On April 27, 2002, while walking in the garden of his home in Cambridge, one of the premier American archaeologists of the twentieth century was taken from us suddenly, by massive heart failure, at the age of 89. Gordon R. Willey was appointed the first Charles P. Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University in 1950 at the tender age of 37, without ever having set foot in Mesoamerica. In later years Willey happily introduced himself to people as a “Maya archaeologist,” but his importance transcends his long and distinguished career in that area.

Archaeological excavations begun at Mayapan in 1996 require re-evaluation of this site, sometimes disparaged as representing “decadent” Postclassic Maya culture. New discoveries show that the site was an international center that incorporated specific symbols in its art from areas as far away as Central Mexico and Oaxaca. Indeed, there is evidence of trade with both areas. Another important Postclassic trade route connected Mayapan to Yucatan's eastern coast and Peten, Guatemala. These connections are reflected in similar ceramics and architecture in the three areas. Revival of Terminal Classic traditions at Mayapan inspired certain architectural constructions and a stela cult marking Katun endings. The Katun-cycle chronologies of the Colonial period provide intriguing evidence that political events at Mayapan may be linked with the site's architectural history. The “founding” of Mayapan may have occurred earlier than the conventionally accepted date of a.d. 1263 (end of Katun 13 Ahau). The Chilam Balam of Chumayel chronicles use of a 24-year Katun instead of a Katun of 20 Tuns, suggesting that the earliest founding event at Mayapan (Katun 8 Ahau) may date back to the eleventh century a.d. and overlap with the demise of Chichen Itza. Some of Mayapan's earliest architecture is contemporary with Chichen Itza's latest constructions. Several hundred years after Mayapan was founded, there was a renaissance of the Cocom heritage evident in specific architectural forms modeled on those from Chichen Itza.

Ancient Mesoamerica is pleased to honor T. Patrick Culbert, one of the foremost scholars in the field of Maya archaeology, in this Special Section. A brief survey of Culbert's many contributions to Maya studies reflects the general contours of the advances that have occurred in Maya archaeology over the course of the past four decades, and these patterns illustrate Culbert's role in the forefront of these trends.

Despite more than two decades of extensive and highly productive research programs by a series of institutions and individuals focusing specifically on the Preclassic archaeology of the Belize River Valley, understanding and appreciation of the region's ceramic tradition and interpreted culture history today effectively remain based on, and dependent on, unmodified conceptual formulations from the 1940s through the 1960s. These incorporate a view of the zonal Preclassic ceramic sequence as the physical embodiment of a uniform and even unitary local producer–consumer system tied directly and genetically to the later Classic and Postclassic Maya inhabitants of the region. In this paper, we question both these assumptions and the soundness of the conceptual constructs (ceramic complexes) and framework (ceramic sequence) on which they are based. We examine the content and analyze the composition of the Belize Valley Middle and Late Preclassic ceramic complexes as dynamic, composite, producer–consumer circulation assemblages rather than as static, synthetic archaeological units, and we conclude that they reflect a much more complex socioeconomic, cultural, and sociopolitical landscape than has yet been recognized and appreciated by other investigators. We propose the presence and interaction within the valley during the Middle and Late Preclassic of at least two distinct dialectal, ethnic, or ethnolinguistic groups, and we argue that the local cultural tradition emerging in the area by the ceramic Protoclassic represented a ranked amalgamation of these. The paper also presents the first comprehensive and complete type-variety typologies for the Middle through Late Preclassic ceramic complexes of the upper Belize Valley, incorporating both new data from the 1980s and 1990s and substantive revisions of earlier work by J. E. S. Thompson and James C. Gifford.

Pat Culbert's scholarship and teaching are marked by both an insistence on rigorous attention to data and a gentleness and humaneness in which scholarly inquiry should flourish. I discuss in this paper one aspect of his research—the size and degree of political integration of Maya polities—by means of a comparison with Mesopotamian examples.

