The Chicha Soras valley on the boundary of Ayacucho with Apurimac in south-central Peru sees the introduction of intensive irrigated terraced agriculture in the Middle Horizon. The control over the water sources and the terracing systems fell to corporate lineage groups laying claim to common ancestors, viewed as being the founders of the local irrigation systems. The control over these systems and the rights of the respective lineages to land and water was expressed in the placement of ancestral tomb locations across the local landscape. This article demonstrates that ancestor-based organization of water sources was long lived across the area and survived the large-scale demographic and sociopolitical disruptions resulting from the Spanish conquest and the imposition of Christian belief systems.

Analysis of the projectile points from the Arroyo Seco 2 site allows us to evaluate their design and use from the Early to the Late Holocene in the Pampas region. The Arroyo Seco 2 projectile points are associated with events of interpersonal violence as well as hunting. Based on the techno-morphological and typological analysis and the interpretation of weapon systems, it enables us to establish differences and similarities of several point designs. The results are integrated with projectile point information from other sites in the eastern Pampas to develop a chronological sequence from the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene of projectile designs that were used throughout the period.

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.

This article presents the results of the first diachronic study of obsidian procurement patterns in the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific coast of Central America; it sheds light on the integration of the region in long-distance exchange systems. This study is based on portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF) analysis of all 713 obsidian artifacts collected from Terminal Classic and Postclassic contexts on Tigre Island, Honduras, and of 54 additional obsidian artifacts from two sites on the south coast of Honduras that are housed in museum collections. Analysis of obsidian artifacts collected in the excavation of the earlier occupation of the site of La Tigüilotada (AD 800–1200) on Tigre Island revealed the predominance of Ixtepeque obsidian and the lesser presence of Güinope obsidian. Obsidian artifacts from excavations of the reoccupation of La Tigüilotada (AD 1300–1500) and of the site of Gualorita (AD 1400–1550) relied almost exclusively on La Esperanza obsidian. Least-cost path analysis shows likely riverine routes connecting all three sources to the Gulf. We contextualize these results within prior obsidian sourcing studies from the region and conclude that precolonial island settlements took part in different transference networks from their mainland counterparts.

This article applies mathematical knot theory to the study of Andean khipus—knotted cord records, widely known for their use by the Inka empire (ca. AD 1400–1532). Despite more than 100 years of extensive study, a comprehensive understanding of the relationships and properties of different khipu knots has yet to be established. Addressing this gap, this article formalizes khipu knot relationships through the lens of mathematical knot theory, focusing on (1) common khipu knot variations that lead to misidentifications, (2) potential insights into khipu construction and data-encoding processes, and (3) the functional properties that certain knot variations offered to khipukamayuqs (khipu specialists). This article highlights the importance of recognizing topologically equivalent knots, which are visually distinct yet are structurally identical, and explores how variations of the same knot type could be used to encode or modify meaning. Notably, it reveals that several common knot forms can be transformed into visually distinct variations or other common forms without untying them, offering new perspectives on the versatility and complexity of khipus and knotted objects more broadly.

This article presents the results of a contextual analysis of graffiti found in Substructure II-B at the Maya city of Calakmul. The final use of this space was for the burial of an important Kanu’l lord, whose identity—as shown by a recent analysis of the Long Count date inscribed as part of the graffiti—seems to be that of Yukno’m Ch’een II. My analysis of the frequency of appearance of different categories of graffiti within the structure, compared to the frequency of the same categories within the total set of graffiti recorded in the Maya area, suggests that the main objective of its creators was the ritual reconditioning of this space: they wished to make it more suitable for the entombment of the ruler, through its aesthetic modification, in what constitutes an example of placemaking. The inclusion of images of deities associated with death, rebirth, abundance, and kingship reconfigured the room and transformed it into a sacred space in which the burial process could be properly carried out. Analyzing the graffiti in the context in which they are located allows us to better understand the intentionality of its creators.

