This study examines the relationship between the Long Count and emergent kingship in the central Maya Lowlands. The Long Count was instrumental in the prosperity of lowland Maya kingship during the Classic period (ca. a.d. 250–900), yet its initial application in relation to the emergence of kingship remains poorly understood. We conducted epigraphic, iconographic, and archaeological research at the Maya site of El Palmar, Campeche, Mexico. By integrating traditional and new techniques, including photogrammetry and high-resolution 3D scanning, we studied El Palmar Stelae 20, 45, and 46. Notably, our study of Stela 46 identified a Long Count 8.7.1.0.0 (a.d. 180), which is currently the earliest known Long Count in the Maya Lowlands. Unlike other early monuments, Stela 46 preserves royal events alongside calendar dates. The 3D models revealed previously unknown inscriptions that link royal succession to calendrical events, providing insights into the role of the 260-day divinatory calendar and the Long Count in asserting royal authority through ritual practices. By contextualizing these results within the broader framework of lowland Maya kingship, this research not only elucidates the emergence of El Palmar kingship but also enriches our understanding of regional dynamics during this transformative period.

This article examines Group G, a commoner household at the Classic-period Maya site of Chinikihá (a.d. 200–900), to explore how daily practices, household rituals, and architectural histories intersected within domestic space. Excavations revealed well-preserved architecture, including a patio, kitchen, and dwelling, with evidence of construction events, ritual offerings, and long-term maintenance. Soil chemical analyses identified signatures of food preparation, consumption, and maintenance activities through residues of phosphates, proteins, fatty acids, and carbohydrates, alongside charcoal and paleoethnobotanical remains. Combined with botanical evidence such as Guadua (bamboo) and pine (Pinus sp.), these results underscore the importance of kitchens, patios, and altars as spaces of production, memory, and ritual practice. Residues preserved in floors and surfaces provide intimate insights into daily activities while situating households within broader cultural and cosmological frameworks. By focusing on a non-ruling-elite domestic group, this research highlights the resilience of Indigenous technologies and practices and their enduring continuity into modern Maya communities, contributing to broader discussions on social organization, identity, and tradition in ancient Mesoamerica.

Las antiguas élites mayas jugaban a la pelota. Esta acción y las actividades asociadas se enfatizan para complementar las interpretaciones simbólicas de estudios anteriores. Basándose en la teoría de conjuntos, se discute cómo las interacciones recurrentes y causales institucionalizaron el juego de pelota. Los análisis multiescalares y multidimensionales permiten estudiar las relaciones parasociales, asimétricas y co-constitutivas entre los jugadores, el público y la cancha. En el este de las tierras bajas mayas, se encuentra el centro de Tzikin Tzakan, donde se documentaron dos canchas de juego de pelota. Debajo de la parte de las superficies originales de la cancha oeste, se encontraron varias capas de lascas de pedernal. Su presencia infiere la furia y el dolor que ocurría durante el juego de pelota. Los nobles jugaban sabiendo que sufrirían y hasta podrían fallecer. Se documentó un basurero que probablemente refleja las fiestas asociadas al juego y que apunta al rol del público en crear y gozar un espectáculo. Comparadas con 50 canchas cercanas, las canchas de juego de pelota de Tzikin Tzakan destacan por su orientación, su forma y sus dimensiones. Sus características regionalmente únicas y localmente compartidas ejemplifican el juego de pelota como una totalidad emergente.

