The royal port of Cancuén was a major economic exchange center controlling the nexus of the river and land transport routes between the Maya highlands and lowlands, as well as to the Gulf of Mexico. Given its lack of temples, moderate size, and near absence of direct military activities, it would appear to have been an almost exclusively economic power. However, recent theory has emphasized the seamless connection of ideology and economics. Cancuén provides good examples of the variety of mechanisms of legitimation and control, showing the interactive nature of ideology, ritual, coercion, and economic power. The case of Cancuén is especially illustrative because of the direct nature of its economic resource control and the wide variety of ideological mechanisms used to channel the perceptions and behavior of a broad class of social actors. Furthermore, each mechanism of legitimation appears targeted at a specific aspect of the exchange system. The patterns exemplify the nature of interactions in the Classic period and the devices linking economic rights and ideology.

After more than a century of explorations at the Sun Pyramid in Teotihuacan, many uncertainties about the function, meaning, chronology, and use of the monument remain unresolved. Here we present preliminary results from excavations and mapping conducted by the Sun Pyramid Project to address some of these issues. We focus particularly on describing the architectural features excavated in the interior of the pyramid as well as the subterranean tunnel. This evidence is used to argue that the subterranean structure was artificially constructed for ritual activities, including the placement of royal burials and/or offerings in its interior. We define three stages in the construction sequence of the Sun Pyramid: (1) a Pre-Sun Pyramid phase, (2) the establishment of the main corpus of the monument, and, finally, (3) the adjoining of the adosada platform. In each phase, we discuss the presence of burials, offerings, or other features uncovered. Furthermore, we present the results of new ceramic and radiocarbon dates that transform our understanding about the construction of the ceremonial center, where the Sun Pyramid and the subterranean tunnel are dated to a later phase than previously thought, from A.D. 170—310 and A.D. 140—240, respectively.

Archaeological evidence suggests that early farmers in the Sonoran Desert practiced a mixed subsistence strategy that likely involved logistical foraging by a segment of the population to supplement agricultural investments on the floodplains. Patterned differences in labor investments in archaeological populations can often be extrapolated by comparing cross-sectional geometry in long bones, which can vary as a result of repetitive behaviors. We compare cross-sectional geometry (dimensions) of the femur between site location, archaeological phase, and by sex (males vs. females) in a series of skeletal samples from the Early Agricultural period (2100 B.C.—A.D. 50) to test the hypothesis that males exhibit greater anterior-posterior dimensions of the femur midshaft compared to females. We found that the cross-sectional geometry of the femur is significantly different between the sexes, indicating that males participated in foraging forays more frequently than females, and we suggest that these early farmers employed a gendered logistic mobility strategy. These differences reflect a continued investment in foraged resources (subsistence and materials) during the Early Agricultural period in the Sonoran Desert and have important implications for the division of labor and the construction of gender roles among these communities.

Los sitios con entierros humanos y evidencias de actividades residenciales, situados en sectores sobreelevados del paisaje, son un rasgo característico del patrón de ocupación prehispánica de la Cuenca del Río Negro. El estudio de algunos de estos sitios y, sobre todo, de los restos humanos en ellos recuperados, ha sido empleado por numerosos investigadores para explorar las diversas formas en las cuales los cazadores-recolectores se relacionaron con la muerte y discutir problemas de carácter social tales como prácticas rituales y religiosas, patrones de movilidad y procesos vinculados con la complejidad social. Aportamos aquí información cronológica y contextual de varios sitios en donde coinciden espacialmente los productos materiales de actividades domésticas y prácticas mortuorias, y discutimos las posibles relaciones entre ambos tipos de registro. Sobre la base de la información preexistente y de nuevos datos, retomamos el problema relativo a la interpretación y conceptualización de estos sitios y discutimos las nociones de cementerio y área formal de entierro. Finalmente, proponemos que estos sitios, ocupados de manera recurrente durante el Holoceno Tardío, pueden definirse como lugares persistentes (sensu Schlanger 1992) y que su configuración actual es el resultado de una compleja confluencia de condicionantes de índole religiosa, social y ambiental.

Results of physico-chemical analysis of samples of rock paintings and blue and green pigments from the Atacama Desert (northern Chile) allow us to incorporate a new technology, pigment production, to processes of mining and copper production, which until now have been related only to lapidary and metal working. Archaeological contexts associated with paints and pigments, as well as information available from historical times, allow us to suggest hypotheses about their importance in sharing networks of late prehispanic times (A.D. 900—1550) and after Spanish contact. In these times, the production and circulation of pigments would have closely connected the Upper Loa region to the Lípez region in south-western Bolivia and other regions of the Atacama Desert.