The dynamic process involving the establishment, growth, and decline of Patio Group 9M-22-A, an elite Late Classic Maya domestic group at Copan, Honduras, is described in terms of 11 time spans. Architectural and stratigraphie changes occurring within these time spans are integrated with 70 obsidian hydration dates and demonstrate that the patio group was occupied to the end of the tenth century, with sporadic activity continuing into the eleventh century. Changes in the leadership roles spanning several generations within the patio group are inferred from the archaeological data and related to socioeconomic variables influencing the development cycle.

Between 1984 and 1989, the San Diego State University Mopan–Macal Triangle Project carried out six extended seasons of fieldwork oriented toward documenting the internal sociobehavioral structure and organization of a representative Classic period community in the southern Maya Lowlands. The project also undertook to delineate the spatial boundaries of several such contiguous communities and to test a selected set of alternative models for Classic period political organization at the local and regional levels. This article summarizes our approach to understanding political organization and presents our preliminary conclusions: a model of the so-called segmentary state type as recently espoused by several researchers best approximates the reality of internal political organization at the single polity level during the Late Classic period of the southern Maya Lowlands.

The process of Mesoamerican cultural expansion into western and northwestern Mexico has been a subject of speculation and investigation for over three centuries. Although many cultural traits have been “implicated” in this process, the practice of erecting stelae has not been one of them. Fieldwork by the author in Jalisco and Nayarit over the past 14 years has resulted in the discovery of 48 stone monuments which are proposed to be rustic versions of the usually more sophisticated stelae associated with cultures of central Mesoamerica. These west Mexican stelae are described and discussed in terms of their context, date, and possible function. Similar stone monuments from other sites in western and northwestern Mexico are also described, and relevant ethnohistoric data are presented. Finally, the diffusion of the practice of erecting stelae is discussed in relation to the process of mesoamericanization in western and northwestern Mexico.

The creation of a state religion and ethnicity is both the product of fundamental changes occurring in the control of political and economic resources as states emerge, and an instrument by which rulers, still aggregating power, establish cosmic orders demanding obedience to the state. This article considers the means by which the Tarascan royal dynasty appropriated, altered, and redefined various historical traditions in the creation of their new worldview during the emergence of the protohistoric Tarascan state (a.d. 1350–1520).

Regional settlement studies in the Maya area have provided a basis for understanding the importance of subsistence strategies, but have not addressed the issue of how the settlements themselves are differentiated. This article examines Maya settlement patterns of the Belize River area and uses data from residential-unit midden tests to identify aspects of settlement variation. These variations are examined with respect to general landform characteristics. Much of the variation appears to relate to the productive capacity of agricultural resources in the area. This is no surprise, since the ancient Maya were an agrarian society.

Iconographic analysis of the Prehispanic stone sculpture of West Mexico (Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, and Michoacan) has revealed several iconographic themes, which are interpreted using ethnographic analogy with the Huichol Indians and other groups, as well as ethnohistorical information from West Mexico, central Mexico, and other areas. A total of seven iconographic themes have been identified: (1) human heads, (2) human skulls, (3) double figures, (4) anthropozoomorphic figures, (5) anthropomorphic braziers, (6) horned figures, and (7) hunchbacked figures. One shared meaning that appears in one form or another in most themes is fertility. It is proposed that these sculptures were sacred objects whose possible function was to symbolize the deified ancestors or deities that were ultimately responsible for rain and agricultural fertility.

La cultura que habitó en el cañón de Bolaños, situado en el suroeste de Zacatecas y el noreste de Jalisco, fue el producto de un movimiento expansionista del desarrollo cultural asentado en la cuenca del lago Magdalena (ubicada en la zona colindante al cañón) cuyo interés era establecer una interrelación comercial con los habitantes del área de Chalchihuites (ubicada al noreste del cañón de Bolaños).

La ocupación de la región se inició alrededor del comienzo de la era cristiana; conservó el patrón de asentamiento, el arquitectónico y el complejo funerario de la cultura de la Cuenca de Magdalena y adoptó el estilo decorativo de la cerámica de la cultura de Chalchihuites. Participó en las redes comerciales de la región intercambiando diverses productos.