The idea that nobles could embody deities through impersonation was crucial to representations of power among the Classic-period Maya (a.d. 250–900). The final section of the Sabana Piletas Hieroglyphic Stairway (Campeche, Mexico), featuring a tripartite record of deity impersonation, is one of the clearest Late Classic manifestations of this tradition. However, the third impersonation formula has remained difficult to read, hindering its integration into broader discussions. This article offers a new epigraphic analysis, focusing on the three impersonated deities and the prepositional constructions that mark the contexts of impersonation. This article identifies the third deity as a form of Jun Ajaw whose impersonation emphasizes the ballgame, complementing two other impersonations that foreground warfare (the Sun God) and lordship (the Water Serpent). Comparing this passage to parallels on the Cuychen vase (Belize) and the Xultun murals (Guatemala), I argue that such groupings of impersonation formulae serve to conceptually demarcate key aspects of rulership. With its unique triplet of extended impersonation formulae, the Sabana Piletas inscription exemplifies how Late Classic texts could use impersonation to articulate what it meant to be a ruler, notably placing the ballgame in the same ideological register as waging war and governing.

This work compares the use of palace diplomacy and propaganda by the rulers of Constantinople and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. It builds on studies of the cultural exchange between the Roman and Sasanian empires from the third to sixth centuries a.d., which led to a diplomatic protocol shared by these two realms. This protocol and Liudprand of Cremona’s account of diplomatic receptions are the basis for comparative analysis. Drawing on Hernando Alvarado Tezozómoc’s Crónica Mexicana and other sixteenth-century sources, this study identifies key characteristics of diplomacy in Mesoamerica. It explores how Mexico-Tenochtitlan employed palace diplomacy and propaganda from the reign of Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina to Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin. Through this analysis, we find that the diplomatic and propaganda objectives of Constantinople and Mexico-Tenochtitlan had distinct focuses. The Byzantine rulers aimed to maintain their existing empire, while the Tenochca rulers sought not only to preserve but also to expand their domain. As a result, Constantinople’s strategy emphasized palace diplomacy, whereas Mexico-Tenochtitlan’s focused more on propaganda. Despite these differences, both approaches share several similarities. Both began with invitations, and their protocols included the same components: visual (architecture, wealth, and terror), ceremonial (including aural, olfactory, gustatory, ludic, haptic, somatic, and terror elements), and diplomatic (interviews and gift exchanges).

This article reinterprets the reverse of the Codex Cospi, a Postclassic Central Mexican manuscript. Challenging long-standing views that the iconography in its plates refers to hunting rituals or protective ceremonies against poisonous animals, the article argues that they instead record ritual protocols for the presentation of offerings to divine effigies enshrined in temples. Through a comparison with other codices, archaeological data, and historical sources, the article proposes that the anthropomorphic figures depict temple images of deities, while the surrounding elements encode offerings of blood, aromatic, and coloring substances intended to be deposited before these images in prescribed quantities and sequences. Situating this imagery within Mesoamerican practices of communication with the divine, the article suggests that the reverse of the Codex Cospi functioned as a ritual manual complementing its divinatory obverse. Finally, it considers the possibility that the reverse has been produced in the workshop of a modest, possibly rural community, thereby illuminating the social context of this rare manuscript.

The archaeological site of Edzna, located in the Peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico, provides insights into the ways in which ancient Maya used sound in ceremonial activities, and serves as evidence for the architectural and acoustic ability developed by ancient societies. This study employs data from acoustic measurements at key Edzna locations such as the Main Plaza, Great and Small Acropolises, to explore sound propagation in these areas. This research analyzes acoustic data using techniques to better understand this archaeological site as a dynamic space that offers profound insights into the interplay of sound, space, and society. The findings reveal that its architecture was probably designed to enhance auditory experiences, from public ceremonies to private meetings. The data show that sound played a crucial role in Maya societal and political functions, and archaeological evidence, including hieroglyphs, stelae, and sound-making instruments, supports this interpretation. The methodological approach, involving rigorous acoustic measurements and data analysis, underscores the impact of environmental factors such as wind and temperature on sound propagation. This research contributes to a broader understanding of ancient Maya culture and its integration of acoustics into architectural and ceremonial contexts.

