In 1997, the Chan Chich Archaeological Project excavated a Terminal Preclassic/Early Classic period Maya tomb at Chan Chich, Belize. Tomb 2 represents the earliest royal tomb in the Three Rivers Region of the east-central Yucatan Peninsula and has striking similarities to Burial 85 at Tikal, the tomb of the dynastic founder Yax Ehb' Xook. This paper describes Tomb 2 and its contents and considers its significance within the context of the significant political and cultural changes that marked the transition from the Late Preclassic to the Early Classic period. We argue that the tomb is an early example of a regional expression of elite competition for status and power in the Central Lowlands that included the use of a subcomplex of ceramics and exotic artifacts to express prestige. Tomb 2 is also an example of an early royal burial pattern that may be more widespread than believed but has been overlooked due to excavation bias.

This article examines rural social differentiation in Chunhuayum, Yucatan, a rural village continuously occupied from approximately 800 b.c.–a.d. 1000. Focusing on the late Early Classic (a.d. 400/500–600/630), a time when other settlements of the Uci polity experienced political and population disruptions, I examine how households shaped and expressed local social differentiation, particularly wealth, occupation, and social connectivity. Residential architecture provides the most salient marker of wealth differences at Chunhuayum, while ceramic, shell, and obsidian assemblages indicate that households also varied in terms of their occupations and external social networks. Within this predominantly agrarian village, two households attempted to improve their economic and immaterial well-being through locally innovative strategies—shell crafting and group-oriented ritual orchestration. Such strategies ultimately had different outcomes both for the household and community. These points underscore the heterogeneity of the rural ancient rural Maya, and that social differentiation was actively constructed by rural people rather than a trickling-down of the normative hierarchical social order. Through habituated practice and innovative action, Chunhuayum's Early Classic residents continued participating in external networks while shaping locally meaningful relations of differences.

Changes in the nature of social stratification and economic organization during the history of the urban center of Teotihuacan are charted using information from the residential compound of Tlajinga 33. This lower-class, artesanal compound yielded evidence of craft specialization and mortuary patterns that allow investigation of changes in economic specialization and differentiation of internal status through time. From the mortuary evidence it appears that Tlajinga 33 became poorer and reduced its internal status divisions from Early Tlamimilolpa to Late Xolalpan-Metepec times. The craft specialization of the residents changed from one of probable autonomy to one where the compound contributed to a neighborhood specialization. These changes support evidence from other researchers that Teotihuacan became more rigid in organization and socially stratified through time. The urban society was thus characterized by social and economic change during its apogee.

Altica's location in the Patlachique Range, 10 km away from the Otumba obsidian source, suggests its potential role in the distribution of Otumba obsidian. Altica may have been an important Formative middleman and processing site for obsidian exchange within the Basin of Mexico. To the south, Coapexco's position along a natural, restricted inlet to the Basin of Mexico may have enabled it to function as a node for pooling and distributing material into the Basin. This paper combines geochemical sourcing and technological data drawn from several Early and Middle Formative obsidian assemblages to reconstruct the movement of obsidian in this period to identify obsidian sources and consumption sites. In doing so, the paper assesses the role that intermediary sites like Altica and Coapexco could have played in the processing and distribution of obsidian into more distant consumption sites.

This paper examines various lines of evidence for the classification and linguistic affiliation of writing at Late Preclassic Kaminaljuyu. The linguistic evidence for the ethnic composition of the Maya highlands and Pacific slopes during the Late Preclassic period points to contact among Ch'olan-Tzeltalan, Greater K'iche'an, and other non-Mayan languages, and to a dominant political economic role of Ch'olan-Tzeltalan. The epigraphic evidence supports classifying the script together with the Lowland Mayan script, and separately from the Epi-Olmec script, and hints at the presence of uniquely Ch'olan traits, some of which have been pointed out by other authors. A comparison with contemporaneous texts of unambiguous Lowland Mayan (Ch'olan or Yukatekan) affiliation suggests an overlap of orthographic, calligraphic, and semantic traits. Both lines of evidence support the hypotheses that Ch'olan-Tzeltalan speakers were the innovators of the Maya script, and that such a development perhaps took place in the Maya highlands. At the very least, the evidence points to a much closer relationship between the Maya highlands and lowlands during the Late Preclassic than previously thought.

The Santa Isabel Project (Nicaragua) is investigating domestic remains from a supposed Postclassic/Ometepe-period regional center on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. However, a suite of twelve C-14 dates from the site suggests that the occupation predates the currently accepted time range for the Ometepe period by several hundred years, calling into question the periodization and associated cultural processes. This paper reports and contextualizes those dates.

