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.

Classic period (c. AD 300–810) governance in the Southern Maya Lowlands was characterised by a system of divine kingship with paramount rulers. What constituted ideal governing systems, however, changed over time with greater emphasis placed on power-sharing by the Postclassic period (c. AD 1000–1521). Here, the authors document a colonnaded open hall at Ucanal, Guatemala, and explore its potential role as a council house and stage for civic engagement. It was constructed during the Terminal Classic period (c. AD 810–950/1000) in the wake of major political upheaval and provides early evidence for a turn toward more collective governing in Peten, Guatemala.

This article examines the sociopolitical evolution of Palenque and the Mensäbäk Basin, focusing on shifting models of organization from the Late Preclassic (300 BC–AD 250) to the Late Postclassic (AD 1250–1525). We argue that changes in access to ritual spaces and landscape-related ceremonies reflected broader transformations in Maya social organization as it made the transition from collective to less collective societies. The transformation from Preclassic to Postclassic occupations in the Mensäbäk Basin provides visible evidence of political and ideological shifts. Findings from Mensäbäk highlight the diversity of governance structures, showing that exclusionary and communal models varied based on spatial and temporal contexts.

One of the most significant engineering accomplishments of Maya civilization is Sacbe 1, a raised road connecting the ancient urban centers of Yaxuna and Coba. Using new lidar data in concert with excavation, epigraphic inscriptions, and landscape reconnaissance, we show that settlement and an urban experience emanated westward from Coba along the sacbe. The leaders of Coba—in particular, an ambitious seventh-century queen—used the sacbe to expand the political and cultural influence of their dynasty into the center of the peninsula while securing territory and resources. Gaps in the sacbe, precise delineation of its many curves, and examination of features near these curves call to mind several possible intentions governing its construction and use. Sites located along the causeway did not present significant barriers to the expansion of Coba. Sacbe 1 represents a uniquely urban space that expanded urban social networks into a rural hinterland while advancing state interests for territory and influence.

Due to the extractive nature of quarrying activities, quarry workers are relatively invisible within the archaeological record. Through a focus on quarry implements, we argue that scholars can identify the individuals involved in the quarrying process as well as evaluate the economic and political networks tied to the extraction of limestone resources. In the Maya region, studies of quarrying tools are evaluated based on contextual and use-wear studies; however, quarrying tools are frequently recovered from mixed assemblages. To increase the identification of quarry workers within the archaeological record, we advance a limestone-quarrier tool kit, which emerges from previous archaeological, experimental, and ethnoarchaeological research. We evaluate this toolkit using a case study from Xultun, Guatemala to consider the multiple sociopolitical identities held by Classic period Maya quarry workers.

Classic Maya burials are complex archaeological contexts, shaped by distinctive depositional and postdepositional activities. To address this complexity, mortuary archaeologists have increasingly adopted theoretical and methodological frameworks from archaeothanatology. This article applies an archaeothanatological approach to the analysis of 35 burials from Group IV, a nonroyal elite residential compound at the Classic Maya site of Palenque, Mexico. The study reveals a complex funerary sequence that includes predepositional body preparation, primary and secondary depositions, and postdepositional modifications, reflecting long-lasting relationships between the living and the dead. The results provide evidence for differential treatments. Protracted rituals were conducted around elaborate burials, although they rarely included secondary skeletal manipulation. Conversely, simpler stone graves underwent reopening and secondary manipulation, and a few individuals were buried directly into the soil. Despite their differences, these activities were materializations of beliefs, which underscored the centrality of ritual interaction with the dead in Classic Maya mortuary traditions. These patterns mirror broader ritual traditions at Palenque that involved the prolonged usage of ritual spaces and burials, as well as concerns about corpses’ decay.

Atop El Castillo, the largest pyramid within the Maya site of Chichen Itza, in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, stand two ruined columns that once portrayed the feathered serpent deity K’uk’ulkan. 3D-imaging technologies have identified scattered sculptural fragments belonging to these columns, allowing a digital reconstruction that opens new possibilities for their conservation.