I present a proposal for the identification of the deities that appear in Glyph C of the Maya Lunar Series as the patrons of the Moon’s phases, based in two arguments. First, there are two cosmological narratives associated with the phases of the Moon. In the first, the Moon dies and is reborn at each new Moon. The waxing phase would be ruled by the Lunar Maize God whom is born just before the first visible crescent, and the Lunar Death God would rule over the waning Moon dying during the last crescent, remaining dead during the Moon’s invisibility period. Second the Moon transforms into a night Sun during the full Moon, which would be represented by the Lunar Jaguar God of the Underworld. This deity would govern over the days around the full Moon, as the nocturnal Sun. The second argument is that, as the calendar controlled by Glyph C was used, at least loosely, to predict eclipses, that occur during the new and the full Moon, and because these syzygies are governed by the proposed deities, the control realm of these gods was extended over the Glyph C semesters, to differentiate them, and reinforce their relationship to eclipses.

Cruz de la Boca (CDB) is a major Epiclassic hilltop center in northern Mesoamerica, located in the transitional zone between sedentary and mobile lifeways. Fieldwork in 2001–2002 by an INAH Zacatecas team mapped architecture, construction techniques, and surface materials in the site’s nuclear zone. Systematic pedestrian survey, total station mapping, remote sensing, and GIS documented more than 15 hectares of monumental and domestic architecture. In a region where only a few hilltop centers—such as Alta Vista, La Quemada, and La Ferrería—have been mapped to comparable standards, this article places Cruz de la Boca among the best-documented sites on the northern frontier. We highlight sunken patio compounds and smaller, hut-like Loma San Gabriel (LSG)-type foundations on outer benches, treating their spatial relations as a form of social stratigraphy. Topography, architecture, and controlled excavation of a looting pit provide stratigraphic, funerary, ceramic, and lithic data situating CDB within the Alta Vista phase (ca. a.d. 600–900). We argue that CDB refocuses the Loma San Gabriel problem by showing how lighter-built peripheral residences related spatially and socially to a Chalchihuites-style monumental core.

Recent research has identified numerous distinctive architectural complexes in the central and western Maya Lowlands. Characterized by concentric arrays of low structures, these assemblages are consistent with Conquest-period descriptions of central Mexican marketplaces. Predominantly dating to the Classic period (ca. a.d. 250–900), they are also remarkably similar to the East Plaza of Tikal and the Chiik Nahb complex at Calakmul, both interpreted as markets based on multiple lines of evidence. The low, narrow, elongated mounds arranged in concentric circles or rectangles are likely remnants of platforms that once supported perishable stalls for displaying goods, with the intervening aisles functioning as walkways. Associated major structures and annexed courtyards may have accommodated administrative authorities or served as storage facilities. Stone altars and shrine remains within these complexes, along with the occasional presence of ballcourts and ceremonial buildings, align with well-documented religious and ritual aspects of Mesoamerican trade. While further research will undoubtedly detect more of these nested constructions, their distribution appears to be geographically limited. Since the available evidence strongly suggests that they represent a regional variant of ancient Maya built markets, this study also explores their distribution in relation to major trade routes, environmental constraints, and regional economic specializations.

Proponemos un ajuste a la secuencia cronológica del Laja Alto, establecida originalmente por Braniff (1972). El resultado del ajuste es una cronología que inicia cuatro siglos más tarde que la propuesta inicial. La principal implicación de este ajuste es que muestra la invalidez de las propuestas que han considerado al tipo San Miguel Rojo sobre Bayo del río Laja como un proto Coyotlatelco o proto tolteca, que funcionaría como indicador de migraciones masivas del norte al centro de Mesoamérica. El ajuste a la cronología del Laja Alto y el reciente ajuste a la cronología de la región de Tula (Healan et al. 2021) muestran que el San Miguel Rojo sobre Bayo y el Rojo sobre Bayo Coyotlatelco aparecen de manera sincrónica en ambas regiones y su presencia se debe no a una migración masiva norte–centro sino a otro tipo de interacción social entre regiones donde el factor clave parece ser Teotihuacan. Por otro lado, existe suficiente evidencia empírica para proponer la correlación de la zona arqueológica Cañada de la Virgen con Colhuacan Chicomoztoc, el lugar de origen nahua norteño y santuario de peregrinación multi-étnico referido en las fuentes históricas de diferentes pueblos.

