Past Maya communities were composed of a number of social, political, and economic components that were bound together in specific ways. Understanding how such components were organized at the scale of the entire community to form a single functioning entity is an important archaeological issue that is presently not well understood. To address this issue, large-scale research into community organization has been initiated at the Terminal Classic (A. D. 800-1000) Puuc center of Sayil. A program of broad-scale surface collections has systematically covered almost 1.5 km2 of the site's mapped urban area (3.5 km2). Preliminary results from the 1990 field season are providing data related to important components of the community such as social differentiation, economic and subsistence specialization, and the spatial structure of political and religious organization. This study is contributing toward the development of new methods for exploring large archaeological sites and can be employed ultimately to address broader issues concerning societal transformations among the Prehispanic Maya.

This paper explores certain methodological issues relevant to the interpretation of archaeological data derived from surface survey. Recognizing the significance of survey to the study of regional settlement patterns, I argue that how we classify these data bears directly on our ability to reconstruct the past. Comparison of site typologies created by the Seibal and Copán projects with their excavation results provides a way to evaluate the accuracy of site classifications based on surface features. I discuss the effectiveness of the typologies in capturing variation pertinent to the study of social organization and site function, and consider the importance of variation within sites, within types, and across types not expressed in the typologies to suggest that such elaborate typologies assume a higher degree of data visibility than is generally possible. The analysis underscores the critical role excavation plays in mesoamerican archaeology as a source of data unavailable through survey.

Curaumilla-1 presents the earliest date for Archaic coastal occupation and marine exploitation in central Chile (8,500 years B. P.). The remains of marine invertebrates from this site at Punta Curaumilla were studied. The number of present species, minimum number of individuals for 14 species, and mean sizes of two of these species were established. Recent studies have demonstrated that modern shellfish gatherers are important modifiers of rocky-intertidal communities in central Chile. Consequently, we attempt here to define the probable ecological role of past people at Punta Curaumilla as shellfish gatherers. The molluscan species present at Curaumilla-1 are much the same as those exploited at present by shellfish gatherers in central Chile. Two pulses of occupation were identified within the Archaic and Early Ceramic periods respectively. During these events it is likely that Precolumbian people may have temporarily or permanently modified sectors of the rocky intertidal at Punta Curaumilla.

La arqueología moderna ha enfocado su atención al estudio de las áreas de actividad para entender formas de vida y patrones de subsistencia. Esto ha conducido a que se manejen niveles de análisis cada vez más pequeños, tales como los estudios de microarqueología, la recuperación de información botánica por medio de la flotación de restos vegetales, y el estudio de fitolitos y polen. Hasta el momento, el análisis químico de los pisos representa la escala más pequeña de estudio, ya que se está tratando con iones y moléculas químicas invisibles, impregnadas en los pisos. Sin embargo, la interpretación arqueológica de estos datos necesita estar sustentada por estudios etnoarqueológicos para entender los patrones de contaminación de actividades universales como el comer, cocinar, almacenar, etcétera y poder extrapolarlos coherentemente a contextos arqueológicos.

El presente trabajo muestra la relación entre las actividades humanas practicadas in situ y la distribución de compuestos químicos orgánicos e inorgánicos que impregnan los pisos de un área habitacional localizada en el poblado de San Vicente Xiloxochitla, en Tlaxcala, México.

Las pruebas químicas aplicadas a 76 muestras identificaron las concentraciones de carbonatos, fosfatos, pH, hierro, calcio, albúmina, ácidos grasos y carbohidratos, además de registrar su color Munsell. Los mapas de distribución muestran que las mayores alteraciones producidas por la ocupación están relacionadas principalmente con las actividades alimenticias y con los desechos de los animales. El resto de las actividades tuvieron un impacto menor en el enriquecimiento químico de los pisos pero a pesar de ello resultan claramente reconocibles. Lo anterior constituye una prueba fehaciente del tipo de información que los compuestos químicos impregnados en los pisos pueden proporcionar en contextos arqueológicos, especialmente cuando los materiales sobre los pisos son escasos.