Archaeological studies of culture contact often presuppose culture change. Contact that did not result in culture change is difficult to identify archaeologically, but it merits our attention for understanding how and why change failed to materialize in the wake of cultural encounter. In this paper, I examine the occurrence of contact without change on the frontier of the south-central Andean Tiwanaku state (AD 400–1100). Tiwanaku settlers who colonized the uninhabited middle Moquegua valley in the seventh century AD shared a mortuary landscape with coastal sojourners at the site of Omo M10, even though their interactions were otherwise limited. Complex regional histories and divergent economic interests explain why contact between highland and coastal groups was confined to mortuary rituals during the initial stage of contact, following a Tiwanaku pattern in Moquegua of ritualizing culture contact. Later generations of Tiwanaku colonists may have reinitiated contact with coastal communities for access to marine resources, and accepting foreigners into their community. This case study presents a framework for identifying culture contact without culture change. It demonstrates the utility of regional histories and careful contextual analysis for hypothesizing the nature and consequences of cultural encounters that did not follow expected trajectories of change.

Este artículo examina la organización política de la ciudad prehispánica de Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, México, durante el reinado de K'ak' Upakal K'inich K'awil en la segunda mitad del siglo IX dC. Las interpretaciones políticas y territoriales que presentamos se basan en un entramado cronológico en el que entendemos los sectores del Chichén Itzá “Maya” y el Chichén Itzá “Tolteca” como dos periodos diferentes y secuenciales. Examinamos los cambios que aparecen en el período Clásico terminal, tales como las nuevas características no Mayas, el uso de glifos y nombres de origen foráneo, así como dioses de las Tierras Altas de México y nuevos tipos de edificios. En esta contribución también mostramos cómo el sistema interno de organización social cambió de un modelo de monarquía de un rey absoluto, identificado con la divinidad, a un tipo de gobierno más estructurado e incluyente, con mayor poder de la nobleza. Finalmente, proponemos un patrón de asentamiento que refleja esta nueva organización sociopolítica.

In this study, we employ multiple lines of evidence to elucidate the use of mortuary ritual by the ruling elite at the ancient Maya site of Cahal Pech, Belize, during the Early Classic and early Late Classic periods (AD 250–630). The interments of multiple individuals in Burial 7 of Structure B1, the central structure of an Eastern Triadic Assemblage or “E-group” style architectural complex, were in a manner not consistent with the greater Belize River Valley, the only multiple individual human burial yet encountered at Cahal Pech. The sequential interments contained a suggestive quantity of high-quality artifacts, further setting them apart from their contemporaries. Among these artifacts were a set of bone rings and a hairpin inscribed with hieroglyphs, some of the few inscriptions ever found at Cahal Pech. We analyzed regional mortuary patterns, radiogenic strontium values, and radiocarbon data to test hypotheses about who these individuals were in life, why they were treated differently in death, and to reconstruct the sequence of events of this complex mortuary deposit. We contend that the mortuary practices in Burial 7 indicate an attempt by the Cahal Pech elite to identify with cities or regions outside the Belize River Valley area.

Con el primer número del volumen 29 de Latin American Antiquity (LAQ) estamos muy contentos de poder anunciar buenas noticias para nuestros lectores y colaboradores. A partir de la edición de marzo 2018, el recuento anual de páginas de LAQ se incrementará a 880, al igual que American Antiquity (AAQ). Hace solo dos años se le asignaron a LAQ 576 páginas, por lo que esto significa un aumento del 53%, el mayor en la historia de la revista.

Isotopic investigations of human burials from excavations of the Autonomous University of Campeche (CIHS) at the prehispanic Maya capital of Calakmul in southeastern Mexico, near the border with Guatemala, include determination of radiocarbon dates; carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in collagen; and strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope ratios in tooth enamel. A total of 22 human and 5 faunal samples analyzed for strontium isotopes reveal a narrow range of variation in values, pointing to the likely local origin of over two-thirds of the central population of Calakmul, including two of its rulers. Carbon and nitrogen data confirm a typical Classic Maya diet at the site and identify a diet high in meat consumption for one dynastic individual. Interpreted jointly, the isotopic information offers new perspectives on the provenience and lifestyles of the residents of Calakmul, including a potential place of origin for the royal occupant of chamber tomb Burial VII-1.

