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.

Although Andean archaeology has long used the term “ethnic” to refer to human groups, new understandings of ethnicity have injected less static understandings of contextualized identity construction into our models of the past. A review of recent work on ethnicity in the field reveals, however, that methodological approaches to these social entities do not always follow suit and rather favor normative synchronie comparisons. This paper explores the origins and trends in the study of ethnic groups and ethnicity in Andean archaeology, arguing that we may be seeing the persistence of the culture concept in the guise of ethnicity. It also examines best practices in the literature in order to make recommendations concerning the adoption of local, contextual, and diachronic methods in conjunction with multiple lines of evidence. These practices are more likely to expose the processes of identity construction by rendering explicit the relationships among culture, ethnicity, and the use of emblemic material culture. It argues, thereby, for the provision of proof of this process rather than its assertion.

The limited excavation of rural houses in the Mexican highlands has made it difficult to understand the structure of urban-rural economic relationships during the Classic period (A.D. 150 to 650), when many of the large cities at Teotihuacan, Cholula, and Monte Albán first developed. This paper examines economic consumption at Operation 7, a Late Classic rural residence located 11 km outside of the large center of Cholula, Puebla. The results show that Cholula was not the only, or even the primary, distribution center for goods consumed at Operation 7. Multiple procurement networks were operating during the Late Classic period to provision rural households with the goods they used. The recovery of a large number of imported ceramics and other goods with strong Teotihuacan affinities suggests integrated market networks, rather than solar market systems, operated to circulate goods throughout rural areas in Central Mexico. Comparative analysis of domestic assemblages is employed to identify differences in economic consumption that can be used to reconstruct the participation of rural households in regional distribution networks centered on their urban neighbors.

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.

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) of Coarse Orange jars demonstrates economic exchange among the Classic period political capitals of Totocapan, Matacapan, and Teotepec in the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. Matacapan, in particular, displays evidence of intensive pottery production at large workshops at the southern margin of the site. Comoapan (Area 411) and Area 199 present configurations of kilns, ceramic densities, and assemblage characteristics that suggest production for exchange beyond the site's boundaries. Both of these production facilities specialized in the production of Coarse Orange jars, a well-made and decorated utilitarian ceramic ware. While these products were traded to sites in the Tepango Valley, different paste recipes of the Coarse Orange type were also produced locally. Of broader concern, I examine the articulation of these regional exchange relationships with the interregional interactions previously documented among Tuxtlas groups and others in central Mexico and the Gulf Coast.

Debates over the cultural and biological origins of some indigenous groups in the Americas have fueled discussions about cultural identity, political justice, and resource rights. A historically high-profile case of rights and origins has involved the Araucanians or Mapuche of the southern cone of South America. This article examines, for the first time, the recent interdisciplinary archaeological and other anthropological evidence for the Mapuche of Chile and Argentina. It suggests that the ethnic and territorial origin of the Mapuche is in central and south-central Chile, although biological and cultural influences from north Chile and western Argentina also are present. It briefly discusses the implication of this study in relation to the indigenous status of the Mapuche in present-day Chile and Argentina.

The archaeological site at Raqchi is best known for the large Inka building identified by colonial sources as the “temple of Viracocha.” The site also has an enclosure with 152 circular buildings that have previously been interpreted as Inka state storage: collcas. Although Inka pottery was found within some structures, the utilitarian pottery, carbonized plant remains, and hearths found on the floors of the buildings at Raqchi date their construction to the Middle Horizon. These results have caused a significant reinterpretation of the site and highlight a distinction between the political economies of the two largest Andean states. We suggest this sector of the site functioned as a Wari compound for seasonal work groups, similar to those at Pikillacta and Azángaro, suggesting a potential coercive aspect within Wari colonization. This prompts a reevaluation of the Viracocha cult during the Inka period, its reclaiming of Tiwanaku and Wari state sites, and the role of public ceremony within Inka state policy.

Our interdisciplinary study provides new information and interpretations of Ossuary I, a large assemblage of human bones associated with the ceremonial center dedicated to a life-size clay figure of a splendidly attired human skeleton (often identified as Mictlantecuhtli in the archaeological literature) at the site of El Zapotal in south-central Veracruz-Recovered in 1971, this assemblage has been interpreted as a ritual deposit of women who died during childbirth, whose bodies were dedicated in later Aztec lore to the Tlazolteotl goddess. The present paper provides new insights into the depositional sequence, the type and number of individuals within the assemblage, the sex and age profile of the mostly female cohort, the distribution of artificial head shapes as an ethnic marker, and evidence of perimortem violence and postmortem processing in the form of flaying. Our evidence indicates that Ossuary I represents the slow accumulation of loose bones and limb segments of partially skinned individuals in a circular shaft. Postdating the functioning of the Death God adoratorio and showing fluctuations in the patterns of pre-depositional body treatment, the assemblage expresses the Late Classic period ritual practice of flaying both males and females in Veracruz. In later stages, the ossuary was used again for a female cult, consistent with the original interpretation of women who died during childbirth.

Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic evidence provides ample indication that water was a key symbol in Andean thought. During the late precolumbian era, the attention lavished on waterworks and features by the Inca emphasizes a clear concern with control over water and its movement. This paper examines the way in which specific relations of power and identity were constructed through Inca management of water. To this end, I offer a comparative analysis of water-related features from different sectors of the Empire, representing different moments in its historical development. The intent is to further our understanding of how the manipulation of water figured in the imperializing process and how its use and meaning may have evolved over time. The architectural evidence from the sites included in the study suggests that conspicuous exercise of control over the movement and flow of water may have been more critical to the establishment of Inca hegemony than to its subsequent maintenance.