Wooden figurines, idols, and scepters are commonly depicted as paraphernalia in Classic-period ritual iconography, but few examples of these objects exist. In 1999, a small wooden figurine was recovered from a cave near the Late Classic center of Muklebal Tzul in the Maya Mountains of southern Belize. It probably represents an ancestral deity or historical figure. Its recovery from a cave is appropriate. Caves functioned as arenas for legitimizing ancestral relationships through mediation with earth-focused deities. Combining analysis and interpretation of the archaeological context with a reading of documentary sources, we review the role of ancestor figurines in Maya society and offer interpretations of how this and similar objects functioned in Classic-period Maya religion and ritual.

Pre-Hispanic America's most celebrated literary monument, the Popol Wuj, was written in the 1550s, although our only copy is an early-eighteenth-century text by the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez. We lack direct information about the Popol Wuj's authors. Some scholars have proposed that the indigenous scribe Diego Reinoso was its creator. However, Reinoso wrote another K'iche' document, the Título de Totonicapan, and a close examination of that text learns that he disapproved of the political faction represented in the Popol Wuj. Its advocates were a lineage called Nim Ch'okoj, Great Kinkajou. Dennis Tedlock has suggested that the Nim Ch'okoj were the Popol Wuj's composers. They introduce themselves at the end of the text as the Fathers and Mothers of the Word. A scrutiny of both documents and early Colonial papers reveals that, by the 1550s, a political conflict was under way between the two highest offices in the K'iche' power structure: the Keeper of the Mat and the Vice-Keeper of the Mat. The Popol Wuj seems to have supported the first faction, and the Título de Totonicapan supported the second faction.5 My translation here is tentative. Wachib'al(al) means “image” or “depiction” but also “representative.” The author may actually refer to a drawing in a pictographic document or may want to say that, through these offices, the three main chinamit were represented in the power structure of Ismachi, and later in that of Q'umarkaj.

Traditional analyses of ceramics from Maya Lowland archaeological sites have focused on descriptive typologies to define site and regional chronologies. However, T. Patrick Culbert's groundbreaking work on the ceramics of Tikal (1993) utilized vessel shapes, as well, involving an analytical system of two levels: shape classes and shapes. His systematized modal analysis and concentration on vessel-shape classes, in conjunction with a focus on the importance of deposit types and site-formation processes, revolutionized what ceramics can tell us about prehistoric Maya behavior. The same approach was applied to the research on the Cuello ceramics presented here to gain a better understanding of the behavior associated with ceramic-vessel usage during the Preclassic period at this northern Belize site.

In Mesoamerica, the pottery made and used in regions peripheral to highly developed core areas is relatively plain; it is not standardized; and it has a narrow range of forms. Such pottery does not represent cultural “backwardness” or a tradition separate from that of core areas. Instead, backcountry pottery is explained by rational economic behavior of producers and consumers whose choices are constrained by location at the distant ends of dendritic or solar market systems. The literature on peasant markets provides a basis for distinguishing core versus peripheral economic behavior. Expectations for peripheral pottery are generated from this and from archaeological studies of pottery specialization. The pre-Hispanic pottery form Peñoles, a mountainous periphery of the Valley of Oaxaca, exhibits the expected characteristics. These results are limited by small sample size; more detailed studies should find a macroregional economy that is more variegated than that portrayed by the core–periphery dichotomy.

Blowguns (or blow-guns) have been depicted on pre-Columbian pottery, mentioned in Maya myths, and are still used to hunt small game and birds in many parts of the Americas. This paper surveys the history of the blowgun in Mesoamerica and documents the manufacture and use of the blowgun in Jacaltenango, Guatemala, where it is used to hunt birds.

