Slate disks have been reported from various excavations in the Maya Highlands. These artifacts have typically been described as supports or backings for iron-ore and pyrite mirrors. A number of these objects have been recovered in context at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Whenever objects with reflective surfaces are identified in the field, they tend to be interpreted as mirrors, but they may have been worn as insignia on clothing. Recent finds at Kaminaljuyu, such as special deposits associated with Ballcourt B, suggest the use of reflective objects as part of the ballgame player's paraphernalia. The ballgame was an important ritual practice at Kaminaljuyu, as exemplified by the 13 ballcourts reported at the site. Archaeological evidence for this new interpretation will be presented, as well as a review of other examples excavated throughout the highlands, as part of an exploration of the exchange networks connected to regional trade in these exotic goods.

Botanical residues recovered from excavations in the Southeast Marketplace of Piedras Negras provide information about the healing and medical activities of the site's Classic period (a.d. 350–900) inhabitants, and point towards the intersection between commerce and medicine for the ancient Maya. The plants were likely exchanged at the market then used on-site for the purposes of healing. The botanical remains are complemented by both architectural and bioarchaeological evidence for healing at this locus, including a high concentration of sweatbaths and evidence for palliative tooth extraction. With the aid of ethnohistory, we identify health care practices potentially associated with the plant remains. However, we expand on basic understandings of “healing” with a critical look at how some medicinal plants may have been ritually invoked, even when never directly ingested or applied topically.

Across many decades of Maya archaeology, the study of war has typically been focused on its geopolitical, systemic, evolutionary, and structural implications. We argue these approaches stand to benefit from deeper interrogations of practice. Such a perspective shifts scholarly attention toward the ways in which Maya peoples prepared for and engaged in combat, and how they administered the outcomes of war. Deploying this approach requires the study of tactics, strategy, fortifications, materiel, landscape, embodiment, and a host of other related factors. With the issue of practice at the forefront of our analysis, we demonstrate how the study of war has been “blackboxed” in Maya archaeology, then undertake a comparative analysis to highlight how digging into the details of past martial practice enriches debates in Mesoamerican studies regarding the role of war in the rise and disintegration of states.

Classic Maya (a.d. 250–900) art is filled with expressive figures in a variety of highly stylized poses and postures. These poses are so specific that they appear to be intentionally communicative, yet their meanings remain elusive. A few studies have scratched the surface of this issue, suggesting that a correlation exists between body language and social roles in Maya art. The present study examines whether one type of body language (hand gestures) in Classic Maya art represents and reflects elements of social structure. This analysis uses a coding approach derived from studies of hand gesture in conversation to apply an interactional approach to a static medium, thereby broadening the methods used to analyze gesture in ancient art. Statistics are used to evaluate patterns of gesture use in palace scenes across 289 figures on 94 different vases, with results indicating that the form and angling of gestures are related to social hierarchy. Furthermore, this study considers not just the individual status of each figure, but the interaction between figures. The results not only shed light on how gesture was depicted in Maya art, but also demonstrate how figural representation reflects social structure.

This study explores the identification and gender attribution of the “Great Goddess” of Teotihuacan through re-examining what purportedly constitutes feminine and masculine in these representations. Recent efforts to reattribute this deity's gender have not offered satisfactory re-interpretations, but instead reify a binary model of Western ideas of gender. Transcending this binary model, I propose that one of the key figures identified as female—the central figure from the Tepantitla mural at Teotihuacan—can better be said to show characteristics of a mixed gender, a tradition for which there is significant precedence in the Americas.

El estudio del aprovechamiento animal en las ciudades mayas de tierras bajas ha ido en considerable aumento durante los últimos años, incorporando metodologías que han permitido discernir prácticas de cacería, manejo, y cautiverio de algunas especies. En Palenque, los estudios zooarqueológicos poseen una tradición netamente biológica, los cuáles han sido relevantes para entender el aprovechamiento de la fauna en el sitio. Sin embargo, orientados casi en su totalidad en identificar las especies encontradas, carecen de un enfoque social. Desde 2016, el Proyecto Regional Palenque (PREP) ha llevado a cabo estudios zooarqueológicos en el Grupo IV de Palenque, un conjunto habitacional de élite del clásico tardío, en dónde a través de la flotación de sedimentos se ha recuperado una variada fauna, principalmente peces dulceacuícolas, así como restos botánicos que nos permite una interpretación más detallada de los paleopaisajes que rodeaban los asentamientos y discernir prácticas de manejo de poblaciones animales dentro y en los alrededores de las ciudades mayas.

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.

El sitio de Tak'alik Ab'aj se encuentra en la bocacosta suroccidental de Guatemala. Durante las excavaciones del Entierro 1 de la Estructura 7A, fechado para finales del preclásico tardío (150 d.C.), se recuperó un rico ajuar funerario compuesto por decenas de piezas de jadeitita, hematita, pirita y cuatro mosaicos “reflectores” de este mismo material. Cada uno fue labrado con la misma tecnología de manufactura y soporte “flexible” de fragmentos de cerámica (ensamblados con resina) por primera vez documentado, y diseño propio para la función y significado que desempeñara. Dos de ellos fueron integrados en la pechera y faldellín del traje ceremonial; los otros dos como parte del ajuar adicional de un posible portaestandarte.

