpretation of the metaphor atl tlachinolli, “water, burnt land,” symbolizing war, other contexts featuring matlalatl toxpalatl are justice (in the ruler’s duties) and purification. This article proposes a unified interpretation of the Nahuatl metaphor matlalatl toxpalatl, suggesting that it symbolizes completeness, abundance, and the beginning of a new era, as well as carrying the Toltec heritage. Furthermore, this study embeds the metaphor in question in the Mesoamerican conceptual framework.

Ruination studies allow one to see the past not as a fixed “thing” but as living landscapes. Over the past two decades, Mesoamerican scholars have increasingly recognized that ruins were an integral part of ancient Mesoamerican peoples’ experiences in and with the world and not just a modern invention of cultural heritage. Any understanding of ancient Maya ruins must consider the Indigenous ontologies, cosmologies, and myths of peoples of that region. Indigenous approaches highlight the affective and dynamic nature of ruins, perspectives that can be put in conversation with metaphysical or posthumanist ideas more generally. One particularity of ruins in the Maya area is that they often were, and in many cases still are, entangled with forest beings that are both feared and revered. This article reviews some of the ways in which ancient Maya peoples lived with ruins, drawing a number of case examples from the Maya site of Ucanal in Petén, Guatemala, and then contextualizes these findings with the darker side of ruins. This darker side of ruins was part of the making of moral communities that were—and are—in a constant state of motion.

This article identifies a lunar day count in Zapotec inscriptions at Monte Alban. The lunar records that are accompanied by dates in the Mesoamerican 52-year cycle make it possible to determine intervals between recorded events. Seven placements of the resulting series of intervals in absolute time are consistent with dates of the lunar crescent’s first visibility at Monte Alban between 650 and 50 BCE; just one is also consistent with the seventeenth-century Zapotec calendar. The data show that Zapotec divinatory calendar dates likely began around noon, as in the sixteenth century, and that the return of the year-bearer on the year’s 261st day was celebrated in the afternoon by 222 BCE.

This study reports on 26 Maya ballcourts in the southeastern Three Rivers adaptive region, many of which are newly identified through a 2022 lidar survey. We analyze the ballcourts in terms of their form, dimensions, orientations, and integration with processional and ceremonial architecture. Statistical analyses and comparisons with ballcourts from neighboring regions, including the Belize River Valley, Holmul, and the western and northeastern Three Rivers region, highlight both shared architectural norms and regional variations, particularly in alley width and the relationship between alley length and width.

We examine the social role of dogs in the Central Andes using dog remains from Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) Tiwanaku sites in the Moquegua Valley, Peru. We describe dog remains from domestic, cemetery, and temple contexts and provide life histories of two naturally mummified young dogs that Tiwanaku inhabitants intentionally buried in domestic households at the sites of Rio Muerto and Omo. We present morphological and morphometric values for the mummified dog from Rio Muerto, along with isotopic analyses of the bones, teeth, and hair from both dogs. The strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotopic analyses indicate that both dogs had local origins. Isotopic analyses of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) show that the Rio Muerto dog consumed a mixed terrestrial and omnivorous diet composed of both C3 and C4 foods, like that of humans from that site. The Omo dog consumed less C4 foods and more protein. Although some dog remains exhibit cut marks, there is no evidence that dogs were food animals. We interpret the intentional burial of the two dogs in domestic settings and the fragmentary remains as evidence that the Tiwanaku inhabitants of Moquegua considered dogs to be companion animals and possibly nonhuman persons worthy of respect after death.

Drawing on examples from the Maya center of Actuncan, Belize, in this article I argue for the use of the tools of narrative and the modern experience of ruins as reflected in ruination and critical heritage studies as lenses for understanding the impact of ruins in the context of past societies.

In northwestern Belize, evidence of Late Postclassic Maya presence is limited to deposits indicating brief visitations to former city centers. Here, we present recent research at the sites of Kaxil Uinik and Ayiin Winik that has identified Late Postclassic ritual offerings at reset Late Classic monuments, as well as the first reported Late Postclassic altar in the region. These activities fit into a broad pattern of Postclassic veneration of early and long-lived locations on the abandoned landscape.

En este trabajo se discute sobre la práctica mesoamericana de la colocación de piedra verde en la boca de los muertos y en el techo de los templos del área maya. Además de la piedra verde, identificamos dos variantes más asociadas a la deposición de maíz y cerámica en la boca de entierros mayas y zoques del periodo Clásico en el estado de Chiapas. Finalmente, ofrecemos nuevas aproximaciones teóricas para interpretar estas prácticas culturales desde la arqueología de la personeidad.