Like other rulers in the ancient world, Classic Maya kings needed to legitimize their power. They did so by adopting the name of the sun deity, K'inich, thus identifying themselves with the celestial authority of a potent supernatural being. However, Classic Maya kings used the name of the sun god in two different ways: to name the individual self of the king, and to identify his socially defined person. The individual self of a king was always linked to a defined aspect of the sun god. The person of the king was always referred to using a simple K'inich prefixed to a rigid designator. These two modes of reference also show differences in usage. Prefixed K'inich name elements are mostly omitted in external references because they refer to a socially defined person who is not perceived as such in antagonistic areas. But the K'inich referring to a king's self is employed in external references.

Research on the Lowland Maya Hiatus that focuses solely on the inscriptions on monuments is too limited to provide information about its causes, nature, and consequences. I consider the hiatus at Tikal using additional evidence from architecture, settlement patterns, caches and burials, domestic artifacts, and inscriptions on portable objects. A preliminary conclusion is that Tikal's long hiatus can be regarded as part of a sequence of internal political development rather than due to conquest from outside. The displacement and destruction of inscribed and plain stone monuments was an ongoing phenomenon at Tikal. It was present from Terminal Preclassic times and occurred with increasing frequency until the beginning of the late Late Classic period. Monument destruction may have come to a halt then under a series of powerful rulers. The setting of inscribed stone monuments and wooden lintels continued for another two centuries until the disappearance of dynastic rule itself.

This paper examines the evidence for status and wealth differentiation within the peripheral areas of Tikal, Guatemala, and intersite areas north and south of Tikal. Frequency counts of differing major shape classes show that large groups had significantly higher frequency of serving forms and more associated pottery. The technique of multidimensional scaling is used to see whether there are any qualitative differences in pottery reflecting higher status or wealth. Results of the analysis indicate that qualitative differences are present only for Ik Complex vases. There are also indications of a special relationship between central Tikal and the minor center of Navahuelal located beyond the edges of the Tikal settlement zone.

This paper examines Nahua words found in both the Maya codices and the monumental texts. These words, spelled with syllabic signs, occur for the most part in contexts associated with foreign influence: Nahuatl deity names and words for “helmet,” “tribute,” and “heart.” One word—“and then”—is a conjunction used frequently in discourse. Sound correspondences between these loan words and the Nahua sources suggest an Eastern Nahua dialect as the likely source during the Classic period. Thus, Mexican influence in the Maya area, frequently attributed directly to Teotihuacan, may in fact have come by way of Nahua-speakers settled in the Gulf region. The epigraphic evidence establishes that Nahua speakers were influential in Mesoamerica far earlier than previously believed.

Recent research into the Teuchitlan tradition continues to improve our understanding of western Mexico's relationship to the rest of Mesoamerica. The tradition is defined on the basis of its distinctive public architecture, yet little research has been done to explore the significance of these temples for political organization. I propose that a more emic analysis of the political system can clarify the relationship among architecture, ritual, and political elites in Late Formative (300 b.c.–a.d. 200) Jalisco. I make use of indigenous ceramic dioramas; recent excavation data from Llano Grande, Jalisco; ethnohistoric accounts of the Xocotl Huetzi festival of the Postclassic and Contact periods; and ethnographic accounts of similar celebrations to propose a maize-focused interpretation of ritual and rulership in the Teuchitlan tradition.

Significant indirect evidence suggests that one of the Classic-period residential groups at Tikal was the residence of a family of potters who produced high-quality painted wares. Delineation of the borders of residential Group 4H-1 at Tikal led me to postulate that the bajo was a major resource zone for ceramic manufacturing rather than a spatially limiting feature. This family of upscale ceramic producers used the adjacent bajo as a source of clay and fuel for firing pottery. The configuration of other groups near Group 4H-1 suggests not only that the people occupying the several groups on this peninsula were related, but that they were all involved in the production, painting, and distribution of fine ceramics. These several residential groups, located on adjacent house lots, define a barrio within Tikal whose occupants formed an extended kin unit sharing an economic focus on the production of high-quality ceramics. A consideration of the contents of trash deposits that were used by the Maya for building fill and a study of the middens found adjacent to residential groups at Tikal provide clues to the location of a specific kiln, or firing area. Broken pottery in the structure fill tells us more than architectural history. In this example, pottery indicates how other aspects of one or more house lots were organized and used. In particular, these data suggest that a barrio-like cluster of households at Tikal, with its own ritual center (Group 5G-I), housed families of ceramic producers who had specifically located their residences in direct proximity to the bajo. The search for the firing facilities associated with the production of ceramics in Group 4H-1 is now a major research focus. “Kilns,” or firing facilities, should be among the various architectural features found “out back,” or located on the margins of a house lot. Kilns may have been of the trench type or free-standing small buildings, possibly within sheds, and are expected outside the perimeter formed by the main buildings of the residential group. The structures facing a plaza or series of plazas that are the most obvious elements of a single household tend to attract archaeological attention. Location of structures “out back,” or peripheral to the residential core buildings, could help define the configuration of household lots.

