The hilltop site of Torata Alta displays a gridded site plan characteristic of Inka and Spanish colonial settlement planning, and it is now evident that the site’s brief history represents both occupations. Torata Alta began as a colony established by the Inka in the agriculturally rich Torata Valley and was settled by their Altiplano allies, the Lupaqa, in the Lake Titicaca Basin. Sometime during the early 1570s, as part of Spanish colonial administrative reforms, the community became a reducción resettlement of native Andeans drawn from small nearby hamlets. A church and ancillary buildings were constructed in the site center, and investigated structures include a beer-brewing facility and residences for textile-producing elites. In 1600, the eruption of Huaynaputina volcano and its accompanying earthquake swarm destroyed the church and covered the site with a layer of ash. Torata Alta’s residents continued living there but suffered another earthquake in 1604. The community appears to have been largely abandoned by the end of the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the residents moving down to the valley settlement that became modern Torata.

Archaeological starch grains consistent with those produced and stored in modern cojoba (Anadenanthera peregrina) seeds were identified, for the first time in the West Indies, in a coral milling base recovered in a small precolonial habitation site of Eastern Puerto Rico, in a context dated to A.D. 1150-1250. Ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and previous archaeological data on cojoba from the West Indies and South America were surveyed in order to form plausible sociocultural interpretations of the findings. After experimentally assessing some ethnographic protocols that possibly replicate various ancient ways of processing cojoba seeds for producing hallucinogenic powders related to the so-called ritual de la cojoba, this report proposes that cojoba seeds were processed and used here mainly as an hallucinogenic complement to the healer for the divination of illness.

Nuestro objetivo es estudiar las estrategias de uso del espacio por parte de sociedades humanas móviles en un paisaje andino de Patagonia caracterizado por una marcada heterogeneidad topográfica, climática y ecológica (localidad de Barrancas-Buta Ranquil, provincia del Neuquén, Argentina). Inicialmente, se analiza la estructura del paisaje desde una perspectiva biogeográfica, desarrollando un modelo de estacionalidad mediante sistemas de información geográfica. Nuestro enfoque distribucional combina una prospección sistemática para caracterizar la estructura espacial del registro en superficie y evidencias que han sido obtenidas bajo otras estrategias de muestreo. Sobre la base de la distribución de artefactos líticos y cerámicos y de motivos rupestres, se evalúan patrones de intensidad ocupacional, diversidad funcional y circulación de información en sectores del espacio con propiedades biogeográficas diferentes. Los resultados sugieren una delimitación funcional del espacio en escala temporal promediada, en la cual los espacios intermedios habrían funcionado como lugares centrales desde donde se articulan movimientos logísticos hacia otros sectores del paisaje. Dado que la unidad de muestreo captura variación biogeográfica que se expresa en forma regional más amplia, el modelo de uso del espacio propuesto es relevante para la comprensión de la arqueología del noroeste de Patagonia en general.

El hallazgo de pipas en contextos fúnebres del litoral del Desierto de Atacama hace más de un siglo, ha sido la base para sugerir que los grupos de Pescadores, cazadores y recolectores marinos tuvieron como costumbre fumar durante el período Formativo (1500 a.C-1000 cal d.C). Lo que seguía siendo una incógnita es qué estaban fumando y de dónde provenían las sustancias consumidas. En la búsqueda de dar solución a este problema, presentamos el análisis de los residuos adheridos de cuatro pipas de piedra en forma de T invertida, recuperadas de un cementerio de la costa del Desierto de Atacama al norte de Chile, usando dos metodologías complementarias derivadas de la arqueobotánica y la química. Paralelamente, realizamos un análisis químico sobre cabello humano perteneciente a un individuo asociado a una de las pipas. Se logró identificar, al interior de éstas, la presencia de nicotina y otras sustancias, tales como microrrestos de Nicotiana y de otras especies, además de nicotina, en el cabello muestreado. Finalmente, discutimos estos resultados en función de la disponibilidad defuentes de estos recursos, estrategias de movilidad, relaciones de intercambio y el modo de vida de las poblaciones litorales.