This article attempts to clarify the nature and structure of the Nahua otherworlds. It follows in the footsteps of scholars who have demonstrated the inaccuracy of the Sahaguntine view of the Nahua destinations of the dead. The article begins by analyzing multiple Mesoamerican alphabetic and graphic accounts of journeys to the world beyond, and concludes that the Nahua divided their supernatural dimension into two parts, classified by the numbers eight and nine. “Eight” described a realm of communication with the gods, while “nine”—a realm of destruction and subsequent transformation into new life. Next, the article proposes that concepts such as Mictlan, Tlalocan, or Tonatiuh Ichan, traditionally understood as supernatural “regions,” were conceptual domains, each related to a particular space, time, gods, attributes, and potential actions. The article analyzes four of such domains, all related to the metamorphoses of Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: Tlillan Tlapallan, Tlahuizcalli, Itzmictlan, and Chiucnauhnepaniuhcan. This analysis not only leads to a new way of understanding the Nahua otherworlds as a whole. It also sheds light on the life cycle of the key Nahua god and his mysterious “destination,” Tlillan Tlapallan.

In 2005, McCafferty and Steinbrenner presented new radiocarbon dates from Santa Isabel to challenge the traditional ceramic sequence for the Postclassic of Pacific Nicaragua. Since then, several projects have generated more data, such that a new chronology and cultural sequence can now be suggested. In this article we present 79 chronometric dates from 19 sites, representing a 1,500-year temporal span. This new scheme is divorced from the existing chronology of the “Greater Nicoya” region that includes both Pacific Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica because of perceived distinctions in ceramic types (and other cultural traits). It also facilitates better comparisons with cultural traditions of greater Mesoamerica, especially the development of the Mixteca-Puebla stylistic tradition.

Se presentan fragmentos de la biografía de la Estela 6 de Aguateca depositada desde hace casi 45 años en el Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, ubicado a 6.000 km de su lugar de origen en la selva de Guatemala. La investigación sintetiza la historia de la estela desde su descubrimiento hasta su estado actual a través del estudio de archivos inéditos, entrevistas, publicaciones y un análisis imagenológico. Los resultados muestran que la estela fue mutilada en varias partes y trozada de distintas maneras para sacarla desde el sitio arqueológico y transportarla hacia Chile mediante métodos y técnicas características de los “esteleros” locales y con la ayuda de las redes internacionales del mercado del arte precolombino. Se repasan las cicatrices y reparaciones de la estela en tanto evidencia material de dichas prácticas ligadas al coleccionismo. Los resultados invitan a reflexionar acerca de cómo ciertos museos ocultan la historia reciente de las piezas que resguardan y exhiben como una manera de omitir algunos de los capítulos más oscuros y reprochables de la historia del legado material de las culturas nativas de América.

Studies of pottery production and exchange under the Mexica (Aztec) empire have emphasized the role of elites, the constraints created by the market system, or the effects of persistent regionalism in shaping economic patterns. We build on those studies by emphasizing the role of commoners and how their decisions and strategies shaped pottery production and exchange after the formation of the Mexica empire. We present a neutron activation analysis of 111 pottery samples from Xaltocan, including a variety of decorated and undecorated serving vessels and utilitarian pottery from contexts that date to the Mexica empire. The chemical composition of the pottery indicates production of different types at Xaltocan, Cuauhtitlan, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Otumba, Chalco, and the southern basin of Mexico. While some types were produced at a variety of locales, a few of the types sampled were produced only or mostly at Xaltocan, including Red Ware, Aztec Polychrome, and Fabric Marked pottery. The findings suggest that commoners were actively copying or producing different types without elite or Mexica control, and that perhaps they preferred to use some locally produced types instead of pottery made elsewhere. The findings show the power of commoners in shaping their economic lives even under imperial control.