The description and analysis of materials from on-floor deposits that reflect the final activity before site abandonment are key to making a determination as to what happened during the Maya collapse around a.d. 900. On-floor deposits recovered at Caracol, Belize indicate that factors like warfare, the breakdown of the site's market system, and heightened social tensions were in play prior to the abandonment of the site. In an attempt to understand the meaning of these deposits, we first examine why on-floor remains constitute an important data class for archaeology. We next look at the kinds of artifactual materials that are recovered in these deposits and then at the locations and nature of on-floor deposits at Caracol. Finally, we offer our thoughts on what they represent in the broader Maya context.

Headdresses, as opulent markers of rank and affiliation, offer a unique opportunity to examine sociopolitical roles and offices at Teotihuacan. In particular, in light of the few surviving glyphic texts from the site, the representations of headdresses, either in isolation, as part ritual investitures, or actively worn by individuals, are in fact one of the few ways to achieve a deeper understanding of the nature, structure, and institutional aspects of social stations and in the ancient metropolis. In this paper, we will first discuss the elemental properties of headdresses in Teotihuacan iconography as well as the rites of accession upon which these symbolic markers were acquired. Thereafter, we suggest that several kinds of headdresses are also associated with specific named houses at Teotihuacan, which indicate their close affiliation with certain powerful institutions. Finally, we focus on some of the specific types of headdresses, and especially those qualified by the so-called Year Sign (Figure 1). Based on comparisons with Classic and Epiclassic calendrical records, wherein dates are also crowned by the same headdress, as well as with the diadem of the Late Postclassic Mexica rulers, the xiuhhuitzolli, we put forth a new interpretation of its meaning at Teotihuacan.

Recent research carried out at the Maya site of Nakum, located in northeastern Guatemala, has brought about the discovery of a large collection of ceramic artefacts. This substantial assemblage, apart from monochrome ceramics, includes fragments of polychrome vessels that are decorated with elaborate iconographic scenes and painted hieroglyphic texts. Most of them date to the Late Classic period (ca. a.d. 600–800), which represents the peak of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. The style of these ceramics, their iconography and accompanying glyphic texts, supplemented in many cases by mineralogical and physicochemical analyses of the ceramic samples, indicate that Nakum was part of a broad and complex network of political and economic interactions between various sites and polities of the southern Maya lowlands in the Classic period. During the first part of the Late Classic period, Nakum seems to maintain close relations with Naranjo, probably serving as its vassal at least from the reign of its renowned king Aj Wosal. After the victory of Tikal over Naranjo in the first part of the eighth century, Nakum shows closer cultural and political connections with Tikal. Nevertheless, towards the end of the Classic era, when we observe the profound collapse of lowland Maya civilization, Nakum elites gain political independence from their former overlords.

At Chan Chich, Belize, archaeologists have encountered Terminal Classic artifact scatters and piled artifact deposits in elite residential compounds near the epicenter of the site. This article presents a detailed comparison of four artifact deposits’ contexts and compositions to highlight similarities and differences among them. Commonly classified as “problematic deposits” in the field, all four examples considered here formed directly on floors or steps. Although they exhibit compositional variability, all four deposits appear to be abandonment-related features, which unknown actors deliberately created, specifically targeting elite residential architecture rather than monumental public structures in the site core.

We present a behavioral-contextual method for studying abandonment-related assemblages in order to ascribe them to a settlement abandonment scenario. Our approach examines the vertical and horizontal architectural contexts of assemblages, along with the nature of reconstructible vessels and other artifacts. This method accounts for gradual, rapid, mundane, and ceremonial abandonment scenarios, and for abandonment with anticipated return. Two advantages of this model are its replicability and its proposition of a shared taxonomy leading away from the concept of problematic deposits. The method is contextualized with two distinct case studies from the southern Maya lowlands: the palace of La Corona, Guatemala and an agricultural household group from greater Minanha, Belize. These dissimilar but contemporary (ca. A.D. 900) contexts revealed complex abandonment-related assemblages, including pre-abandonment middens, de facto and secondary material, and on-floor, exposed offerings. Both case studies are argued to reflect gradual, organized abandonment scenarios, although with significant temporal and behavioral distinctions.

The aim of this work is to approach the strategies of transmitting knowledge of the past among the Nahua of the early Colonial period. The alphabetical sources of that epoch present a specific mix of contemporary European historiography and pre-Hispanic Nahua cultural memory. This article focuses on the second aspect, namely cultural memory that was a constant dialogue between the historical facts and the mythical structures into which these facts were “accommodated” to become culturally meaningful. The article analyzes narratives of two Aztec princesses called Chalchiuhnenetzin. The women named Chalchiuhnenetzin appear in two different historical contexts but, as shown in the analysis, the morphology of both stories and the role played by both women are quite similar. Thus, they can be regarded as examples of cultural re-elaboration of history by predominantly oral cultures.

The Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the frontiers of some of the largest political centers, Naranjo in Peten, Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize. Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley, the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, northern Yucatan, and elsewhere, Ucanal was a critical convergence zone of political and cultural interaction. This paper synthesizes archaeological research by the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal to underscore the ways in which this provincial polity, identified epigraphically as K'anwitznal, maneuvered within and between different cultural affiliations and political networks. We find that the site's role as a political frontier during the Late Classic period was more of a bridge than an edge. During the later Terminal Classic period, the K'anwitznal kingdom gained independence, but continued to serve as a critical convergence of influences and interaction spheres from throughout the Maya area and beyond.

Investigations at Xunantunich indicate that this major Belize River Valley site rose rapidly to regional prominence during the Late Classic Hats' Chaak phase (a.d. 670–780). While the social, political, and economic reasons for Xunantunich's relatively late and rapid rise are still not fully understood, it has been suggested that this ascent was a direct result of either a patron-client relationship with, or owing to direct control by, the larger primary center of Naranjo in neighboring Guatemala. In this paper, we evaluate previous arguments for this proposed dynamic relationship between the two sites, and we discuss the political implications of more recently acquired data in our assessment of this relationship.

Most representations of Tezcatlipoca, the supreme sorcerer of Late Postclassic central Mexico, come from the codices of the Mixteca-Puebla tradition. This important deity was also represented, however, in statues, wall paintings, bas-reliefs, as well as head-shaped ceramic pieces, the latter of which are little-known and poorly studied. In this study, we offer a detailed analysis of one of the best examples of Tezcatlipoca head-shaped ceramic pieces sheltered in the Bilimek Collection at the Weltmuseum in Vienna. We compare the Tezcatlipoca effigy head of Vienna with similar pieces from the Colección Fundación Televisa in Mexico City, the Museo Regional de Cholula, and the Museo del Valle de Tehuacán, all representations being fine examples of the Eastern Nahua artistic tradition. The similarity between the iconography on the Tezcatlipoca pedestal in Vienna and the murals of Ocotelulco and Tizatlan, Tlaxcala, are particularly striking, sharing representations of skulls, hands, and a motif we have identified as a mirror. We also analyze in detail the links between the iconography of Tezcatlipoca with that of the Macuiltonaleque. Finally, we propose the possibility of a ritual use of these ceramic vessels, associated with the ingestion of pulque in the framework of a Tezcatlipoca drinking cult.

The discovery of cultural remains on or above the floors of rooms and courtyards at several Maya sites has been interpreted by some archaeologists as problematic deposits, squatter's refuse, as evidence for feasting, termination rituals, de facto refuse, or rapid abandonment as a result of warfare. Investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project have recorded similar deposits at several surface and subterranean sites in Western Belize. Our regional, contextual, and methodological approaches for studying these deposits, coupled with ethnohistoric and ethnographic information, provide limited support for the interpretation of these remains as de facto refuse or due to rapid abandonment. Instead, we argue that these deposits are more likely the result of peri-abandonment activities such as propitiation rituals and/or pilgrimages during and after the gradual abandonment of sites in the Belize River Valley.

In this study, we offer a relational approach to theorizing boundaries for the Maya, adapting Mills’ (2018) concept of “boundary objects” as a means of understanding how people and things bridge or cross boundaries and were critical for developing and maintaining allied relations. We trace a network of sites on both sides of the Guatemala–Belize border dating to the Terminal Classic and Postclassic, which are generally characterized as times of increased conflict, movement and migration of people, and disruption in dynastic succession with an emphasis on shared governance. We examine the introduction of northern-style traits in the eastern Maya lowlands during the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods, including circular and colonnaded buildings and distinctive portable goods such as molded-carved ceramics, phallic and turtle effigies, and other material forms. We suggest that during fractious periods in Maya history, northern traits were implicated in boundary crossing negotiations and entangled relations, which included marriage alliances with “foreigners” as a means of elite legitimation.

Interpreting middens, feasting events, ritual, or terminal deposits in the Maya world requires an evaluation of faunal remains. Maya archaeologists consistently evaluate other artifact classes, but often offer simply number of identified specimens values for skeletal elements recovered from these deposits. To further understand their archaeological significance, we analyzed faunal materials from deposits at the sites of Baking Pot and Xunantunich in the Upper Belize River Valley. We identified the species, bone elements, bone or shell artifacts, taphonomic signatures, and quantitative ratios recovered to test whether a deposit can be identified as a midden, part of a feasting ritual, terminal ritual, or other rituals significant to the Maya. Our analyses allow us to begin building a system for using faunal remains as a proxy for interpreting the significance of these deposits. In this paper, we present our results and hope to open the conversation for future evaluations of faunal remains in similar deposits.