The correlation of archaeological features with tephra stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates in the volcanic cordillera of northwestern Costa Rica has provided evidence for an Early to Middle Formative ceramic complex dating to at least 2000 B.C. Tronadora ceramics have been found in association with evidence for early horticulture and sedentism. Stylistic comparisons with other early pottery from Central America have helped with the refinement of our chronology for the earliest sedentary societies in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Differences between Tronadora pottery and the earliest complexes of Mesoamerica and southern Central America indicate a high degree of regionalization in ceramic styles during the Early Formative period. Similarities also indicate, however, the common participation of northwestern Costa Rica and southern Mesoamerica in broad interaction networks at this time. Tronadora pottery does not represent an incipient technology or the result of a diffusion of ceramic production from Mesoamerica or northwestern South America. Instead, it implies the existence of an earlier and still-undefined period of technological experimentation in the Central American isthmus.

The Recorrido Arqueológico de Coixtlahuaca (RAC) presents period-by-period settlement pattern maps for the valley of Coixtlahuaca in the northern Mixteca Alta. The RAC project made improvements in full-coverage survey methods. We identify limitations and suggest that similar projects in the future need to resolve several management and budget problems. The survey revealed two periods of heavy occupation, 700–300 BC and AD 1200–1520, separated by a long period of lower population. Archaeological and historical data indicate that during the AD 1200–1520 period, and probably earlier, small landholders organized in strong communities managed an intensive agroecosystem, investing in landesque capital. Urbanization was impressive, yet cities were aggregations of communities and barrios. Today local citizens pose questions about how the large prehispanic population could have organized and sustained itself; these questions coincide with anthropological interest in collective agency, property, landesque capital, and collapse.

Investigations of the civic architecture at the Lowland Maya site of Blue Creek, Belize, have documented an Early Classic building with a colonnaded superstructure. Although one of only six such buildings reported from the Maya Lowlands, this architectural form appears to be a variant of a more common type of colonnaded building. An examination of such structures from a site-planning perspective indicates that columns may have been used by the Maya to create buildings that were conducive to movement, and for the conduct and/or viewing of public activities. The present study refutes the commonly held assumption that the use of columns in Maya architecture was limited in both spatial and temporal distribution, and instead shows them to have been widely distributed throughout the Maya Lowlands by the middle of the Classic Period.

Analyses of skeletal phenotypic traits have the potential to yield information pertaining to social organization, such as kinship and residence patterns. In this research, we examine sex-specific phenotypic variability of craniofacial and mandibular metric traits in eight skeletal samples from four sites (San Gerónimo, Chiribaya Alta, Chiribaya Baja, and El Yaral) attributed to the Chiribaya polity (A.D. 772–1350) and a contemporary Ilo-Tumilaca/Cabuza group (El Algodonal) from southern Peru. Through this data set we investigate various aspects of social organization (e.g., postmarital residence patterns) within the Chiribaya polity. We also examine Chiribaya interactions with the contemporaneous, yet culturally distinct, Tumilaca cultural group. The pattern of between-group bias-corrected estimates of biological distances points toward a more distant biological relationship between the two cultures than has previously been reported. Among the Chiribaya groups considered, determinant ratio analyses indicate that males from two cemeteries (Chiribaya Alta Cemetery 4 and Chiribaya Alta Cemetery 7) were significantly more variable than females, suggesting that males were the more mobile sex. Several explanatory models are considered, including a matrilocal residence pattern and the in-migration of males. We also examine the unique nature of results from within Chiribaya Alta, which support the argument made by previous researchers that this site represents a regional political center.

Recent fieldwork concerning the late Preceramic/late Archaic period on the PeruvianNorth-Central Ccoast has revealed the existence of large architectural complexes, which scholars interpret as indicative of social complexity. This article is especially concerned with architectural design as an effective means to define social and political organization at Cerro Lampay. It concludes that there was not a highly formalized hierarchy but that power positions within the community could have been negotiated through ritual practices that included the dual organization of participants. It is highly probable that the residents of the North Central Coast were in constant and intense interaction during the late Archaic, which may have resulted in displays of competitive emulationin ritual settings.