El trabajo explora cuán estables fueron las estrategias humanas una vez que las poblaciones indígenas del centro-occidente argentino incorporaron cultígenos. Asimismo, evalúa si una vez incorporado el consumo de plantas domésticas, las estrategias fueron, o no, progresivamente apoyándose más sobre la producción y consumo de las mismas. El estudio compara tres sitios con restos humanos (Jaime Prats-1, Rincón del Atuel-1 y Cañada Seca-1) localizados entre sí a una distancia máxima de 40 km y en un valle considerado como el límite sur de la agricultura andina prehispánica. Estos sitios, que presentan una continuidad temporal, abarcan desde ca. 1900 (300 años posterior al registro inicial de las plantas domésticas en la región) a ca. 1400 años aP. Se comparan datos de isótopos estables (13C, 15N, 18O), morfometría craneal, mandibular y dental, junto a información contextual arqueológica. El sitio más antiguo, Jaime Prats-1, muestra semejanzas isotópicas y morfológicas con Cañada Seca-1, el más reciente, a pesar de no ser continuos en el tiempo. Ambos se diferencian de Rincón del Atuel-1, que temporalmente se intercala entre los dos. Los resultados señalan una mayor importancia del maíz en Rincón del Atuel-1, junto a una menor movilidad residencial, aunque en ninguno de los casos este recurso habría contribuido más del 30% a la dieta. Los sistemas humanos que ocuparon la frontera agrícola en estos primeros 500 años de uso de plantas domésticas muestran una alta variabilidad en su organización, sin cruzar umbrales que impidan retornar a sistemas de baja producción.

This paper examines an eighteenth-century roof in Chinchero, Peru to show the critical role played by roofs in Andean communities across time. Roofs can reveal identity constructions, continuation of traditions, adaptations to new influences, and relationships to local environments and the sacred. We present a discussion of the importance of roofs in architectural history, the critical role played by roofs in Inca architecture, and a description of the colonial period roof in Chinchero, along with its facture, dates of construction, botanical identification, and the environmental zones from where these items could have been gathered.

En este artículo se evalúan dos aproximaciones arqueológicas relacionadas con el control de recursos económicos básicos como un componente central en el surgimiento de la complejidad social durante el periodo prehispánico en la Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. La visión “de arriba hacia abajo” propone que los caciques Muiscas derivaron su poder del control sobre recursos económicos, principalmente derechos sobre la tierra, mano de obra, mejores suelos agrícolas y sistemas de camellones y canales. La visión “de abajo hacia arriba” plantea que las unidades domésticas fueron las que controlaron los derechos sobre la tierra, mejores suelos agrícolas, sistemas de camellones y canales. Para evaluar ambas aproximaciones, se analizaron los datos de un reconocimiento regional de 235 km2 en la Sabana de Bogotá a través de un programa de Sistema de Información Geográfica para establecer la relación entre la distribución de la población y la calidad de suelos, camellones y canales. Los resultados apoyan la coexistencia de ambas situaciones. Los grupos locales y las unidades domésticas individuales tuvieron control directo sobre los derechos sobre la tierra y la infraestructura agrícola. Sin embargo, el núcleo del cacicazgo de Bogotá presentó más centralización demográfica y política y mayor grado de control directo sobre derechos de tierras, mano de obra, suelos de mejor calidad e infraestructura agrícola que otros cacicazgos locales.

Reconstructing access patterns, in particular processional and liturgical movement in ceremonial architecture, can illuminate social processes within expansive states. Extensive excavations from 2010–2012 in the uniquely preserved Tiwanaku temple at the Omo M10 site in Moquegua, Peru (ca. AD 500–1100), shed new light on connectedness and access patterns of the temple. Extensive areal excavations confirm past interpretations of a central axial series of doorways and staircases presided over by stelae and U-shaped, altar-like structures leading from public plazas to the sunken court and a central shrine. However, new findings revealed separate lateral pathways through the structure, which suggest liturgical processions to walled patio groups that were isolated from the central axis. We posit that these small patios and their roofed chambers may have functioned as chapels for distinct groups or pluralistic cultic activities that were separate from those of the central axis. Implications for Tiwanaku social structure are studied in light of other examples of triple entryways in Tiwanaku monumental architecture, and Kolata's suggestion of “Taypi” as a structural amalgam of a center and complementary halves, with implications of mediation and bilateral complementarity between ethnicities, genders, moieties, or other pluralistic entities within Tiwanaku state and society.

