Robert J. Sharer

On the logic of archaeological inference: Early Formative pottery and the evolution of Mesoamerican societies

The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups derived from an extremely unsystematic collection of sherds from only seven localities, Blomster et al. claim that the Olmec received no carved gray or kaolin white pottery from other regions; they also claim that neighboring valleys in the Mexican highlands did not exchange such pottery with each other. Not only can one not leap directly from the elements in potsherds to such sweeping culture-historical conclusions, it is also the case that other lines of evidence (including petrographic analysis) have for 40+ years produced empirical evidence to the contrary. In the end, it was their commitment to an unfalsifiable model of Olmec superiority that led Blomster et al. to bypass the logic of archaeological inference.

The Prehistory of the Southeastern Maya Periphery

THE VERITABLE EXPLOSION of archaeological research activity in the Maya area during the past 15 years has affected primarily the core areas of prehistoric Maya cultural development: the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala and the lowlands of Guatemala and Yucatan (Adams 1969). Contrary to this trend, the investigations of the Chalchuapa Archaeological Project have focused upon an important population and ceremonial center on the periphery of the Maya area in the southeastern highlands of El Salvador. Despite its long characterization as a frontier between Maya and non-Maya peoples (Lothrop 1939, Longyear 1947), this area has never been subjected to the systematic problem-oriented archaeological investigation necessary to the discovery of the actual nature of this region in pre-Columbian times. The investigations of the Chalchuapa Archaeological Project provide for the first time data bearing upon the entire prehistoric time-span of a major site in this Maya frontier region (fig. 1). The research coincided with the important excavations by Andrews (1970) at

EARLY CLASSIC ARCHITECTURE BENEATH THE COPAN ACROPOLIS

Excavations beneath the Copan Acropolis provide the most complete record known for the origins and development of an Early Classic Maya royal complex (ca. a.d. 420–650). Beginning at the time of the historically identified dynastic founder, the earliest levels include the first royal compound, centered on a small talud-tablero platform, a vaulted tomb that may be that of the founder, and an adjacent tomb that may be that of the founders wife and dynastic matriarch. The timing and development of architecture provide evidence of the founding and growth of Copan as the capital of a Classic-period polity during the reigns of the first seven kings ( a.d. 426–544). By the reigns of Rulers 8–11 ( a.d. 544–628), the Early Classic Acropolis covered about the same area as its final version in the Late Classic. Documentation of specific Acropolis buildings provides evidence of the external connections that reinforced the authority of Copans Early Classic kings. Building sequences reflect the perpetuation of political power by using important locations as symbolic links to the sacred past. The Early Classic Acropolis also provides new evidence for the beginnings of palace architecture that have important implications for the origins of Maya state-level organizations. Overall, the findings from the Early Classic Copan Acropolis promise to significantly advance our understanding of the origins and development of Maya state systems.

Archaeology and History at Quirigua, Guatemala

AbstractThe Quirigua Project is nearing the completion of a five year program of archaeological research at the lowland Maya site of Quirigua, Guatemala. The investigations are centered at the site of Quirigua proper and within the surrounding lower Motagua valley. This research has provided a wealth of data that, when combined with the historical information deciphered from the hieroglyphic inscriptions at Quirigua, allow a unique interpretation as to the origins, growth, and demise of a Classic Maya site.Several alternative explanations of Quiriguas origins are proposed. The archaeological evidence demonstrates that construction at the site began several centuries before the first historically-identified ruler at Quirigua, Cauac Sky, assumed power at about 723 A.C. The historical record indicates that Cauac Skys reign lasted some 61 years, during which Quirigua appears to have gained complete political autonomy. Quiriguas growth in prestige and power during Cauac Skys reign seems to have been based ...

Archaeological investigations in the northern Maya Highlands, Guatemala : interaction and the development of Maya civilization

Final report of the 1970-1974 research conducted in the Salama Valley, Baja Verapaz, and adjacent areas of the highlands of Guatemala. The volume presents the results of the first comprehensive study of northern highland preclassic occupation and cultural development in light of the question of highland-lowland interaction and its role in the growth of Maya civilization.

Micro-Attenuated Total Reflection Spectral Imaging in Archaeology: Application to Maya Paint and Plaster Wall Decorations

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) attenuated total reflection (ATR) imaging has been successfully used to identify individual mineral components of ancient Maya paint. The high spatial resolution of a micro FT-IR-ATR system in combination with a focal plane array detector has allowed individual particles in the paint to be resolved and identified from their spectra. This system has been used in combination with micro-Raman spectroscopy to characterize the paint, which was found to be a mixture of hematite and silicate particles with minor amounts of calcite, carbon, and magnetite particles in a sub-micrometer hematite and calcite matrix. The underlying stucco was also investigated and found to be a combination of calcite with fine carbon particles, making a dark sub-ground for the paint.

The Late Postclassic Eastern Frontier of Mesoamerica: Cultural Innovation Along the Periphery [and Comments and Replies]

A far-reaching frontier culture area emerged along the eastern periphery of southern Mesoamerica during the Late Postclassic. Here linguistically diverse peoples (e.g., Rabinal, Pokom, Akahal, Xinca) shared a pattern in material culture. With the frontier commencing along the borders of the Quinche and Cakchiquel conquest states, it is theorized that a principal variable in the development of the frontier cultural pattern was militaristic expansionism. Ethnohistory chronicles that the Quiche and Chakchiquel displaced Pokom and Akahal peoples, who in turn displaced others. Migrations into these borderlands from the Epiclassic onward had established a frontier cultural base that was reformulated under the pressures generated by Late Postclassic expansions. Adaptation to militaristic pressures is suggested by sites demonstrating linear regression in various indexes of political centralization/militarization. Proximity to conquest states is more signifant than ethnicity in predicting the values of these indexes. Additional variables, such as trade and population growth/local ecology, are assessed for their contribution to the formation of a distinctive frontier pattern.

In the Land of Olmec Archaeology

AbstractMichael D. Coe and Richard A. Diehl, In the Land of the Olmec, two volumes plus maps. Volume I, The Archaeology of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, 416 pp.; Volume II, The People of the River, 198 pp. The University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas 1980. 100.00.The recent publication of a comprehensive report describing the excavations at San Lorenzo, Tabasco, Mexico, In the Land of the Olmec by Michael D. Coe and Richard A. Diehl, provides a significant contribution to Mesoamerican archaeology and a suitable opportunity to review the present status of Olmec studies. The development of Olmec archaeology is a relatively recent phenomenon, with the modern era of research beginning with Matthew Stirlings surveys and excavations at several sites in Mexicos Gulf Coast region (1938–1946), and continuing with the University of California at Berkeleys excavations at the site of La Venta in the mid-1950s. The report by Coe and Diehl of the San Lorenzo investigations (1966–1968) adds considerably to our understand...