El desequilibrio sociopolitico y económico mesoamericano sucedido alrededor del primer milenio, repercutió drásticamente en las rutas comerciales e indirectamente en la cultura del río Bolaños, provocando paulatinamente el abandono de la región alrededor del siglo XII de la era cristiana.

Obsidian prismatic blades first appeared in the Pacific coast of Guatemala at the beginning of the Middle Preclassic, ca. 900 b.c., at the site of La Blanca. Blades were imported in finished form and supplemented an existing technology based on hard-hammer percussion. This indicates that by the Middle Preclassic obsidian was being traded in at least two forms: raw material and finished products. The beginnings of blade use coincide with a number of important social and political changes on the Pacific coast. Most important of these are the emergence of La Blanca as a regional center and the formation of a settlement hierarchy that includes over 50 sites. X-ray fluorescence reveals that the material used to make the blades comes from three geological sources: El Chayal, Ixtepeque, and San Martín Jilotepque. An analysis of the source frequencies through time reveals that El Chayal obsidian dominates the assemblage throughout the Conchas phase, with Ixtepeque being a minor source in all subphases. San Martín Jilotepeque obsidian is absent in the Conchas A and B subphases, but is present in Conchas C and D. This latter occurrence may signal a shift in trade relationships, but the overall pattern suggests that exchange connections established in the Early Preclassic were continued during the Middle Preclassic.

Although it has long been clear that craft specialists were present in Late Classic Lowland Maya society, it has proven difficult to identify chipped-stone lithics actually used in craft production. This article outlines a model, based on design theory, that can be used to identify the attributes of tools likely to have been used by lapidary and carpentry craft specialists, and tests it against an assemblage of tools analyzed through microwear analysis from Late Classic assemblages from the central Peten lakes region.

The widespread appearance of obsidian prismatic blades and polyhedral cores in ancient Mexican writing and art provides important information regarding ancient mesoamerican lithic technology. One common central Mexican epigraphic convention, a hooklike black element, is identified as a curving prismatic blade, here providing the phonetic value itz. The placement of blade segments on the edges of wooden clubs is one of the most commonly cited uses of prismatic blades. However, it will be noted that representations of such clubs are extremely rare until the Late Postclassic period. Rather than primarily serving as bladed edging on wooden weapons, prismatic blades were more commonly used as lancets and razors. Postclassic and early Colonial depictions of prismatic blades in use reveal that they were usually held directly in the hand, with no attempt at hafting.

Accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) dating of animal bone from Preclassic and Postclassic contexts at the Maya site of Cuello, Belize, has demonstrated the utility of the method in a humid tropical lowland environment, and has documented a hitherto unsuspected period of Postclassic activity including architectural construction and apparent occupation.

This study analyzes the imagery and writing carved on a “genealogical register” found in an elaborate tomb recently discovered at the northern end of the Valley of Etla in Oaxaca. Known as Tomb 5, the elaborate mausoleum contains architecture, sculpture, and murals pertaining to Period IIIb in the Valley of Oaxaca sequence. The carved stone inserted into the tomb at a later date, during Period IV, clearly establishes lines of descent from a venerated ancestor. The carving depicts a dead lord and provides information including the year and day of his death, which are given in 52-year and 260-day cycles, as well as information about his immediate descendants, including a young son and a mature daughter. Associated texts tell not only the calendar names of these family members but also, in the case of the son and daughter, their family-lineage name and their birth-order names. The writing also gives the birth and death dates of the lord's offspring; information that indirectly reveals their ages at the time of their father's death. Image and text complement each other by giving distinct information about the family lineage of a venerated ancestor.

Maya codex-style ceramics are among the most highly sought antiquities for collectors because of the fine art and extraordinary mythological scenes depicted on the pottery; yet the source of these ceramics has remained elusive. Recent archaeological explorations by the Regional Archaeological Investigation of the North Peten, Guatemala (RAINPEG) project at the site of Nakbe, Peten, have discovered codex-style ceramics in archaeological context. The hieroglyphs and painted scenes on the ceramics demonstrate the authenticity of the art style. Neutron activation analyses of the ceramics indicate that subtle differences in the ceramic corpus can be detected between proximal sites such as El Mirador and Nakbe. These data also indicate that codex-style ceramics were not manufactured in a site-specific workshop, but originate in a variety of production areas. While most codex-style vessels appear to have been manufactured within the immediate area of the extreme north-central Peten, several codex-style vessels that depict scribes are consistently similar in chemical composition to the codex-style pottery from Nakbe. The presence of fine painted codex-style pottery from modest plaza groups suggests a wider distribution of high-quality ceramic artifacts from among varied levels of economic, social, and political status of ancient Maya society. This accounts for the extensive looting of low-housemound complexes throughout the northern Peten.