Banwari Trace, a well-stratified shell midden located in southeastern Trinidad, provides the oldest known archaeological evidence of human settlement in the West Indies and has been crucial to our understanding of the initial peopling of the greater Caribbean region. Detailed excavation profile descriptions, soil and faunal analyses, accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating, and stable carbon isotope analyses provide an accurate chronology and paleoenvironmental framework for the natural and anthropogenic depositional history of this significant archaeological site. Our findings support the recognition of three Middle Holocene strata at Banwari Trace, which represent significant periods of midden deposition and environmental change at: ~7800–7900 cal BP (Level 3); ~6900–7400 cal BP (Level 2); and ~5500–6200 cal BP (Level 1). Stable carbon isotope analyses show the landscape was dominated by C3 vegetation throughout the Middle Holocene with a possible drying episode near the end of the Middle Holocene climatic optimum. Cedrosan potsherds discovered in the uppermost 25 cm (Level 0) suggest that a Late Holocene radiocarbon age of ~2770–2200 cal BP for charcoal from this stratum is valid and possibly contemporary with an apparently intrusive human burial recovered in 1971 at a depth of ~20 cm.

The site of Izapa, though famous for its unique “Izapan” style monuments, has lagged behind many other Mesoamerican centers in archaeological research. As revisions of important Mesoamerican chronologies are underway, Inomata and colleagues (2014) have questioned whether monument production at Izapa has been misplaced chronologically. This article applies new data from the Izapa Household Archaeology Project to assess Inomata and colleagues’ (2014) proposal for a shift in the chronology at Izapa. It specifically assesses the chronology for the Formative to Classic period transition at Izapa, from 100 BC to AD 400, with new excavation data, ceramic cross-dating, and Bayesian modeling of AMS dates from the southern periphery of the site. These data generally support the chronology developed by Gareth Lowe following the 1960s excavations at the site, though a temporal overlap appears possible for the Terminal Formative Hato and Itstapa ceramic complexes. Although results do not support Inomata and colleagues’ proposal for a shift in the Izapa chronology, ceramic cross-ties proposed between the Hato phase at Izapa and the Verbena phase at Kaminaljuyu support Inomata and colleagues’ (2014) revision for the chronology of Kaminaljuyu.

The remains of non-native deer (Cervidae) have been sparsely recorded in Amerindian archaeological sites of the West Indies, but evidence indicates the presence of at least two genera, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus) and brocket deer (Mazama), during the precolumbian era known as the Ceramic Age (ca. 500 BC–AD 1500). Due to underreporting of finds and lack of regional integration of existing records, however, the West Indian distribution of cervid remains and their cultural importance are not well understood. Here, I synthesize records for unmodified and modified deer bone from 29 archaeological sites on seven islands in the precolumbian island Caribbean with descriptions for four new records of deer bone artifacts from Carriacou and Grenada. I discuss taxonomic attribution issues, evidence for manufacturing techniques, and the utilitarian and symbolic significance of deer bone artifacts. Particular attention is given to proportions of worked and unworked bone, element diversity, and skeletal part representation as a means to distinguish the introduction of living deer from the introduction of carcass products. The evidence presented here is consistent with island Amerindians importing cervid bone as finished artifacts or raw material for tool and ornament manufacture rather than live animals. This study enhances our understanding of the ways in which Amerindians were engaged in exchange networks based on the movement of exotic goods between the West Indies and continent. More broadly, it contributes to conceptual methods for distinguishing the transfer of body parts from the translocation of live animals in studies of exotic animal dispersal by humans.

Recently, Inomata and colleagues (2014) proposed a revision to Shook and Popenoe de Hatch's (1999) chronology of Kaminaljuyu, recommending a new chronology based on detailed Bayesian analysis of the calibrated dates. In this article, I present data suggesting that Inomata and colleagues' proposed chronology should be viewed with caution, especially with regard to the apogee of Kaminaljuyu, the Verbena and Arenal phases. Furthermore, the impact of their revised chronology is overstated because the model of highland-to-lowland diffusion that they attack has long been moribund.

Campanayuq Rumi is a large civic-ceremonial center located in the south-central highlands of Peru. Founded in the late Initial Period (1100–800 BC), Campanayuq Rumi became an important center within the Chavín Interaction Sphere in the Early Horizon (ca. 800–400 BC). In particular, Campanayuq Rumi is significant because of its geographical proximity to Quispisisa, the most important and widely circulated obsidian source during the Early Horizon. Portable X-ray florescence (pXRF) was used to geochemically source a sample of 370 obsidian artifacts from Campanayuq Rumi. Though obsidian from Quispisisa dominates the assemblage throughout the site's history, diachronic analysis indicates that the diversity of obsidian sources increases markedly in the Campanayuq II Phase (700–450 BC). The pXRF data lead us to conclude that Campanayuq Rumi was the locus of obsidian distribution to other locations in highland and coastal Peru within the Chavín Interaction Sphere, and functioned as a regional center of worship and interaction.