This article identifies a lunar day count in Zapotec inscriptions at Monte Alban. The lunar records that are accompanied by dates in the Mesoamerican 52-year cycle make it possible to determine intervals between recorded events. Seven placements of the resulting series of intervals in absolute time are consistent with dates of the lunar crescent’s first visibility at Monte Alban between 650 and 50 BCE; just one is also consistent with the seventeenth-century Zapotec calendar. The data show that Zapotec divinatory calendar dates likely began around noon, as in the sixteenth century, and that the return of the year-bearer on the year’s 261st day was celebrated in the afternoon by 222 BCE.

La espelunca La Espiral, en la provincia Artemisa, presenta varias pinturas de las que sobresalen círculos concéntricos y una espiral. Para conocer la composición química de sus pinturas y obtener la fracción orgánica, que resulta la más difícil de estudiar a causa del comprensible proceso de degradación en el tiempo, se emplearon la microscopía electrónica de barrido y microanálisis de energía dispersiva por rayos-X, la microespectroscopía Raman y la cromatografía de gases acoplada a espectrometría de masas. El estudio nos muestra una comunidad de bajos niveles productivos con la capacidad técnica de crear una mezcla compleja con huevo, leche, ácido elágico y, como colorante principal, guano de murciélago. El hallazgo de residuos de aminoácidos de triptófano de huevo y leche en la mezcla pictórica resulta la primera evidencia arqueológica concreta del empleo de ambos productos en Cuba y las Antillas. Se propone la propuesta de la posible cadena operativa vinculada a la preparación de la pintura, a una aproximación a la inversión laboral y al número de miembros implicados en la ejecución de los gestos técnicos. Se teoriza sobre la relevante presencia femenina en su manufactura.

Este trabajo tiene un doble objetivo, por un lado, profundizar el estudio de las prácticas alimentarias y la dieta de las poblaciones que habitaron la costa sur de la Laguna Mar Chiquita, mediante el análisis de microrrestos vegetales en contenedores cerámicos y, por otro, conocer las modalidades de producción de dichos objetos, en vínculo con estas prácticas culinarias, desde una perspectiva tecnológica. Para ello, se analizaron 34 fragmentos, procedentes de los sitios El Diquecito e Isla Orihuela Playa Sudeste, correspondientes al Holoceno tardío. Entre los artefactos identificados se encuentran vasijas simples y compuestas, abiertas y cerradas. Los análisis permitieron identificar tanto especies vegetales silvestres (algarrobo, chañar y Arecaceae) como cultivadas (maíz, zapallo o calabaza, porotos, papa y mandioca), evidenciando una notable diversidad en las plantas seleccionadas y el uso de recipientes específicos según las preparaciones. Este abordaje multidisciplinar integra información arqueobotánica y tecnológica sobre los recipientes cerámicos, sus formas, usos y funciones, contribuyendo a comprender los modos de vida y prácticas cotidianas de estas poblaciones cazadoras-recolectoras-horticultoras, destacando su interacción con las plantas en las llanuras cordobesas.

In Mesoamerica ceramics are used to define spatial and chronological units of past social, political, and economic activities. Here we compare results on ceramics subjected to type-variety classification, INAA and thin-section petrography, and symmetry analysis of design structure. The samples are primarily from sites in the Lake Pátzcuaro and Zacapu Basins in central and northern Michoacán from the Late Preclassic to the Late Postclassic periods (200 BC–AD 1522). We offer this analysis as a test case that introduces and compares the results of symmetry analysis with the more familiar typological and paste analyses. We explore how each approach monitors the timing and rate of sociocultural stability and change, as well as the kinds of social processes that each method documents.