Since Kaminaljuyu was first systematically excavated in the 1930s, the chronology of the site has been fraught with confusion and scholarly disagreement. In recent years, scholars generally adopted the chronology presented by Shook and Popenoe de Hatch (1999) as the most authoritative account. In 2014, however, Inomata and colleagues proposed a revision of this chronology by shifting its Preclassic portion (including the Las Charcas and Providencia phases) roughly 300 years later in time. In this article, we analyze a total of 108 radiocarbon dates with Bayesian statistics, tying them to detailed ceramic analysis. These dates include previously reported dates, measured after the year 2000, as well as 68 new radiocarbon dates obtained from Kaminaljuyu and nearby sites. The results largely support Inomata and coauthors’ (2014) revised Preclassic chronology, placing the Las Charcas–Providencia transition around 350 BC and the Providencia–Verbena transition around 75 BC. In addition, we present new dates on the Early Classic period, although some ambiguity remains for the Esperanza phase, when Teotihuacan-related elements were introduced to Kaminaljuyu. The revised chronology, combined with environmental data, suggests an explosive increase in population and construction activity during the Verbena and Arenal phases.

Numerous studies have used the Howells Peruvian sample from the province of Yauyos as the morphological representative for South America. Although Peru has a rich history of investigations of human skeletal remains, biological distance studies based on craniometrics are limited to nonexistent. This study examines the morphological variation found in Peru using the Howells sample and three additional coastal (Makatampu and Ancón) and highland (Cajamarca) samples. The between-group variation and the degree of among-group differentiation were tested using a canonical discriminant analysis and Mahalanobis D², respectively. All groups are significantly different from the Yauyos sample and results indicate a closer morphological affinity between coastal groups and the two highland groups.

We describe the development of a new chronology for the Postclassic site of Calixtlahuaca, Toluca, Mexico. We identify three ceramic phases using discriminant analysis of decorated and plainware types. These phases are consistent with excavated stratigraphy, as well as a series of 54 radiocarbon dates. We then assign absolute dates to the phases using Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates and historical information on the date of site abandonment. The resulting chronology identifies three phases at the site: Dongu (A.D. 1130-1380), Ninupi (A.D. 1380-1450), and Yata (A.D. 1450-1530). We then discuss the local and regional implications of the chronology. More broadly, our results demonstrate the utility of using multiple, complementary methods for developing more precise chronologies.

One of the central goals of archaeology is the definition of regional cultural succession. Since at least the 1960s, archaeology has purported to have moved beyond the strictures of Culture History, and yet the constructs of that paradigm (styles, periods, cultures) continue to be used routinely. This work aims to show that by doing so, one is still implicitly subscribing to that theoretical perspective"s assumptions and biases. In the end, this article is intended to be a self-critical assessment of the shortcomings of Caribbean archaeology vis-à-vis issues inherent in that region"s dominant culture-history framework. Moreover, it aims to provide an example for Caribbeanists, and archaeologists working in other regions, of the value of moving beyond the products of, and not just beyond the term, Culture History.

Estudiamos el imperialismo incaico en el contexto de las formaciones socioterritoriales del Colesuyu durante la época prehispánica tardía (siglos quince y dieciséis). Por su poblamiento con alto grado de multietnicidad e imbricación socioterritorial, además de su heterogeneidad biogeográfica entre el Pacífico y el Altiplano, esta región de los Valles Occidentales de los Andes Centro-Sur planteó un reto geopolítico para su integración imperial. Nos interesamos aquí por el caso de los Altos de Arica, que los archivos coloniales describen como un espacio multiétnico, con complejos sistemas de asentamiento interdigitados, extendidos entre el altiplano de Carangas y el litoral de Arica. A partir de un catastro arqueogeográfico, complementado con datos de excavaciones y dataciones, analizamos el proceso de ordenamiento incaico del valle precordillerano de Belén (ca. 3.000 m snm), el cual era conocido como Tocoroma en los archivos coloniales y constituía la principal isla del archipiélago carangas en la vertiente occidental andina del 18° S. Evidenciamos la producción de un paisaje agrícola imperial en el valle y discutimos la función nodal de Tocoroma-Belén en el contexto de la integración socioterritorial de la transecta Arica-Carangas. Asimismo, el estudio confirma el protagonismo del Tawantinsuyu en la estructuración de los archipiélagos verticales de los Andes Centro-Sur, además de documentar la diversidad de los dispositivos de hegemonía imperial implementados para este fin.