We use ceramic and obsidian data from the ancient Maya port site of Vista Alegre to discuss long-distance exchange during the Terminal Classic (c. AD 850–1100) period. This is a time often associated with increased international trade relations and the growth of Chichen Itza as a dominant regional power in the northern Maya lowlands. Critical to the increased volume of international trade were the merchants who transported goods along the coast of Yucatan in large trading canoes. By combining a macroscopic assessment of the ceramics with visual, XRF, and INAA analyses of the obsidian artifacts, we gain insight into the various socioeconomic forces at work moving goods around the Peninsula. Given the paucity of Terminal Classic settlement in the interior Yalahau region, Vista Alegre appears to be an isolated site during this period, approximately 40 km from the nearest coastal neighbor. This allows us to focus on coastal exchange as the sole means by which goods arrived at the site. Our preliminary data contribute to the growing literature on the role market economies played in the Maya area, and the increased opportunities this afforded coastal peoples as circum-peninsular trade became more common through time.

Between AD 100 and 800, the Moche culture emerged on the north coast of Peru. Diverse debates surround the nature of Moche territorial and political centralization, sociopolitical identities, and the internal social diversity of Moche society. Here we address some of these issues in a biodistance study based on phenotypic variation of inherited dental traits within and between 36 individuals in the royal tombs of Sipán (Lambayeque valley), Úcupe (Zaña valley), and Dos Cabezas (Jequetepeque valley). Metric and nonmetric dental trait data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster and R-matrix analyses. The results independently indicate that the highest-level Sipán and Dos Cabezas lords likely represented different endogamous kin groups, while limited gene flow occurred between groups of Moche lower nobility between the Lambayeque and Jequetepeque regions. Although biology and material cultural link the Lord of Úcupe to Dos Cabezas, many objects in his tomb demonstrate his participation the world of the Sipán elites. These Moche lords were, on some levels, bioculturally interconnected. Nonetheless, the data broadly lend support to a “many Moches” model of sociopolitical structure, further casting doubt on earlier one-dimensional visions of a centralized hegemonic Moche polity.

Many Spanish chroniclers detail violent cultural practices of the indigenous populations they encountered in the Isthmo-Colombian Area; however, lack of physical evidence of interpersonal violence from archaeological contexts has made uncertain the veracity of these claims. At the precolumbian site of Playa Venado in Panama, these accounts of violent mortuary rituals may have influenced the interpretation of the burials encountered in excavations, leading to claims of mutilations and sacrifice, with little or no supporting evidence. This paper considers the physical evidence for interpersonal violence and sacrificial death at Playa Venado based on the burial positioning, demographic composition, and trauma present on the human remains recovered from the site. Analysis of field notes, excavation photos, and the 77 individuals available for study from the site yielded no evidence of perimortem trauma nor abnormal body positioning unexplained by taphonomy. The demography at the site tracked with normal patterns of natural age-at-death at the non-elite site of Cerro Juan Díaz rather than the abnormal patterns seen at the large ceremonial sites of Sitio Conte and El Caño. Therefore, we propose an alternative interpretation of the site as a non-elite cemetery containing evidence of re-use and secondary burial practices associated with ancestor veneration rituals.

This article presents archaeological information on the remains of five domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) recovered from prehistoric sites in the lowlands of southeast Uruguay. The presence of canines in the archaeological record is associated with horticultural hunter-gatherer groups, who adapted to the changing conditions of flood-prone ecosystems during the late Holocene (ca. 3000 years BP). Three of the five specimens discussed were recovered from human burial mounds, prompting further discussion on the economic, social, and symbolic and ritual significance of these animals.

The archaeological record in the Negro River in central Uruguay Republic is remarkable for its richness, including the presence of a significant number of Paleoindian fishtail points. As part of ongoing research on the earliest human occupations in this region, luminescence dating is applied to develop a terminal Pleistocene-Holocene regional chronology. Eight ages were derived from six samples taken from sedimentary fluvial deposits from two sites near the city of Paso de los Toros. The resulting dates span 11.8 and 1.04 ka corresponding to the Late Pleistocene and the whole Holocene. Because the chronology of the sedimentary sequences spanning these ages is poorly known, the presented results become a significant contribution to the construction of a chronostratigraphy sequence in the area. The results also show how single-grain dating can distinguish different components of mixed assemblages.

This study uses stable carbon δ13C and oxygen δ18O isotope compositions data to assess the extent to which diet breadths of northwestern Guyana changed during the Holocene. We analyzed human bone and enamel remains from seven shell mound sites dating between 7500 and 2600 BP. Our analyses demonstrate some constancy in C3 plant availability during the past several thousand years, though we note increasing reliance on such plants beginning in the Early Holocene. We also document warming intervals during the Early Holocene (Early Archaic) that appear to correlate with dry periods known elsewhere in the central Amazon during this period.