This paper analyzes the expansion of the Inka state into the Lake Titicaca Basin of the south-central Andes. While the expansion of the Inka state can be modeled in general terms as a type of core-periphery transformation typical of all preindustrial empires, I argue that the particular cultural context in which it developed determined the nature of its expansion strategies. This context was characterized by a nonmarket political economy in which reciprocal, redistributive, and nonmarket trade mechanisms predominated. Archaeological and historical data indicate that the Inka occupation was characterized by profound changes in the local political economy in the Titicaca Basin. I argue that the lack of market systems in central Andean society was a key factor that affected the strategies of imperial control in this major Inka provincial territory, promoting highly intrusive labor and population control mechanisms. This historical context differed from other areas of the Prehispanic Americas, such as central Mexico, where market systems promoted tribute-in-kind strategies that involved less intrusive strategies of imperial expansion.

Comparisons of Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) and Early-to-Middle Postclassic (A.D. 1000-1400) settlements at Laguna de On illuminate the transformation of Maya society at the community level in the aftermath of the Classic-period collapse. Affluent subsistence production communities such as Laguna de On reflect the emergence of the village as a focal point for social, political, and economic organization at this time, a pattern that persists in the Maya Lowlands to this day. Ties with the past are observed in comparisons of Classic-to-Postclassic domestic and public architectural efforts, burial patterns, faunal remains, lithic tool production and use, and settlement strategy at Laguna de On. Although some technological and material differences are observed in household assemblages of each period, the changes are not interpreted as material reflections of population replacement or ethnic difference. Postcollapse Belize Maya community organization and domestic patterns are analyzed as scaled-down transformations of Classic-period institutions in response to altered conditions of regional demography, ecology, and political geography.

Recent excavations have revealed Early Formative platforms at the site of Paso de la Amada on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Platforms supported large, perishable structures up to 22 m long. These structures were not arranged in plaza groups or ceremonial precincts, but were scattered across the site. One of their functions may have been to control or integrate social units within the village, such as neighborhoods or lineages. It remains uncertain, however, whether these large buildings were residences for high-status families or public buildings shared by neighborhood members. From 1400 to 1250 B.C. a number of contemporary platforms probably served similar functions at the site, each in a separate segment of the community. Increasingly, however, these functions were centralized at a single large structure (Mound 6). This centralization persisted until 1100 B.C., when Mound 6 was abandoned and segmental social units emerged once again.

This article argues that the Mexica emperor's mantle was a fiber net rectangle studded with actual turquoise beads or plaques, a conclusion that is contrary to technically based interpretations of the garment as a tie-dyed cotton cape. The purpose of making this distinction is to increase our understanding of the symbolism embodied by Mexica costume within a cultural and historical context. Known as xiuhtlalpiltilmatl in Nahuatl, the mantle is said to have had its origins in Toltec times. Later it was worn mainly by Mexica emperors at accession and other ceremonies to symbolize continuity with their Toltec and Chichimec predecessors. Within the context of Mexica ideology, the garment served this symbolic purpose through its very materials: the rough agave net alludes to nomadic Chichimec warriors of the desert, while turquoise refers to the civilized, sedentary, agriculturally based Toltec peoples.

We report a Prehispanic dam and remnants of a small reservoir at the ancient Maya site of Tamarindito in the Río de la Pasión region of Guatemala's Petén district. The remnants of the dam are on the Petexbatún escarpment, to the east of the main site in the midst of an area of residential groups and numerous and varied agricultural terracing. The dam was about 60 m long and would have held a reservoir of about 2,000 m3. This volume of water was sufficient to irrigate nearby terraced fields. The dam and reservoir probably date to the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-800), a period during which Tamarindito was involved in regional warfare. In addition to producing irrigation water, we hypothesize that the system was built to provide a supplemental, more defensible, residential water supply and to protect a spring located below the dam.