Over the history of Maya studies, archaeologists have proposed various models for the structure of Maya settlements and their use of the landscape. The introduction of lidar to Maya studies, and the wealth of data this technology yielded, has many of these ideas coming under renewed study. Some of the most prominent models discussed in the last two decades have centered on low-density agrarian urbanism and forest gardens. Using settlement studies, lidar data, and hydrological analysis, this article discusses the applicability of these models for the ancient Maya at Lamanai and Ka’kabish, and more generally, Northern Belize. The Maya in the periphery at Lamanai developed wetland management strategies by capitalizing on natural drainage next to seasonally inundated swamps, or bajos. Evidence suggests that the Maya sustained large populations by using channels at the edge of bajos for field systems. These systems may be key to understanding their sustainability in the past.

In this article we present and contextualize a potential example of early Mesoamerican dot numeration on a fragmentary Middle Preclassic ceramic figurine dating to 750–650 cal BC from the site of La Blanca, San Marcos, Guatemala. We begin with a brief discussion of numerical systems and their relationship to developments in early writing and graphic notation. We then situate the few known examples of Mesoamerican numeration that predate the Late Preclassic (300 BC–AD 250) period. From there, we pivot to the early urban center of La Blanca and its robust figurine tradition before turning our attention to the series of dots that mark this small ceramic object. We argue that this unique fragmentary figurine hints at the relationship between numeration, bodies, and identity in ancient Mesoamerican worldviews.

New Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates from archived samples from the site of Ch’uxuqullu, excavated 30 years ago on the Island of the Sun, Bolivia, provide a more precise and older chronology for human occupation. The first occupation began in the middle of the fourth millennium BC, considerably earlier than previously known. The site area was continually in use from at least 3500 BC up to around 160 BC. This new data, in conjunction with work in the last two decades, provides new insights into the archaeology of the lake region. The first use of pottery on the island is now refined with greater precision than previously proposed. We also know that watercraft technology began a millennium earlier than originally suggested. We report on these new dates and briefly discuss their implications for archaeological models of exchange and sedentism in the circum-Titicaca Basin.

The Incas territorial expansion process was motivated not only by ideological, political, and economic factors but also involved the ritual integration of ancient sanctuaries through capacocha offerings. Notable examples include the Sacred Rock (Roca Sagrada) of the Island of the Sun (Lake Titicaca) and the Oracle of Pachacamac (Lurín Valley). The antiquity of these two sanctuaries, combined with their roles as destinations for imperial-scale pilgrimages during the Inca period, underscore their significance and uniqueness and the role of the capacocha ritual to connecting places into the Inca world. The material correlates associated with numerous capacocha rituals recorded in the Andes demonstrate that this ritual adhered to standardized conventions and criteria. The canonical archaeological remains of capacocha are characterized by human sacrifices and specific offerings, particularly anthropomorphic figurines made of precious metals or Spondylus. The absence of human corpses in certain contexts can be attributed to taphonomic factors but also to ritual adaptations specific to the locations where they were discovered. In this article, we develop this adaptive model for two of the major sites of Inca cosmology: Lake Titicaca and Pachacamac, emphasizing their close connection to Cuzco, the imperial capital and center of the Inca world.

La reciente excavación arqueológica efectuada en el centro provincial inka de Tambo Viejo, en el valle de Acarí, Perú, resultó en el hallazgo de una pequeña construcción de forma rectangular y semisubterránea. En su interior encontramos hojas y semillas de coca en asociación con arena limpia. Esta evidencia sugiere que la pequeña construcción sirvió para el almacenamiento de las hojas de coca, las que habían sido cubiertas con arena limpia para garantizar su preservación. La arena tiene propiedades térmicas que crean condiciones relativamente frías y que son óptimas para la preservación de productos orgánicos.