A hallmark of ancient Mesoamerican art and religion is the ability of ritual practitioners, sometimes called “shamans,” to transform. The Olmec were-jaguar is a well-known example of the phenomenon. Artifacts from different regions demonstrate that these beliefs involved many animal and spiritual entities and a porous boundary between humans and other beings. In this article, we examine the archaeology of ritual transformation in Preclassic or Formative period (2000 BC–AD 250) Oaxaca, Mexico. As links between the physical world and other dimensions, altered bodies reflect negotiated relationships among people, animals, ancestors, deities, and landforms. Traditional interpretations of transformational art have oversimplified the role of nonhumans in these processes by representing ritual practitioners as “impersonating” other beings; for example, by wearing masks. We draw on almost two centuries of archaeology, Indigenous history, and ethnography to demonstrate that the reification of separate cultural and natural worlds is a modern artifice that would be unrecognizable to ancient Oaxacans. It was via transformation that ancient Mesoamerican people intimately knew their world, engaged the senses, and acquired knowledge.

In this article we present and contextualize a potential example of early Mesoamerican dot numeration on a fragmentary Middle Preclassic ceramic figurine dating to 750–650 cal BC from the site of La Blanca, San Marcos, Guatemala. We begin with a brief discussion of numerical systems and their relationship to developments in early writing and graphic notation. We then situate the few known examples of Mesoamerican numeration that predate the Late Preclassic (300 BC–AD 250) period. From there, we pivot to the early urban center of La Blanca and its robust figurine tradition before turning our attention to the series of dots that mark this small ceramic object. We argue that this unique fragmentary figurine hints at the relationship between numeration, bodies, and identity in ancient Mesoamerican worldviews.

In this study, we analyzed a set of translucent green stones found at the Panamanian archaeological sites of El Caño and Sitio Conte. To characterize the samples, we used optical microscopy, portable X-ray fluorescence, UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, FTIR, and photoluminescence. These analyses identify the stones as emeralds and reveal geochemical signatures consistent with a Colombian origin. We then conducted a comparative stylistic technological assessment using cluster analysis, which included samples from Panama and other regions of the Isthmo-Colombian Area, as well as Ecuador. This analysis indicates that artisans modified some emeralds locally, while others may have arrived as finished or partially worked objects. Our findings validate the existence of complex interregional exchange networks in the Isthmo-Colombian Area between the eighth and tenth centuries AD. Within this context, the chiefdoms associated with the archaeological sites of El Caño and Sitio Conte (ca. AD 800–1000) played a significant role in stimulating regional trade relationships.

Geometric, anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and abstract forms comprise many of the lithic forms of Central America. Commonly called eccentrics, these forms are often recovered from ritual offerings and elite burials. This article addresses more than 80 eccentrics recovered in the Holmul region from the sites of Holmul, Witzna, and Dos Aguadas and identifies the ways that these forms can inform ritual practice, symbolic significance, and potential communities of craftspeople. Eccentric size, thinning, skill of execution, and material choice are considered across multiple assemblages.

Since 2001, I have conducted archaeological research at three of the five major Classic Maya sites of inland Toledo District, Belize. The sites are so close together that we must ask if they were parts of the same kingdom or were all separate polities with distinct local economies. I present data concerning obsidian procurement at Nim li Punit, Pusilha, and Lubaantun relevant to this question. Results demonstrate overlapping yet distinct procurement systems and imply the existence of different bounded markets and polities within a frontier zone.

Long-term research at Waka’s City temple (Structure M13-1) demonstrates it was an important locale for ritual commemoration by local people as well as those from afar. Extensive and diversely constituted deposits throughout the building’s surface demonstrate it was venerated publicly by non-elites throughout Waka’s final occupations and gradual abandonment. Recent re-examinations of these materials confirm that they appear consistent with material assemblages from Waka’s domestic contexts. We can now also complement early insights that the building was important for Waka’s wider citizenry with deeper understanding of its earlier political significance and function; namely, that it formed a major component of the site’s political and ritual landscape for centuries, including playing a key role during the Early Classic Teotihuacan-Maya Entrada. Today the building’s fronting plaza continues as the locus for various pre-excavation ceremonies. Together, this paints a picture of a monumental center that remained vividly remembered for its political and ritual importance for centuries. In the context of the unifying theme of ruination studies and Indigenous perspectives on such landscapes, we consider this building to be an example of how landscapes remain animate and how memory is itself an animating force that sustains meaning and situates action.