The Classic-to-Postclassic transition in the Maya Lowlands is a focus of contemporary debate. At the site of Ek Balam, Yucatán, excavation of Structure GS-12 provided an architectural stratigraphy that spans this period. GS-12-sub was a Late Classic (Pure Florescent) building razed during the construction of GS-12-1, a C-shaped structure of a form generally identified with Postclassic occupations on the Yucatán Peninsula. At Ek Balam the building is associated with Cehpech-sphere ceramics and dated to the Terminal Classic. These data are in general agreement with the dating of such structures at other lowland sites including Uxmal. We contend that C-shaped structures, when found associated with Cehpech-sphere ceramics, are a horizon marker for the Terminal Classic-to-Postclassic transition on the Yucatán Peninsula, and that they illustrate the culture changes that occurred at this still poorly understood boundary. They may be the remains of administrative buildings used by the Maya following the cessation of monumental construction at major centers. Besides contributing to our understanding of the ancient Maya, the implications of this article extend to the general study of collapse and abandonment of complex societies.

Recent research on the Tiwanaku state has documented the evolution of regional settlement patterns and agricultural systems, but little is known of changes at the subregional level outside the capital. Analysis of a sequence of domestic occupations excavated at Lukurmata, Bolivia, provides information on how individual households within the Tiwanaku core area were consolidated into the Tiwanaku polity. Changes in residential patterns and artifact assemblages suggest that Lukurmata households were initially connected to the Tiwanaku polity through exchange and religious ties. A new level of assimilation developed in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. These changes, including agricultural intensification, illustrate the increasing integration of individual households into the Tiwanaku political economy and social order as the landscape developed. The nature and timing of these changes are consistent with current hypotheses of a transformation in Tiwanaku political and economic organization near the end of the Tiwanaku IV period (A.D. 400-800).

We address the general problem of sociopolitical evolution in highland Peru during the Late Intermediate period (ca. A.D. 1000-1470) from the perspective of changing relationships between herders and cultivators in the Tarama-Chinchaycocha region. First, we use ethnographic and ethnohistoric information to help model central Andean herder-cultivator interaction. Here we emphasize the ecological and sociological foundations for economic specialization, the ritually based integration of pastoral and agricultural groups in the absence of strong state organization, and how the ritually interactive units define and maintain their borders. Second, in the light of these perspectives, we examine archaeological settlement pattern data from our study area in the central highlands of Peru. We conclude that the Late Intermediate period was a time of significant organizational change that included new forms of ritually based local and regional integration of pastoral and agricultural economies. Third, we briefly consider the general implications of our findings for understanding organizational change throughout the central Andean highlands during the Late Intermediate period. We suggest that the largest and most complex Late Intermediate highland polities depended on the full integration of specialized pastoralists and agriculturalists in those regions where both economies could attain maximal combined productivity in the aftermath of the breakdown of large states at the end of the Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 600-1000).

This paper develops ideas first presented in "The Moche Revolt of the Objects" (Quilter 1990). It suggests that while the thematic approach to Moche iconography is useful, application of an approach that assumes that the themes are segments of a narrative will increase our understanding of the myths behind Moche art. After discussing the basis on which narrative may be inferred from art, the narrative approach is applied to demonstrate how known Moche artistic themes may be placed in sequence. Some previous uncertainties regarding iconographic figures are resolved, and part of the Moche mythic corpus is presented.

In this article the widely accepted proposition of a direct correlation between the historically attested Inka expansion during the fifteenth century and the archaeologically recorded appearance of Inka-style ceramics is tested. Excavation of an Inka-type house in Caquiaviri, once a provincial capital of the Inka state in the southern Lake Titicaca area, revealed a stratigraphic sequence with both typical Inka pottery and local ceramics. Radiocarbon dates show that the lowermost strata accumulated before the middle of the fifteenth century, when Inka ceramics were already in use. This, together with several other radiocarbon dates from northern Chile, demonstrates that the archaeologically observed ceramic period does not correlate with the historically recorded conquest.