This report discusses recent excavations in a residential neighborhood of Palenque and the broader implications of a preliminary analysis of chert and obsidian flaked stone. We argue that the high relative frequency of obsidian blades, chert drills, cores, and primary core shaping debitage from one residential group is evidence for multicrafting and intensified production beyond the immediate needs of the household.

This study of chipped chert and chalcedony tools discusses the household lithic economy at the Late Postclassic–Early Spanish Colonial (ca. AD 1400–1700) Maya site of San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize. It focuses on access to raw materials, tool types, tool production, tool use, and tool curation before and right after the arrival of the Spaniards.

This article describes a unique patolli board found in a large residential compound at the Classic period Maya site of Naachtun (Petén, Guatemala) and discusses its implications. While dozens of patolli engraved in stucco floors and benches are known, the example from Naachtun has divisions outlined with sherds inlaid in the fresh mortar. This way of creating the board may provide a fresh perspective on the way the game was played, as it indicates boards could be included in the architecture from the planning stage and also potentially have a long use life.

War, captives, and human sacrifice were parts of Late Postclassic (AD 1250–1524) Maya culture in highland Guatemala. Las Casas (1958:152) wrote that the supreme lord “put the heads of the sacrificed on some poles on a certain altar dedicated only to this, where they had these for some time, after which they buried them.” These cultural aspects show up in human remains excavated at Iximche’, the Kaqchikel Maya capital. Here, we integrate previously published and unpublished results of stable isotope analyses and explore their implications for diets and the geographic origins of individuals who were buried at the site on the eve of the Spanish conquest. Data from Iximche’ are compared with available results from other ancient Maya sites.

La Milpa, situated in northern Belize, stands out as one of the region's largest archaeological sites, having served as the capital of an ancient Maya city-state. Its significance is indicated by extensive monumental architecture, with the epicenter covering approximately 8.8 ha. The site's corpus of monuments, comprising 23 stelae and several altars, underscores its prominence in northern Belize, rivaling the corpora of sites such as Nim li Punit and Caracol. Despite its remote location, La Milpa has garnered the attention of researchers, particularly since the first modern survey of the site in 1988. Subsequent studies—in particular, that by Nikolai Grube in the 1990s—has provided detailed analyses of the site's corpus of carved monuments. Recent efforts, including epigraphic documentation in 2019, serve to enhance our understanding of La Milpa's dynastic history through traditional epigraphic and computational photographic methods. Utilizing field observations, raking light photography, and 3D photogrammetric models, we have refined previous analyses and provide new insights into the iconography and textual segments of the monuments. Here, we present the results of these recent efforts as well as our new analyses of a selection of monuments.

Jade has been long recognized by archaeologists as an important trade item among ancient Mesoamerican cultures, particularly for ancient Olmec and Maya cultures. Unfortunately, the precocious development of Olmec society led many early archaeologists to overemphasize Olmec influence on the Maya during the Formative period (ca. 1000–400 BC). This is particularly noteworthy in the attribution of tri-lobed jade “spoon” pendants to the Olmec despite the lack of archaeological evidence. Using a recently discovered tri-lobed jade “spoon” pendant from the site of Ka'kabish, Belize, and dated to the Middle Formative period (ca. 800–600 BC), this article argues that such pieces should not be unquestionably attributed to the Olmec. This argument is supported by correlation with similar objects from other secure archaeological contexts at Maya sites dating to the Middle Formative period. This article contends that using the ethnonym Olmec to describe these objects creates an a priori assumption that these objects originated in the Olmec region and were merely repurposed by the Maya and argues for a reinterpretation of the origin and meaning for these objects.