Two “Directional Count Glyphs” have long been recognized as the indicators of backward and forward chronological reckonings in Maya inscriptions. Their traditional decipherment, following early work by Thompson, is founded upon the reading xok, ‘to count’, for one frequent sign in these glyphs. The present study calls this reading into question by suggesting that all ‘count’ glyphs are read u-ti, spelling the verb ut, ‘come to pass’. This decipherment applies to all known contexts of the glyphs.

Wooden figurines, idols, and scepters are commonly depicted as paraphernalia in Classic-period ritual iconography, but few examples of these objects exist. In 1999, a small wooden figurine was recovered from a cave near the Late Classic center of Muklebal Tzul in the Maya Mountains of southern Belize. It probably represents an ancestral deity or historical figure. Its recovery from a cave is appropriate. Caves functioned as arenas for legitimizing ancestral relationships through mediation with earth-focused deities. Combining analysis and interpretation of the archaeological context with a reading of documentary sources, we review the role of ancestor figurines in Maya society and offer interpretations of how this and similar objects functioned in Classic-period Maya religion and ritual.

The study of macrobotanical remains recovered from excavations at Otumba provides evidence for past vegetation and the plants used by inhabitants of different sectors of the archaeological site. Opportunistic weedy genera commonly associated with crops were common among the archaeological specimens. Evidence for domesticated plants includes maize (Zea mays) and frijol (Phaseolus sp.), together with numerous genera that do not appear to have been domesticated as yet, such as Amaranthus sp., Chenopodium sp., Portulaca sp., and Salvia sp. The relative abundance of uncarbonized plant specimens in association with carbonized materials is discussed. The possibility of differential plant use among inhabitants of the nucleated core with respect to the dispersed residential zone is also considered.

Organic materials from the Huitzilapa shaft tomb (calibrated and averaged to date around a.d. 74 [Ramos and López 1996]) were examined for clues to identify the contents of food (or other types of) offerings and determine the constituents of burial accoutrements found on and around the six inhumations found in the two tomb chambers. These materials have been examined by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The food offerings have proven difficult to identify. Only class (fish, insect) or kingdom level identifications (plant, animal) have been possible with available technology. Nevertheless, both the diversity of offering constituents and the quantity offered provide clues about the social status of the individuals interred in the tomb. The fibers of burial accoutrements have been less difficult to identify. Cotton and agave fibers and at least two other tentatively identified fiber types are associated with the interments and represent clothing, burial shrouds, and personal accoutrements. A crumpled piece of amate paper is associated with the high-status individual in the south chamber. This piece of paper is the earliest organic evidence of paper in Mesoamerica. The presence of cotton in the north chamber also suggests that cotton was a high-status item that had limited availability in the Jaliscan altiplano and was restricted to individuals that had achieved recognized social status. The predominance of agave fibers associated with all but one of the interments indicates the preeminence of maguey as the utilitarian fiber in western Mexico during the Late Formative. The association of paper with a male individual suggests that the Late Formative inhabitants of Huitzilapa recognized status differences and observed class differentiation and craft specialization. In addition to these organic, presumably food offerings, textiles, and fiber, a new species of bacterium—Bacillus tequilensis—was discovered in the decomposing material associated with the interments.

In this paper I focus on the regional surveys undertaken in 1960–1975—their development, implementation, key accomplishments, and major shortcomings. I also point to how resulting survey data and surface collections have provided the foundations for subsequent research on a variety of specific problems, sites, and locales, and how complementary historical and ethnographical studies have contributed to interpretations of pre-Columbian settlement patterns. I consider how off-site survey can, and should, complement the more extensive regional surveys that have been carried out in the past. While lamenting the archaeological record lost to modern development, in a more positive vein I suggest lines of productive future investigation that might still be undertaken to extend the significance of past results, evaluate a series of questions and hypotheses defined by the surveys, and help conserve archaeological sites and collections for future study.

In the early 1880s, a finely carved Maya shell picture plaque was found at the Toltec capital of Tula, central Mexico, and was subsequently acquired by The Field Museum in Chicago. The shell was probably re-carved in the Terminal Classic period and depicts a seated lord with associated Maya hieroglyphs on the front and back. Here the iconography and glyphic text of this unique artifact are examined, the species and habitat of the shell are described, and its archaeological and social context are interpreted. The Tula plaque is then compared with Maya carved jade picture plaques of similar size and design that were widely distributed throughout Mesoamerica, but were later concentrated in the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza. It is concluded that during the Late Classic period, these plaques played an important role in establishing contact between Maya lords and their counterparts representing peripheral and non-Maya domains. The picture plaques may have been elite Maya gifts establishing royal alliances with non-local polities and may have become prestige objects used in caches and termination rituals.