En este trabajo se incluye el estudio traceológico-tecnológico de las teselas de estos mosaicos del Entierro 1 a través de la caracterización de sus huellas de manufactura con arqueología experimental y microscopías óptica y electrónica de barrido. De esta manera se detectó una elaboración muy estandarizada en la que se aprovecharon instrumentos hechos con rocas volcánicas locales, como la dacita, cuyo sello tecnológico no ha sido reportado hasta el momento en otra colección lapidaria maya.

El gobierno de K'ihnich Bahlam Chapaht corresponde a uno de los más longevos de todos los gobernantes conocidos de Tonina. Con excepción de su nacimiento y entronización, conocidos por referencias retrospectivas muy reiteradas, es poco lo que se conoce de su vida. Sin embargo, gracias al recientemente restaurado Monumento 181 y al altar identificado como Monumento 182, hemos logrado reconstruir pormenores adicionales de su gobierno. En el presente ensayo, presentamos nuevos datos sobre ritualidad y jerarquía político-religiosa en Tonina durante el reinado de K'ihnich Bahlam Chapaht resultado del análisis de estos dos monumentos.

In this article we analyze the content and form of 58 stone monuments at the archaeological site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas, Mexico, which recent research confirms was a capital of the Classic Maya polity Sak Tz'i' (“White Dog”). Sak Tz'i' kings carried the title ajaw (“lord”) rather than the epithet k'uhul ajaw (“holy lord”) claimed by regional powers, implying that Sak Tz'i' was a lesser kingdom in terms of political authority. Lacanjá Tzeltal's corpus of sculptured stone, however, is explicitly divergent and indicates the community's marked cultural autonomy from other western Maya kingdoms. The sculptures demonstrate similarities with their neighbors in terms of form and iconographic and hieroglyphic content, underscoring Lacanjá Tzeltal artisans’ participation in the region's broader culture of monumental production. Nevertheless, sculptural experimentations demonstrate not only that lesser courts like Lacanjá Tzeltal were centers of innovation, but that the lords of Sak Tz'i' may have fostered such cultural distinction to underscore their independent political character. This study has broader implications for understanding interactions between major and secondary polities, artistic innovation, and the development of community identity in the Classic Maya world.

Analysis of Early Formative ceramics from the site of Paso de la Amada, on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, yields a refined sequence for the period 1400–1000 b.c. A simple key has been developed to classify midden assemblages. Its utility for creating chronologically sensitive groupings is confirmed by multidimensional scaling of 32 units. The refined ceramic sequence provides a basis for investigating short-term sociopolitical dynamics during the Early Formative period.

En este artículo realizamos un análisis tecnológico de una concha esgrafiada tolteca, recientemente excavada en las periferias de la antigua ciudad de Tula, Hidalgo, México. Asimismo, efectuamos un análisis iconográfico de los motivos esgrafiados en la pieza. Proponemos la técnica de manufactura del objeto, su probable lugar de producción, así como la función ritual que el objeto pudo tener. Así, postulamos que la concha representa a un integrante de los linajes hegemónicos de Tula y que la inhumación del objeto pudo ser similar a los dones depositados en La Casa de las Águilas, en México-Tenochtitlan.

Scholars of West Mexico generally rely on the ceramic figurine tradition found in shaft tombs for interpreting the prehistory of the Late Preclassic period. Three new projects on shaft-tomb ceramics seek to advance our understanding of the Late Formative culture and societies of this region. First, ceramic figures are examined for evidence of the ball game in West Mexico; second, for cultural information about domestic and community organization; and third, for ways to differentiate authentic figures from modern reproductions.

Archaeological and historical evidence clearly shows that the Lunar Series of mythical dates were calculated backward—that is, they were often determined from the date on which the monument was erected using a specific formula to calculate the age of the moon. In this article, I present a high-precision adjustment technique that confirms the “Palenque formula” using Lunar Series data from recent excavations. I show that the Palenque formula was also used at Tikal on 9.16.15.0.0 to backward calculate the Lunar Series of 5.0.0.0.0 12 Ahaw 3 Sak. At Coba, the backward calculation of the Lunar Series of the Era base date used a less precise 29.5-day lunar month. I also discuss the relationship between rulers of specific sites and the lunar-month count at those sites, finding that there was no “Period of Uniformity” in lunar calculation, as proposed by John Teeple (1930). Although a uniform six-month count was used during the reign of several rulers, in many cases the month count changed after a new ruler came to throne. I propose a month count related to a cycle of eight tropical years for the Lunar Series of K'inich Yo'nal Ahk I and Yo'nal Ahk III at the site of Piedras Negras.

