This paper examines the archaeological and biological evidence for shifts in human subsistence strategies during the transition from hunting and foraging to maize agriculture as posited in the Río Balsas, or lowland origin of maize, model and the Tehuacán, or highland origin of maize, model. These are two different interpretations of the genetic evidence for the ancestry of maize, the archaeological evidence for plant exploitation, and the ecological evidence for paleoenvironments and climate change in the two regions. In contrast to Panama, where there is good evidence for progressive intensification of human forest disturbance by 10,000 B.P., horticultural forest clearing by 8000 B.P., and slash-and-burn agriculture by 6000 B.P., the evidence for Mesoamerica, where maize agriculture originated, fits a different picture of biocultural evolution. The lowland regions of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and probably Honduras, were apparently undisturbed, semi-evergreen forests around 10,000 B.P. New findings from experimental maize genetics, combined with the comprehensive archaeological picture from Tehucán, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas, and the Valley of Mexico, support a highland Mesoamerican origin of maize.

The artifact assemblage recovered in a sealed undisturbed context inside a ceremonial building (Structure 12) in the ancient village of Joya de Cerén (A. D. 600), a Classic Period site located on the Southeast Maya Periphery, has been particularly enigmatic and difficult to interpret. This assemblage consists of small portable worn objects, some of which show physical and chemical damage consistent with having been previously discarded prior to being carefully curated in a ceremonial building, suggesting that they were collected in antiquity. A review of the ethnographic literature reveals that contemporary Maya ritual practitioners routinely collect small portable objects, many of which are Pre-Columbian in origin, as personal sacra. This practice of “ritual collecting” serves multiple purposes including: 1) the acquisition of divining tools, 2) personal verification of divine election, and 3) evidence to one's community of supernatural sanction for a change in social status. Through engaging in this practice, social actors create and manipulate power in local ritual systems that exist outside of the control of contemporary institutionalized religions. It is suggested that collecting may represent an alternative avenue to supernatural power for past, as well as present-day, rural ritual practitioners.

Paleoethnobotanical remains from the Three Dog site (SS-21), an early Lucayan site located on San Salvador, Bahamas, are presented and compared to data from other prehistoric Caribbean sites. Flotation, in situ, and screen recovery (1/16", 1.58 mm) revealed six taxa of fuelwood and charred Sapotaceae seed fragments. Preliminary SEM analysis of six chert microliths revealed possible evidence of the Caribbean aroid, Xanthosoma sp. (cocoyam, malanga, yautía) or Zamia sp. The presence of Sapotaceae and possibly Xanthosoma sp. or Zamia sp. in the archaeobotanical record can be attributed to a number of alternative explanations. The site"s inhabitants may have transported these plants from their homelands and transplanted them to home gardens. An alternative view is that they exploited or managed wild representatives or created disturbed habitats that encouraged the spread of wild or cultivated forms. The pollen data from two Bahama cores, one from Andros, the other from San Salvador, reflect anthropogenic disturbance during the prehistoric occupational sequence. The increasing frequency of Sapotaceae pollen in the San Salvador sequence is consistent with the occurrence of Sapotaceae at the Three Dog site. Finally, preservation- and recovery-related issues are discussed. The study suggests that multiple means of data recovery must be employed to gain a more representative picture of prehistoric Caribbean plant use and floristic environment.

This paper examines ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence of Inka imperial strategies for controlling resources and people in the Titicaca Basin and the coastal valleys of southern Peru and northern Chile, and suggests that Inka imperial policies were adapted to meet local conditions in a series of dynamic political and economic interactions. In the coastal region between the Tambo Valley of southern Peru and the Azapa Valley of northern Chile, Inka policies included, variously, the resettlement of labor colonists (mitmaqkuna), the direct incorporation of coastal groups, and the maintenance of alliances with autonomous coastal elites. Altiplano elites exploited the imperial system to extend their own networks of colonization and exchange. Recent archaeological surveys in the Ilo-Ite coastal region, as well as unpublished data collected by Gary Vescelius between 1958 and 1960, indicate that the Inka developed more direct control of the south-central coast than earlier polities had achieved, but that imperial control over this region was limited and influenced by the persistence of autonomous coastal groups. Groups around Ilo remained fairly independent, while parts of the Tambo and Sama valleys and the Quebrada Tacahuay were brought under direct imperial control.