Like other rulers in the ancient world, Classic Maya kings needed to legitimize their power. They did so by adopting the name of the sun deity, K'inich, thus identifying themselves with the celestial authority of a potent supernatural being. However, Classic Maya kings used the name of the sun god in two different ways: to name the individual self of the king, and to identify his socially defined person. The individual self of a king was always linked to a defined aspect of the sun god. The person of the king was always referred to using a simple K'inich prefixed to a rigid designator. These two modes of reference also show differences in usage. Prefixed K'inich name elements are mostly omitted in external references because they refer to a socially defined person who is not perceived as such in antagonistic areas. But the K'inich referring to a king's self is employed in external references.

The two decades since the publication of Regional Perspectives on the Olmec have seen a great expansion of basic archaeological research in the “Olmec heartland” region of Mexico's southern Gulf lowlands as well as important new work on Formative period interregional interaction and its effects on local economies and polities. Olmec research, however, has not achieved as prominent a place as it merits in comparative research on the evolution of social complexity. In this essay I review this work and make some suggestions for future research directions.

This paper takes Izapa Stela 21, with its vivid portrayal of captive sacrifice, as the point of departure for an analysis of the ways in which acts of aggression were portrayed in Late Formative monuments from a region that includes the Pacific slope and adjacent highlands of Mexico and Guatemala. It considers the social significance of themes of captive sacrifice and violence, and their role within a larger iconographic system designed to accommodate the mutually reinforcing ideas of ideology and coercive power. While clearly laden with implications of political control, subjugation, deference, and fealty, the imagery also alludes to agricultural fertility, the arrival of rain, and broader notions of social order.

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.

Considering the Classic Maya lowlands as an intricate landscape of nested settlements with cities, villages, and farmsteads in the middle of agricultural land, the rural/urban conceptual contrast would apparently apply, yet, is still debated. By combining detailed studies of the relationships between populations of both categories, one can better understand what rurality and urbanity meant in ancient Maya societies, and evaluate the dichotomy. Judging by the spatial distribution of architecture and the social dynamics, rural/urban relationships would have reached beyond the scope of agro-economies. Based on the study of La Joyanca (Peten, Guatemala), a medium-sized settlement surrounded by villages and hamlets, this article explores the topic of rurality as contrasted with urbanity through the parameters of potential land use, visible architectural variation, and plausible population mobility. We aim at assessing the relationships between the center and its hinterland as an attempt at furthering the implied concepts.

The Aztec empire was composed of at least two kinds of entities, subject states and tribute provinces, and these were administered through at least two separate hierarchies. Imperial tribute, which was extracted from the common people, was not delivered through the same channels as those through which subject rulers interacted with their imperial overlords. This arrangement enabled the latter to deal with the subject rulers not as tribute-givers, but as allies and colleagues, while extracting a heavy tribute from their commoner subjects. In the core area of the Aztec empire, which included the northern Valley of Mexico, the boundaries of the subject states and tribute provinces did not coincide, and this contributed to the economic and political integration of the core area. The tribute provinces consisted only of those communities within a region that gave tribute to the empire, and the elimination of such obligations after the Spanish conquest effectively liquidated the tribute provinces.

A major impediment to understanding the Terminal Classic to Early Postclassic transition in northern Yucatan has been the lack of a reliable ceramic chronology defined from stratigraphic contexts at the site of Chichen Itza. The temporal relationship of Cehpech and Soluta ceramics is central to resolving the issue of the correct chronological placement of Chichen Itza. The results of stratigraphic excavations at Yula, a small site 5 km south of Chichen Itza, provide the strongest evidence to date that Cehpech and Sotuta ceramics were contemporaneous. Statistical analysis of pottery composition by stratum confirms a positive correlation between Sotuta and Cehpech, which are clearly differentiated from earlier pottery. Rather than following a linear sequence in which Cehpech precedes Sotuta, as suggested by R. E. Smith and other early researchers, these two slatewares represent coeval regional variation. Thus, the major occupation of Chichen Itza dates not to the Early Postclassic, but to the Terminal Classic. The results of this research contribute toward the redefinition of the Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic periods in the northern Maya lowlands.

Building B of Group II at Holmul, Guatemala, is well known in Maya archaeology for its unique series of superimposed tombs, some of which contain rare large deposits of ceramic material dating to the Terminal Preclassic period (a.d. 1–250). However, the building also contains large deposits of early facet Early Classic (a.d. 250–400) material, as well as the remains of a potential title holding elite. This article presents the current ceramic sequence for the Holmul region and a re-evaluation of the ceramic material from all rooms in Building B Group II in light of new discoveries at sites within the Holmul region and the greater Maya lowlands. The result is a new hypothesis about what social processes are manifested through Terminal Preclassic period orange slipped pottery, which suggests that the vessels associated with deposits in Buidling B may represent changes in elite diacritical feasting events during this period. These feasts, and the preparations made for them, may have simultaneously integrated social groups within a polity while also reinforcing differences between them during two turbulent epochs of Maya political history—namely, the late facet of the Terminal Preclassic period (a.d. 150–250) and the early facet of the Early Classic period (a.d. 250–400).