Nixtun-Ch'ich', on the western edge of Lake Peten Itza in Peten, northern Guatemala, features an axis urbis and an urban grid dating to the Middle Preclassic period (800–500 b.c.). New research reveals that Middle Preclassic constructions—five circular or oval artificial pools and planned surface drainage—facilitated or impeded the movement of water. Large limestone rubble lines at least two of the pools (aguadas) in the city's core; two pools lie on the axis urbis, demonstrating that they were central ceremonial constructions. The gridded streets facilitated drainage: they consistently slope from west to east and from the center to north and south. In some areas seeing intense water flow, the streets divide into waterways and pedestrian-ways and/or were given special paving. Many scholars argue that water management contributed to the power of despotic kings, but no evidence of such rulers exists among the Middle Preclassic Maya. Nonetheless, we believe that such systems emerged in the Middle Preclassic. Nixtun-Ch'ich' appears to have been cooperative in its organization and its water management system was a public good.

In seeking continuities and disjuncture from the precedents of past authorities, the Mesoamerican emergent ruling class during the Formative period were active agents in directing changes to monumental space, suggesting that memory played a vital role in developing an early shared character of Maya lifeways (1000 b.c. to a.d. 250). The trend is most visible in the civic ceremonial complexes known as E Groups, which tend to show significant patterns of continuity (remembering) and disjuncture (forgetting). This article uses the northern lowland site of Yaxuná in Yucatan, Mexico, to demonstrate the use of early selective strategies to direct collective memory. While there are E Groups in the northern Maya lowlands, few Formative period examples are known, making Yaxuná a critical case study for comparative assessment with the southern lowlands. One implication of the Yaxuná data is that the broader pattern of Middle Formative E Groups resulted from sustained social, religious, political, and economic interaction between diverse peer groups across eastern Mesoamerica. With the emergence of institutionalized rulership in the Maya lowlands during the Late Formative, local authorities played a significant role in directing transformations of E Groups, selectively influencing their meanings and increasingly independent trajectories through continuity and disjuncture.

Functional determinations of stone tools gleaned through high-magnification usewear analysis enable archaeologists to reconstruct ancient household practices and identify diversity across regional domestic economies. A systematic obsidian usewear study with 300 specimens from the site of Altica, Mexico presented here reveals that tools from the Early–Middle Formative (1250–800 cal. b.c.) occupation were used for woodworking and subsistence-related activities. The high frequency of woodworking usewear patterns can be attributed to the construction and maintenance of the newly established settlement's households and agricultural plots. Combined with previous analyses of the site's paleoethnobotanical, osteological, and isotopic datasets, the usewear data further indicate a subsistence strategy that balanced foraging and non-intensive maize agriculture. Thanks to their proximity to the Otumba source and other sites exploiting it, Altica residents were able to employ a unifunctional tool-use approach with expedient percussion tools, which contrasts the multifunctional tool-use approaches documented at other Middle Formative sites.

Elizabeth Brumfiel studied the local production and exchange of pottery in Xaltocan as part of her ongoing efforts to study the link between women's work and political change. We give continuity to Brumfiel's work by presenting a chemical characterization study of Plain Ware and lead-glazed earthenware in Xaltocan, Mexico. These wares were mostly used by women for cooking and storage. The pattern shows that the people of Postclassic Xaltocan increased their reliance on Plain Ware from nearby Cuauhtitlan through time, before and after they were conquered by the Aztecs. After the Spanish conquest, the people of Xaltocan relied more heavily on locally produced Plain Ware and began using lead-glazed earthenware. These two different empires affected the trade in cooking tools even though it was not part of their policies to affect the domestic economy directly.

Although cosmic tree symbolism among pre-Columbian societies of Mesoamerica traces from the Preclassic period, the underlying meaning of the motif and its symbolic permutations are poorly understood. Attempts to identify the plant in a botanical context on ceramic vessels, stucco reliefs, and stone stelae of lowland Maya attribution usually favor determinations as a kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) or maize plant (Zea mays). A botanical assessment of the morphic and ecological characteristics of these motifs suggests, however, a white-flowered water lily of lowland swamps, Nymphaea ampla. Archeological remains at San Bartolo of the Petén indicate that these iconographic practices were established and codified to a certain extent by the first century b.c. The frequent identification of various gods and dynastic rulers as personifications of a water lily world tree underscores the crucial symbolic and ritualistic roles this plant once played in the practice of religion and kingship among Mayan civilizations.

The households of Formative period central Mexico represent critical loci for understanding major social transformations during a millennium (900 b.c.– a.d. 100) that witnessed the expansion and contraction of several macro-regional stylistic and economic networks, formalization of enduring political and religious institutions, and initial urbanization and state formation. Households and their constituent members used style to articulate important elements of their identity through practices of group consumption and personal adornment. In this study we consider style within the context of ceramic serving vessels and portable adornments primarily from sites in the state of Tlaxcala. We evaluate the manner in which dimensions of stylistic expression in these material goods contributed to shifting conceptualizations of household and individual identity and their articulation with community and supra-community social networks, noting the generally collective or affinitive manipulation of styles with means of socially differentiating age, status, and other dimensions of identity.