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.

Recent theoretical work has underscored the importance of multiple strategies in the dynamic political and economic landscapes in which archaic states developed. This research emphasizes how the interaction among various non-state polities drives the growth of political centers within a region. It is in this context that numerous intermediate peer-polities emerged, and, on rare occasions in a few places around the world, it is the context of state development. War and trade have emerged as particularly important forms of strategic interaction in the theoretical literature, representing strategies of both cooperation and competition between and within complex, non-state polities. In this paper we present a detailed case study that tests and illustrates one of these theoretical propositions. We examine the role of trade in this process of social evolution as evidenced in the northern Titicaca Basin ca. 500 B.C.—A.D. 300. Based on intensive analyses of a large excavated data set, we suggest that the emergence of one regional center, called Taraco, is strongly linked to strategic participation in local and long-distance exchange networks.

Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) was used to obtain source determinations for 2,235 obsidian artifacts. These were supplemented by 48 previously published results made by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to bring the total sample to 2,283. Thirteen geological sources have been identified by instrument to date. Three sources in Highland Guatemala accounted for nearly 98 percent of all attributions, with approximately 2 percent from 10 green and gray obsidian sources in central Mexico. Geological sources can be brought into cultural context by examining their distributions among types of artifacts, recovery contexts, structure group types, distance from the Classic period epicenter of the city, and chronological relationships. Several procurement systems operated to import obsidian cores and other artifacts. Consumers obtained obsidian artifacts primarily through marketplace exchange, but other kinds of distribution are also indicated. The reliability, portability, rapidity, ease of use, non-destructive nature, and relatively low cost of pXRF show promise for the acquisition of the source attributions needed to construct the past cultural contexts of obsidian procurement and use. This method produces results comparable to those obtained by other kinds of instrumental analysis, and with a considerably higher degree of reliability than visual determinations.

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.

The present paper aims to reconstruct lifestyle and health parameters of three populations from Puémape site on the Peruvian north coast, Central Andes, active during the Formative Period (2500-1 B.C.). Since the factors that led to social complexity and its relation to crop-based subsistence are still being discussed, this analysis of 85 well-preserved individuals using 12 osteological markers for nutritional and functional stress, infectious diseases, and interpersonal violence offers the opportunity to understand the biological dimension of this process. Although we observe auditory exostosis in all samples, indicating the continuing importance of marine resources, other paleopathological findings, in accordance with archaeological data, support the idea of profound changes in lifestyle related to the rise of social complexity in the region. These include a 10 cm height decrease, changes in nutritional stress markers, and an increase in degenerative joint diseases in vertebra but not in the appendicular skeleton, whereas infectious diseases and violent trauma became more frequent. Thus, in Puémape we witness considerable changes in the way of life across the Formative period, associated with changes in diet, division of labor, and social stratification.

Cueva la Conga, recorded in June 2006, is the first limestone cave in Nicaragua reported to contain prehistoric rock paintings, culturally modified natural formations called speleothems, and artifacts. Located in northcentral Nicaragua in the Department of Jinotega, Cueva la Conga is the farthest south on the Mesoamerican periphery that a cave of this type has been reported, and it extends our knowledge of ritual cave use, including cave painting and speleothem modification, to include Nicaragua. Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal in five samples of the paint, the first such dating of Nicaraguan rock art, yielded calibrated dates from cal A.D. 680—905 to cal A.D. 1403—1640. The baseline data provided by Cueva la Conga are of great importance for regional rock art analysis and for our growing understanding of regional and Nicaraguan prehistory. More archaeological survey and excavations in the area will be key in establishing a firm cultural context for the rock art and ritual cave use found at Cueva la Conga.

The San Pedro de Atacama oases have been permanently occupied since ca. 2500 B.P. and over this time developed a rich culture that was intertwined with social developments in the south-central Andes. However, despite decades of archaeological research, the region still lacks a strong chronological framework based on absolute dates. Here we present 53 new AMS 14C dates from osteological remains from San Pedro de Atacama, in order to contribute to an understanding of the Atacameño cultural sequence. These dates suggest that some cemeteries were occupied for long periods, frequently transcending cultural phases, and that in fact a number of cemeteries within the same ayllu were in use concurrently. We also show that, not surprisingly, population displacement through time primarily follows oscillations in the sources of water. The new information presented here suggests that future work in the region should emphasize detailed analyses that consider intra-ayllu variability, given that diversity within periods is masked by the uniform use of cultural phases to describe human development.

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.

This work reports the presence of Zea mays microremains in three feasting episodes performed during the Middle and Late Formative Period in the North Coast of Peru. The remains of the Cerro Blanco de Nepeña feasts may represent a step toward the intensification of Zea mays consumption in ritual contexts, related to changes in the ceramic assemblages, and parallel to the transformation of ritual spaces during the second half of the Formative Period.

Ten or more features, each consisting originally of an open circle formed by a series of small holes, are present on two Late Archaic superimposed prepared floors at a shellmound on the outer coast of Chiapas, Mexico. These puzzling features bear a strong resemblance to ethnographic and ethnohistoric scoreboards used in indigenous dice games. Accordingly, the approximately 5,000 year-old features also were most likely game boards. Archaeologists have traced other Mesoamerican games into deep prehistory, including rubber ball games and another dice game known in Aztec times as patolli. These data provide evidence for the cultural importance and longevity of gaming in Mesoamerica.