Long-distance exchange of exotic preciosities, while it can occur in any sociopolitical context, may be associated with both chiefly formation and state hegemony. In the south central Andes, shared stylistic elements in early complex societies of Paracas-Nasca on the Peruvian south coast and Pukara in the altiplano suggest their contact via intermediate areas. Unfortunately, interpretations of the interaction of these great traditions tend to neglect indigenous sociopolitical development in regions between the two culture areas. Recent systematic survey in one such intermediate region, Peru's Moquegua Valley, has shed light on an indigenous pre-Tiwanaku culture with distinctive regional settlement patterns, complex mortuary practices, and a local ceramic tradition known as Huaracane (385 cal B. C-cal A. D. 340). Surface collections and test excavations confirm a minimal presence of exotic Pukara and Paracas-Nasca ceramics and textiles in association with elite local residential contexts and a late Huaracane mortuary tradition known as “boot tombs” that appears after 170 cal B. C. As there is no general emulation of foreign styles, domestic activities, or practices, an agency-oriented local perspective is favored over globalist colonial or clientage models to explain the role of exotica in a climate of competitive sociopolitical development.

This study examines archaeofaunal materials contained within a large bell-shaped prehistoric pit from the site of Pechichal (M3B4-011) in northern Manabí Province of lowland western Ecuador. This feature provides a high resolution archaeological context for understanding assemblage accumulation and deposition, and provides important data for inferring local environmental conditions. The archaeofaunal assemblage can be divided into two distinct groups based upon the vertical representation of its skeletal remains throughout the pit. One group, characterized by variable skeletal representation and vertical concentration, likely includes both culturally disposed and naturally entrapped taxa. The other group, characterized by a few isolated fragments, low skeletal completeness, and dispersion in vertical profile, is likely dominated by culturally disposed taxa. When the natural histories of the pit faunas are considered along with their distinct numerical representation, the entire pit assemblage makes ecological sense. The data suggest that the pit was located at the edge of a modified forest fragment.

Incised-engraved pottery and clays from the Malpaso Valley region of northwest Mexico are chemically characterized to investigate the nature of residential organization of the capital settlement, La Quemada, during the Epiclassic period, ca. A.D. 600-900. Scanning-electron microprobe analysis of 115 pottery and 10 clay samples from settlements in the valley, and from middens associated with the civic-ceremonial core of La Quemada and flanking residential terraces, identifies locations of pottery production and indicates patterns of pottery circulation. The distribution of pottery at La Quemada, manufactured in specific outlying settlements, suggests that the social composition of the polity was reproduced in microcosm at the site, and that activities in civic-ceremonial zones involved a greater degree of separation among social groups than those in flanking residential areas.

For any particular historical circumstance, explanations of ceramic evolution should consider the performance characteristics of pottery vessels in their behavioral contexts, as well as the varying effects of evolutionary processes operating at different social, spatial, and temporal scales. The replacement of tempered black and differentially fired serving vessels by fine-paste wares during the Formative to Classic transition in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico illustrates these points. New radiocarbon assays from the Bezuapan site document the rapidity of this transition. Evaluation of visual performance characteristics and contextual associations suggest that the Tuxtlas fine-paste tradition began as a Late Formative prestige technology. Adoption of updraft kilns in the Terminal Formative period lowered the risk of firing losses and allowed savings in paste preparation and resource procurement costs to be realized. As a result, the fine-paste tradition spread to wider segments of society, ultimately replacing earlier traditions. A volcanic eruption at the close of the Formative period and subsequent immigration of Central Mexican settlers constituted evolutionary sorting mechanisms, which perturbed general trends in ceramic evolution within a restricted area of the central Tuxtlas.