People are often assumed to expand existing mechanisms—kinship in particular—to include others when they form communities. These models (con)fuse similarity with sameness, as we argue based on Husserl's concept of empathy. People recognize others without overlooking differences. They form community by negotiating belonging. We ask how individuals materialize community, how they create unity in a political process, and how they employ bordering and bonding social interactions. Our case study is Dos Ceibas, a Late Preclassic (350 b.c. to a.d. 250) Maya hamlet in the Petexbatun region. The North Plaza originated as a residential group—possibly of the hamlet's founder—and was transformed over multiple construction episodes into a public and ceremonial place. By a.d. 250, Dos Ceibas consisted of a small pyramid overlooking a plaza and two likely residential buildings. Its growth pattern sets the North Plaza apart from nearby Group MP16 and magnified internal differences. At the same time, Dos Ceibas's pyramid and plaza were likely communal constructions that project a shared community identity. The comparison with contemporary settlements nearby identifies distinct settlement layouts and suggests localized community identities.

Crafting is often assumed to have been a ‘dirty’ and hence low-status activity: elites managed the supply of materials or distribution of the products, lower-status workers undertook the hard graft. Here, the authors present an in situ stoneworking toolkit from El Perú-Waka’ in the central Maya lowlands of Guatemala. Recovered from a high-status neighbourhood, the tools indicate the involvement of elite crafters in the working of various types of stone and greenstone. The assemblage is discussed with reference to ontological understandings of raw materials in the Maya world and the importance of specialised and ritual knowledge. The results encourage greater consideration of the involvement of elites in craft production across Mesoamerica and beyond.

This article presents some preliminary results of the first field season of 3D documentation of buildings, monuments, and portable artifacts from the archaeological site of Dzibanche in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Documentation took place at Dzibanche, in the INAH regional research center in Chetumal, and in the Maya Museum of Cancun. Part of the resultant corpus of imagery and inscriptions has not been previously disseminated in academic literature. The analysis of published texts and iconography has benefited from higher resolution and visualization tools made possible by 3D digitization. The presentation proposes several updates to the published interpretations of Dzibanche monuments, and it highlights how new additions to the corpus expand our understanding of Dzibanche's political history and ideology.

The article presents the results of the last decade of archaeological and epigraphic research, which clarified the history of the polities of the ancient Maya sites of Holmul and Naranjo during the expansion of the Dzibanche royal dynasty in the eastern area of the Department of Peten, Guatemala, from the second half of the sixth century through the first half of the seventh century a.d. The discussion centers on the textual and material indicators of the geopolitical contacts of the royal families of Sak Chuwen of Naranjo and Chak Tok Wayaab of Holmul, including changes in polychrome pottery and hieroglyphic inscriptions, in particular, rhetoric of good governance and political loyalty. In the case of Holmul, the transformation affects the urban landscape of the site. New data clarify the relationship between Holmul and Naranjo during the initial period of their subordination to the kings of Dzibanche. The emerging picture of these secondary alliances and hierarchies within the Kaanu'l domain is essential for a better understanding of Classic Maya political systems at local and regional levels.

The Kaanuˀl dynasty ruled a hegemonic state with political influence over much of the Classic Maya Lowlands between a.d. 520 and 751. The present article introduces the subject for a special section of the journal, which refocuses attention on the archaeological zone of Dzibanche in southern Quintana Roo, Mexico, where new data are emerging about the origins of the Kaanuˀl dynasty, its urban organization, and its connections to neighboring centers. In this article, we present new data from a recent lidar survey as well as from previous work by Enrique Nalda's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) project to reevaluate Dzibanche's characteristics vis-à-vis its rise as a kingdom with far-reaching political influence. We complement these archaeological data with epigraphic information from new monuments and reanalysis of existing ones based on 3D scanning to update the list of Dzibanche rulers. We then revisit the chronology of Dzibanche's royal burials proposing correlations with known Early Classic Kaanuˀl rulers. Overall, the contributions to this special section present new perspectives on the Kaanuˀl's rise to power and its relationship with distant vassals in the crucial period of expansion into northern Peten, leading to the defeat of Tikal and eventually to its transition to a new dynastic seat at Calakmul in the a.d. 630s.