A Chimú-Inka ceramic-manufacturing center, dating ca. A.D. 1470-1532, has been located in the Jequetepeque Valley of northern Peru. An analysis of a large sample of molds and over-fired sherds from the site indicates that the potters produced both local and Inka-derived forms—primarily mold-made utility wares. Since Inka aryballoid bottles were produced here, their production, and presumably their use, was more akin to utility wares for commoners than to ceremonial/administrative ware for the elite. Although there were numerous potters involved in the production of large numbers of vessels, the production was not organized with strict division of labor, but rather with each individual potter working on most stages of production.

In northeastern Mexico, near Ocampo, Romero’s and Valenzuela’s caves have been central to explanations of agricultural origins in Mesoamerica for more than four decades. Along with caves in Tehuacán and Oaxaca, these "Ocampo caves" have provided almost all of the available evidence for the initial appearance of a number of key Mesoamerican crop plants, including maize, beans, and squash. This article reanalyzes the cultural and temporal context of five crop plant assemblages in the Ocampo caves: maize (Zea mays), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), and three species of squash (Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. moschata, C. pepo). Fifteen AMS radiocarbon dates on early domesticates both confirm the stratigraphic integrity of the two caves and substantially revise the temporal framework for initial appearance of core domesticates in northeastern Mexico, showing the transition to food production in Tamaulipas took place more recently than previously thought. A substantially foreshortened chronology for Ocampo crop plants confirms the northern periphery role of Tamaulipas in the origins of agriculture in Mexico, while also underscoring the need for establishing AMS-based archaeobotanical sequences across Mesoamerica to gain an adequate context for understanding the temporal, environmental, and cultural contexts of initial plant domestication in the region.

The suggestion made early in this century that pages 43b to 45b of the Dresden Codex are concerned with the synodic cycle of the planet Mars was vigorously opposed in mid-century by J. Eric S. Thompson but supported during the last decade by other scholarship, including our own. Thompson’s interpretation, which Bruce Love has recently argued is correct, is certainly of historical interest and value, but it is no longer adequate in light of more recent advances in understanding codical instruments. In particular, it ignores the great importance to the authors of these instruments of the commensuration of calendrical and astronomical cycles. The Mars table is not just a Chac almanac dealing with weather and agriculture.

La Cueva Tixi se ubica en la sierra La Vigilancia, en cercanías de la ciudad de Mar del Plata, Argentina. Las investigaciones arqueológicas permitieron definir una secuencia estratigráfica de cuatro ocupaciones. Seis dataciones (AMS) sobre carbón vegetal, procesadas en la University of Arizona, indican que los cazadores-recolectores utilizaron la cueva durante los últimos 10,000 an̄os. El análisis de los materiales indica variabilidad en el uso de la cueva vinculada a patrones de mobilidad y territorialidad de los cazadores-recolectores pampeanos.

Se describen y analizan los patrones funerarios del sitio chinchorro Morro 1, localizado en la costa norte de Chile. Se excavaron 134 inhumaciones. Se identificaron los tres patrones funerarios conocidos para esta cultura: (a) cuerpos con momificación artificial, que corresponden a entierros secundarios y múltiples, (b) cuerpos cubiertos con arena, y (c) cuerpos sin tratamiento de ningún tipo. Estos dos últimos patrones constituyeron enterramientos individuales y primarios. Se evalúa si la práctica de la momificación artificial compromete a todos los individuos de la cultura chinchorro, o si por el contrario, hay mecanismos selectivos donde cierta categoría de individuos fueron sometidos a este tratamiento. Se concluye que fetos, neonatos, lactantes y niños presentan las más altas frecuencias de momificación artificial, y la mayor complejidad en los procedimientos empleados. Esta práctica se inicia con esta categoría etaria a los 7000 a.P. y finaliza también con neonatos y niños después de los 4000 a.P. Mientras que entre los 5500-4000 a. P. se encuentran cuerpos de todas las edades con momificación artificial.