One of the most enigmatic aspects of decapitation practices among south coastal Peruvian Paracas and Nasca cultures (900 B.C.-A.D. 750) is the near absence of headless bodies in the archaeological record. Drawing on a case study of an Early Nasca, Phase 3 headless burial at Site PV62D13 in the lower Ica Valley, together with examples of headless interments reported in the literature, I examine the nature and disposition of headless burials. Three burial patterns, or forms, are proposed. The burial at PV62D13 is distinguished for its extended posture and interment in a non-cemetery setting and is proposed to be a dedicatory burial. Burial forms for disembodied heads are also examined, and over time, a notable increase in cached heads, buried without grave offerings is observed. Painted ceramic images of Nasca trophy heads and headless bodies are reviewed diachronically and a marked increase in decapitation scenes is noted for Late Nasca. Attention is drawn to the limited number of headless body images overall, and possible solutions to reconcile the visual imagery with the archaeological data are offered.

In 1999, the Quispisisa source of obsidian was located in the Province of Huanca Sancos in central Ayacucho near the village of Sacsamarca. This discovery has been confirmed at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) by comparing the neautron activation analyses of source samples with artifacts. The Quispisisa source of volcanic glass provided the raw material for most of the obsidian artifacts utilized in central and northern Peru throughout prehispanic times.

This investigation uses a bioarchaeological approach to test the existence of pre-Inka colonists within the Andean coastal valleys of Moquegua, Peru, and Azapa, Chile, as predicted by Murra's (1972) classic model of verticality. The archaeological evidence and biodistance results obtained using genetically controlled dental traits from 859 skeletal and mummified remains indicate that the Late Intermediate period (A.D. 1100-1476) coastal Chiribaya people of the Moquegua Valley, Peru, likely represent descendants of altiplano populations that migrated to the coastal region following the disintegration of the Middle Horizon (A.D. 750-1100) Tiwanaku colony located in the middle Moquegua Valley. In the neighboring Azapa Valley, Chile, genetic change among prehistoric populations was due to gradual in situ microevolution of local populations rather than colonization by altiplano people. Coastal populations of the Azapa Valley maintained biocultural continuity with the Archaic period Chinchorro coastal population. It is concluded that Murra's model of direct verticality should be evaluated using both biological and archaeological data on a case-by-case basis.

This analysis uses flaked stone artifacts to gain insight into the social and economic structure of the Casas Grandes region, northern Chihuahua, Mexico. It begins by considering the intrasite variation in flaked stone reduction at Galeana, a large site near the modern town of Galeana. The analysis of debitage and cores from Galeana indicates that the assemblage is primarily the product of hard hammer, generalized reduction of locally available materials. Differences within the assemblage indicate the presence of spatially distinct reduction areas, with initial core reduction occurring in open areas, and then continuing in room blocks. We then compare the Galeana assemblage with the flaked stone assemblage from the site of Paquimé (Casas Grandes), Chihuahua. The analysis indicates that the reduction technique employed at both sites is similar, but that the Paquimé assemblage is characterized by a greater proportion of cryptocrystaline silicates and obsidian than the Galeana assemblage. Furthermore, much of the raw material from Paquimé does not appear to be locally available. We conclude that the prehistoric inhabitants of Paquimé had greater access to cryptocrystaline silicates and obsidian acquired through trade than did the inhabitants of Galeana. This evidence indicates that the economic pattern evident at Paquimé did not extend to Galeana and supports the idea that Paquimé's economic and political influence over other Casas Grandes sites was limited beyond a 30-km radius.

Off-mound excavations at a residential group near the site of Dos Hombres, Belize have revealed a series of unusual modifications to the limestone bedrock. The primary purpose of these modifications appears to have been to facilitate drainage of excess surface and subsurface moisture during periods of heavy rain. By utilizing a variation of lithic mulching in the soil, however, the Maya also may have been able to slow the loss of moisture through evaporation during lengthy dry periods. We suggest that these finds reflect soil and water management in house-lot gardening, and that these measures were necessary to overcome localized geologic, pedologic, and regional climatologic conditions. The use of such a drainage system together with gravel fill at the household level is previously unreported in the Maya Lowlands, and represents an important line of inquiry into gardens as ancient agricultural production systems.