In this paper, I propose a new interpretation of Plate 44 of the Codex Borgia in the context of his central part, the most difficult to understand. The challenge is to demonstrate that Nowotny's (2005 [1961]) reading of this plate as a representation of a ritual of access to power can be combined with Boone's (2007) interpretation of the plate as a representation of a myth of the origin of flowers. In Mesoamerica, the nose-piercing ritual is part of a rite of passage in which the candidate appeared symbolically as a sacrificial victim, dying before his rebirth as a king. The myth of the origin of flowers is also a myth of the origin of menstruation and access to womanhood, thereby constituting a feminine equivalent of the nose-piercing rite of passage. Therefore, plate 44 of the Codex Borgia would illustrate the parallelism between women's fertility and men's access to power. This proposal will contribute to elucidate Frazer's (1981–1984 [1913–1924]) study, who, years ago, was wondering about the coincidence of menstruation taboos related to menarche and taboos that affected sacred kings in many parts of the world.

This study examines the intersection of political, cultural, and linguistic differences in the archaeological study of boundaries. The Late Postclassic and Early Colonial periods (a.d. 1350–1525) in the Maya lowlands are known for political instability and the formulation of new identities, especially in the northern region of the Peten Lakes District (Guatemala) to the greater Rio Hondo drainage (Belize). This article approaches the theoretical formulations of archaeological borders from the perspective of lithic technology, focusing on small projectile points recovered from numerous sites in the subregion. Analysis of data suggests differences in resource acquisition, material preference, and production during a time of historically fluid interaction and occasional conflict in the Peten-Belize area. Such information adds to our understandings of political frontiers of Late Postclassic polities from a social and economic perspective that is often ignored.

Archaeological research in the Maya lowlands has identified special deposits that offer essential information about the abandonment of Classic Maya centers. We argue that some of the “problematical deposits” associated with terminal architecture may be more accurately described as peri-abandonment deposits since they temporally and behaviorally relate to the activities associated with the final use of ceremonial space. Here, we describe several peri-abandonment deposits that were identified in Group B at the site of Baking Pot, located in western Belize. Using detailed stratigraphic and contextual information, artifact assemblages, and calendar dates recorded on polychrome vessels recovered in the deposits, we describe the nature of activities associated with the formation of peri-abandonment deposits at Baking Pot in the eighth to ninth centuries. We find patterning in the spatial locations of deposits in the corners of plazas and courtyards at Baking Pot, with variability in artifact assemblages between specific deposits.

Colonialism came late to northern Guatemala. The Spanish began to establish missions in the Peten Lakes region in the early 1700s, nearly 200 years after initial contact with the Mayas. Excavations in 2011–2012 at the Mission San Bernabé revealed European goods, nonnative animal species, and burial patterns that marked a new lifestyle. Who lived at the Mission San Bernabé, and where did they come from? The Spanish resettled indigenous populations to facilitate the colonization process; however, isotopic data are inconsistent with large population movements. Instead, strontium and oxygen isotope values in the tooth enamel and bones of individuals buried at the mission suggest a mostly local population. The data suggest in-migration from Belize, a region under nominal Spanish control, but with pre-Hispanic ties to the Peten. Changes did not come from migrants crossing a border; instead, the border itself moved and brought the colonial world to the Peten Mayas.

Investigations in the site core of Cahal Pech have recovered a range of data reflecting Terminal Classic Maya activity at this Belize Valley site. The materials, which were recovered in a tomb, a burial, and in epicentral plaza deposits, include a diverse assemblage of cultural remains including whole and partial vessels, projectile points, obsidian blade fragments, deer antlers, figurines, pottery flutes, spindle whorls, and jade beads. Similar deposits at other Maya sites in western Belize have been interpreted as evidence for de facto refuse or rapid abandonment. Contextual analyses of the Cahal Pech data suggest that the deposits are more likely associated with post-abandonment activity such as pilgrimage from the still-occupied periphery of the site.

Problematic deposits, containing different types of artifacts and skeletal remains, are typically recovered on or near the surfaces of the terminal phase of elite civic-ceremonial architecture at ancient Maya sites. These contexts often date to the Terminal Classic period (~a.d. 750–900). They have been variously interpreted as evidence for site abandonment, squatting, warfare, or dedication or termination rituals. Sixteen chert bifaces were recovered from problematic deposits at the bases of Structures A2 and A3 in the elite Plaza A at Cahal Pech, Belize. Stone tools from problematic deposits are rarely examined in significant detail. Based on stylistic, metric, and use-wear analyses, the bifaces were likely produced locally, used during important hunting or warfare activities, and then ritually deposited in the Terminal Classic. These bifaces were likely hafted to spearthrower darts and represented “success” at hunting or fighting. The recovery of weaponry in problematic deposits that is not the direct result of warfare is an important observation because Mayanists have generally interpreted their presence in these contexts as evidence of warfare. The fact that the points were recovered in groups of seven and nine may indicate that they had important symbolic meanings that connected them to supernatural or mythological places or entities.