The Feathered Serpent Pyramid (Temple of Quetzalcoatl) was built in a single episode involving the sacrifice of around 200 individuals, in Miccaotli or Early Tlamimilolpa times. Most were males with military gear. Many had shell collars with pendants of imitation human jaws made of worked shell teeth set in stucco; rarely were real jaws used. At the center, 20 individuals (probably all males) were buried with very rich offerings including greenstone beads, earspools, nose pendants, figurines, and strange conical objects; obsidian blades and figurines; shells; and remains of wood and probable textiles. We also explored a looters' tunnel that had severely disturbed two large pits under the pyramid; in one of these an individual of exceptional importance may have been buried. Preliminary analysis of material from tests in the platform that later obscured the front of the pyramid suggests that it may have been built as much as two centuries after the pyramid. It covered another large pit associated with the pyramid, also looted.

It was not so long ago, even in my own work, that Teotihuacan art was explained in terms of Aztec meaning (Pasztory 1973). Yet its unique composite character, combined seemingly endlessly from a limited set of signs, was also apparent quite early; and the basic cluster of imagery was defined by many, including Hasso von Winning (1987) and Laurette Séjourné (1956). Their aim was to group the signs around deities or at least into motif clusters. A major division everyone has tried to make is between fertility and war imagery. That notion, too, is Aztec derived, with the twin temple dedicated at Tenochititlan to Tlaloc, the rain god, and to Huitzilopochtli, the war god. We have hung on to this distinction as an intellectual life-belt even though even a cursory study can show that water and war imagery are often intermixed. In a short but provocative article, Kubler (1967) suggested a structural and linguistic reading of Teotihuacan art focusing on images that stand as nouns (main figures) and others as adjectives or adverbs (borders, costumes, etc.). In a long study full of excellent observation, Langley (1986) analyzed the signs and their clustering in the most sophisticated manner so far. The only shortcoming of his study is his search for writing at Teotihuacan and an unwillingness to accept it for what it is: a nonnarrative system of art.

In this article the significance of Teotihuacan's most sumptuous monument is studied: the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. Based on iconographie studies, together with the results of recent archaeological excavations, it is possible to deduce that the building was dedicated to the myth of the origin of time and calendric succession. The sculptures on its facades represent the Feathered Serpent at the moment of the creation. The Feathered Serpent bears the complex headdress of Cipactli, symbol of time, on his body. The archaeological materials discovered coincide with iconographie data and with this interpretation. Other monuments in Mesoamerica are also apparently consecrated in honor of this same myth and portray similar symbolism.

Changes in the nature of social stratification and economic organization during the history of the urban center of Teotihuacan are charted using information from the residential compound of Tlajinga 33. This lower-class, artesanal compound yielded evidence of craft specialization and mortuary patterns that allow investigation of changes in economic specialization and differentiation of internal status through time. From the mortuary evidence it appears that Tlajinga 33 became poorer and reduced its internal status divisions from Early Tlamimilolpa to Late Xolalpan-Metepec times. The craft specialization of the residents changed from one of probable autonomy to one where the compound contributed to a neighborhood specialization. These changes support evidence from other researchers that Teotihuacan became more rigid in organization and socially stratified through time. The urban society was thus characterized by social and economic change during its apogee.

This article presents an analysis of the role played by architectural sculpture in creating directional focus in the buildings and plazas of Teotihuacan, Mexico. The sculptural programs of the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent and the Palace of the Sacred Birds, one early in the city's building history, and the other late, are compared. Architectural form and decoration are shown to work together to engage the viewer and to manipulate the viewer's relationship to sacred and elite space.