Round structures are considered a rarity in Maya architecture. Four late Middle Preclassic period (650-300 B.C.) round structures excavated at the Maya site of Cahal Pech demonstrate that this was a common architectural form for the Preclassic Maya of the upper Belize River Valley. These open platforms are described, and compared to similar forms in the Belize Valley and elsewhere. An interpretation of their significance is offered that uses information from artifacts, burials, and ethnohistory as well as analogy with round structures in other parts of the world. We suggest that these small round platforms were used for performance related to their role as burial or ancestor shrines.

During the last four decades, mesoamerican archaeologists regularly have employed various chemical assay techniques to determine the geological sources of obsidian artifacts. In recent years, the reliability of these analytical procedures has increased and their costs have declined, encouraging the assay of ever larger samples. Nonetheless, several constraints make it unlikely that compositional data will be used routinely to attribute entire collections to their geological sources. This report describes a test of visual sourcing, a technique that for many sites in the Maya region is only slightly less accurate than compositional assay. We also propose sampling strategies that combine visual and compositional sourcing in ways that allow large collections to be accurately sourced at low costs. Finally, we suggest ways to develop the technique for use throughout Latin America.

Iconographic studies often provide evidence to interpret ritual activities of archaeologically known cultures. Recent excavations at the site of Conchopata near Ayacucho, Peru, led to a re-analysis of the ritual behavior of Middle Horizon (A. D. 750-1000) Wari society. The identification of a hallucinogenic plant design, Anadenanthera colubrina, depicted on Conchopata offering pottery contributes a crucial understanding of a previously unknown artistic icon. This icon was discerned as depicted in various abstract renditions on Middle Horizon textiles, snuff paraphernalia, ceramics, and stone sculpture, including the Gate of the Sun at Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Based on historic and ethnographic evidence, the plant's prehistoric use as a hallucinogen is discussed with regard to suggested chicha drinking ceremonies, and the transitional role of Wari leaders from shamans to priests.

A long low mound of rubble incompletely surrounds part of the central zone at the Classic Period site of Chunchucmil, Yucatan, Mexico. This wall was hastily built from stone robbed from nearby buildings and roadbeds and it clearly served as a defensive barricade. All indications are that the barricade represents a one-time event whereupon the site was attacked, overrun, and abandoned. Re-analysis of other known fortified sites across Yucatan"s northern plains show some fundamental similarities. I suggest that all sites with barricades still standing suffered wars of annihilation rather than wars of conquest and subjugation by the victors. I suggest that the Chunchucmil distribution node was annihilated because its proximity to consumption centers in nuclear Mesoamerica reduced the competitiveness of other Yucatecan coastal trade sites that were located further away along the Gulf Coast maritime trade route.

It is known that the grid pattern characterizing the city layout of Teotihuacan incorporates two slightly different groups of alignments, skewed approximately 15.5° and 16.5° clockwise from cardinal directions. I argue that these alignments were dictated by deliberate and astronomically functional orientations of the Pyramid of the Sun and the Ciudadela. The two structures recorded sunrises and sunsets on two different sets of dates, allowing the use of an observational calendar composed of intervals that included multiples of 20 days and a 260-day period. The evidence presented suggests also that the location of the Sun Pyramid was not determined by the cave that is now underneath the structure and is probably human-made, but rather by a combination of astronomical and topographic criteria: the place allowed the temple built there to be oriented both to sunrises and sunsets on significant dates and, in the perpendicular direction, to Cerro Gordo to the north; furthermore, sunrises on the so-called quarter-days of the year could be observed from the same spot over a prominent mountain on the eastern horizon. The dates corresponding to the Teotihuacan alignments are attested also at other central Mexican archaeological sites and must have been employed, primarily, for scheduling agricultural and associated ritual activities in the yearly cycle.