In this study, we analyzed a set of translucent green stones found at the Panamanian archaeological sites of El Caño and Sitio Conte. To characterize the samples, we used optical microscopy, portable X-ray fluorescence, UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, FTIR, and photoluminescence. These analyses identify the stones as emeralds and reveal geochemical signatures consistent with a Colombian origin. We then conducted a comparative stylistic technological assessment using cluster analysis, which included samples from Panama and other regions of the Isthmo-Colombian Area, as well as Ecuador. This analysis indicates that artisans modified some emeralds locally, while others may have arrived as finished or partially worked objects. Our findings validate the existence of complex interregional exchange networks in the Isthmo-Colombian Area between the eighth and tenth centuries AD. Within this context, the chiefdoms associated with the archaeological sites of El Caño and Sitio Conte (ca. AD 800–1000) played a significant role in stimulating regional trade relationships.

Un oficial del ejército chileno relata que en 1879 los atacameños (o Lickanantay; actuales comunidades indígenas del interior de la región de Antofagasta, norte de Chile) realizaban procesiones al volcán Licancabur todos los años. Contrastando este relato, nos propusimos investigar el camino de peregrinación que utilizaban desde el pueblo de San Pedro de Atacama hasta dicho centro ceremonial. Entregamos aquí los resultados iniciales de esta investigación y evaluamos la profundidad cronológica de las peregrinaciones a las altas montañas, las que hasta ahora se han considerado una práctica originada con el estado Inka (ca. 500 aP), como el caso del rito de la Capacocha. Si bien nuestros datos son preliminares, son concluyentes en mostrar que las prácticas peregrinas andinas a las montañas son milenarias y que se desarrollaron desde hace unos 3.300 años, continuando hasta fines del siglo diecinueve en el caso del Licancabur. En la actualidad, sin embargo, no hemos logrado dar con ningún registro ni memoria oral que dé cuenta de procesiones desde los oasis sanpedrinos al volcán, develando una notable amnesia histórica colectiva, provocada en gran parte por la reciente delimitación de las fronteras estados-nacionales después de la Guerra del Pacífico.

Se presentan los detalles del rescate de una tumba parcialmente saqueada, localizada al pie del Jasi Hablador —un gran paredón de areniscas terciarias, ubicado al norte del Departamento de Belén, Catamarca, Argentina—, y los primeros avances en el análisis de los materiales recuperados. Fue posible rescatar más de 30 fragmentos de textiles, abundantes restos óseos humanos —algunos con tejidos blandos— y distintos materiales arqueobotánicos secos. Una datación radiocarbónica sobre una muestra textil arrojó una fecha para mediados del siglo quince dC, coincidente con la ocupación inka en la región. A partir de estos primeros resultados, se discute la relación de este espacio funerario con el paisaje del Jasi Hablador en el contexto más amplio de la conquista inka. La preservación de los materiales orgánicos en el sitio es excepcional para la región, por lo cual, la continuidad de estos estudios aportará información de gran relevancia sobre los vínculos entre los grupos locales y el imperio inka.

The fall of Teotihuacan, associated with the internal revolt and the AD 550–570 “Great Fire,” shook Mesoamerica. Demographic displacements and military competition between sites were all characteristics of the subsequent Epiclassic period. This section will review data from my project “The Study of Tunnels and Caves in Teotihuacan (1987–1996),” behind the Pyramid of the Sun. Two of the four tunnels were extensively excavated and, for the first time, provide substantial evidence of subsistence, domestic and craft activities, and a vast array of ritual contexts from Epiclassic and Postclassic groups living at Teotihuacan. Radiocarbon samples from activity areas were analyzed with Bayesian statistics, providing the chronology for the Coyotlatelco occupation between ca. AD 640 and 820; the transition between Coyotlatelco/Mazapa by ca. AD 890–940; the Mazapa occupation between AD 940 and 1230; then a hiatus followed by the Aztec III occupation by ca. AD 1390–1460. Chemical analyses of activity areas in the Varillas Tunnel provided a different perspective for the study of activities. The presence of clear occupational levels and activity areas allowed us to reconstruct the life of post-Teotihuacan groups, with a large quantity and variety of ecofacts, human and faunal burials, and different types of instruments and complete objects.