Conducting field research in the dense forests of the Peten, northern Guatemala, is as difficult today as it was for A. V. Kidder 70 years ago. However, through the use of airborne and satellite imagery we are improving our ability to investigate ancient Maya settlement, subsistence, and landscape modification in this dense forest region. Today the area is threatened by encroaching settlement and deforestation. However, it was in this region that the Maya civilization began, flourished, and abruptly disappeared for unknown reasons in the ninth century a.d. At the time of its collapse it had attained one of the highest population densities in human history. How the Maya were able to manage water successfully and feed this dense population is not well understood at this time. A project funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) used remote-sensing technology to investigate large seasonal swamps (bajos) that make up 40% of the landscape. Through the use of remote sensing, ancient Maya features such as sites, roadways, canals, and water reservoirs have been detected and verified through ground reconnaissance. The results of this preliminary research cast new light on the adaptation of the ancient Maya to their environment. Microenvironmental variation within the wetlands was elucidated and the different vegetation associations identified in the satellite imagery. More than 70 new archaeological sites within and at the edges of the bajo were mapped and tested. The combination of satellite imagery and ground verification demonstrated that the Maya had modified their landscape in the form of dams, reservoirs, and possible drainage canals along the Holmul River and its tributaries. The use of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM), 1-m IKONOS satellite imagery, as well as high-resolution airborne STAR-3i radar imagery—2.5 m backscatter/10 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM)—are opening new possibilities for understanding how a civilization was able to survive for centuries on a karst topographic landscape. This understanding is critical for the current population that is experiencing rapid population growth and destroying the landscape through non-traditional farming and grazing techniques, resulting in socioeconomic problems.

Mesoamerican studies have long focused on the well-known pre-Columbian game ullamaliztli, its architectural context, and its possible variants. But other games can be identified, among them the stick game from Teotihuacan and a handball game depicted at Dainzù. Despite a large chronological gap, the handball game at Dainzu can be related to the present pelota mixteca, taking into account other artifacts. It may also be associated with the palangana-type ballcourts, thus modifying our interpretations of the ballgame architectural context.

The Maya archaeological site of Chau Hiix, located slightly south and between the ancient cities of Lamanai and Altun Ha, is associated with some of the most extensive hydrological control features recorded from the pre-Hispanic era in the New World. The modest population size of the community, combined with this enormously productive agricultural technology, strongly implies economic interdependency among Classic-period sites. The location of Chau Hiix on an important inland water route further suggests the transportation of foodstuffs outside the local area.

The Spaniards described a particular type of Maya building found in the center of Maya cities that served multiple functions, from temporary homes for men and boys to council houses. This type of building, labeled a popol nah at Copan, was noted in Yucatan and the highlands of Guatemala. Two probable popol nahs, Structures 10L-223 and 10L-22A, have been identified at Copan, Honduras, suggesting continuity in this building type into at least the Maya Late Classic period. The differences between the two structures in both location and form support the idea of competing lineages in the Late Classic. These differences also suggest that the later rulers may have transformed earlier multifunction buildings into more specific functions that served their political needs.