A corpus of wooden figures archaeologically recovered from the Huacas Tacaynamo and El Dragón (also known as Huaca Arco Iris) at Chan Chan in the Moche Valley, Perú, forms the basis for this inquiry into the role and function of Chimú wooden figure sculpture. Although the sculptures were excavated from a disturbed context, they represent an important body of evidence relating to two problematic architectural complexes. The author places this group of figures within the temporal sequence of the region and defines the specific attributes of each sculpture to clarify social function. In reconciling the architecture’s relationship to the Chimú capital city, Chan Chan, and temporally placing the sites as Early Chimú, the figures are realigned within the larger artistic traditions of Perú’s North Coast. I suggest that the sculptures were part of a coherent artistic program that was integrally linked to the religious and funerary purpose of the architecture. More specifically, these characters depict scenes of socially prescribed ritual activities, including the interment of an important person whose funeral procession was attended by various servitors, and the celebration or consecration of burial through the sacrifice of prisoners.

Our recent data, collected using remotely sensed imagery and unmanned aerial vehicle surveys, reveal the extremely well-defined patterning of archaeological plaza villages in the Brazilian Acre state in terms of size, layout, chronology, and material culture. The villages comprise various earthen mounds arranged around central plazas and roads that radiate outward from, or converge on, the sites. The roads connected the villages situated 2–10 km from each other in eastern Acre. Our study attests to the existence of large, sedentary, interfluvial populations sharing the same sociocultural identities, as well as structured patterns of movement and spatial planning in relation to operative road networks during the late precolonial period. The plaza villages of Acre show similarity with the well-documented communities organized by road networks in the regions of the Upper Xingu and Llanos de Mojos. Taking into consideration ethnohistorical and ethnographic evidence, as well as the presence of comparable archaeological sites and earthwork features along the southern margin of Amazonia, we suggest that the plaza villages of Acre were linked by an interregional road network to other neighboring territories situated along the southern Amazonian rim and that movement along roads was the primary mode of human transport in Amazonian interfluves.

“Chihuahua culture” refers to two prehistoric periods of ceramic agricultural occupation in northwestern Mexico. It has long been known that the Medio period (ca. A.D. 1200–1450), with substantial adobe pueblo villages and towns, and ceramics that included elaborate polychrome wares, occurred over a vast region in western and northern Chihuahua and northeastern Sonora. It was also recognized that the preceding Viejo period, with pithouse and wattle-and-daub surface architecture, and less elaborate ceramics, was ancestral, at least in part. However, the geographical extent, dating, and nature of the Viejo-Medio transition were unclear. Recent research by several field projects has demonstrated that Viejo and Medio period occupations were geographically coextensive, as was the transition. A foundation for Viejo period chronometric dating (ca. A.D. 700–1200) is now established by 30 radiocarbon determinations from excavations in west central Chihuahua and one from northeastern Sonora. We discuss the dimensions of the Viejo period in west central Chihuahua with data from 1998–2000 excavations by the PAC (Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua). It provides an example of a broad-based transition from a relatively simple to a relatively complex pattern, and new perspectives on the interpretation of radiocarbon dating.”

This article reconstructs the final diet of sacrificed domestic camelids from Huanchaquito-Las Llamas to understand whether feeding was part of the ritual practice. The site is situated on the northern coast of Peru and is dated to the fifteenth century AD (Late Intermediate period; LIP). It was used by the Chimús to kill and bury a large number of camelids, mostly juveniles. We reconstructed the final meal of 11 of the sacrificed individuals by analyzing starch grains derived from the associated gut contents and feces. The starch grains were well preserved and allowed for the determination of five plant taxa. The comparison with previously published and new stable isotope analyses, which provide insights into long-term diet, indicates that the Chimús managed their herds by providing maize as fodder and allowing them to graze on natural pasture; yet they reserved special treatment for sacrificial animals, probably bringing them together a few hours or days before the sacrificial act. We show for the first time the consumption of unusual food products, which included manioc, chili peppers, and beans, as well as cooked foods. Our study provides unique information on Chimú camelid ritual and herding practices.

Excavations at the small-scale domestic settlement of Gramalote between 2010 and 2014 allowed the exploration of the social dynamics and economic interactions in the second millennium BC on the Peruvian North Coast. Detailed excavations and materials recovered during the intervention contribute a unique opportunity to explore domestic aspects of early settlements in the Andes. This study presents new data on the public sectors of Gramalote's settlement, house-to-house differences, and evidence that the extended family was a unit of economic productivity and collective action. This analysis assesses the degree of overlap, and lack thereof, in the economic activities of each house during the Initial Period (1500–1200 cal BC). A new model for social and economic interactions is proposed, with the aim of exploring alternative models from the bottom-up perspective for the emergence and consolidation of social complexity in the Central Andean Region.