Prosperity,power, and change: Modeling maize at Postclassic Xaltocan,Mexico

Documenting the relationship between agriculture and political economy occupies the center of much research and debate in anthropological archaeology. This study examines this issue by focusing on maize at Xaltocan, a Postclassic community located in the northern Basin of Mexico. We consider how different mechanisms of distribution, circulation, and production can influence maize variation. We analyze maize variability through time at Xaltocan and the community’s chinampa system and interpret patterns of variation in relation to its historical trajectory. This methodological and interpretive approach offers an innovative means to understand how agricultural practices transformed in relation to changing conditions of prosperity and power, especially the links between tribute, market exchange, conflict, and regional demography. Our study also speaks to broader, dichotomous perspectives that model the organization of agricultural systems, revealing that the strategies of both agriculturalists and the state often converge at local levels.     

元明清时期淮河流域人地关系的演变

淮河流域是我国传统农业经济区,其当前相对紧张的人地关系是历史时期不断积累的结果.根据其人地关系演进状态,可以将其人地关系的演变分为先秦时期、秦汉至北宋时期、金元明清时期三个阶段.元明清时期其人地关系已演变为严重不协调状态.黄河南泛、战乱较多、农业生产结构单一是对其人地关系影响较大的几个因素.     

Origin and Collapse of Complex Societies in Oaxaca (Mexico): Evaluating the Era from 1965 to the Present

I summarize recent archaeological work in Oaxaca, Mexico, with a focus on questions central to world prehistory: the origin and collapse of complex societies. Monte Albán was the capital of an emerging civilization in the southern highlands of Mexico during the second half of the first millennium B.C. Soon after the foundation of the ancient city, there is evidence for state formation and a political expansion into regions outside the Valley of Oaxaca. Centuries later, Monte Albán went into decline, giving way to the competing small polities found throughout Oaxaca at the time of the Spanish conquest. Since the late 1960s, our knowledge of these changes has been transformed by study of Oaxaca's pre–Monte Albán past, regional settlement surveys, and processual model building. Evolutionary and historical perspectives allow for significant refinement of current debates surrounding the rise and fall of complex societies in Oaxaca.     

The Ixtacamaxtitlán kaolinite deposit and sinter (Puebla State, Mexico): a magmatic-hydrothermal system telescoped by a shallow paleoaquifer

The Ixtacamaxtitlán hydrothermal deposit is made up of a succession, from bottom to top, of: (1) a porphyritic subvolcanic body, crosscut by quartz veins, and a stockwork with subordinate sulfides (pyrite and chalcopyrite), showing propylitic alteration haloes overprinting a previous potassic alteration event (biotitization); (2) an overlying, kaolinized lithic‐rich rhyolitic tuff; and (3) a layered opal deposit with preserved sedimentary structures. This vertical zonation, coupled with the distribution of the alteration assemblages, lead us to the interpretation of the whole as a porphyry‐type deposit grading upwards to a barren, steam‐heated, acid‐leached, kaolinite blanket with a partially preserved silica sinter on top. Both the fluid inclusion study carried out on the veins and stockwork, and the stable isotopic analyses of the kaolinized bodies, suggest the presence of two major hydrothermal events. The older event is characterized by the occurrence of hot hypersaline fluids (up to 320°C and 36 wt% NaCl equivalents), likely of magmatic origin, closely associated with the emplacement of the underlying early Miocene porphyry‐type deposit. The later event is characterized by the presence of cooler and dilute fluids (up to 140°C and 4 wt% NaCl equivalents) and by advanced argillic alteration close to the paleosurface. The calculated isotopic composition of water in equilibrium with the kaolinitic sequence plots close to and underneath the meteoric water line, partially overlapping the Los Humeros present‐day geothermal fluids. This evidence coupled with the petrographic observations suggests that steam‐heated phreatic waters altered the lithic‐rich rhyolitic tuff. This would have occurred when acid vapors, exsolved from deeper hydrothermal fluids by boiling, reached the local paleowater table and condensed, after a sector collapse that changed the system from lithostatic to hydrostatic conditions.     

A short note on starch and xylem of Colocasia esculenta (taro) in archaeological deposits from Pitcairn Island,southeast Polynesia

We present results of starch analysis of archaeological deposits from Pitcairn Island. High concentrations of starch grains preserved in cell membranes, and xylem tracheary elements, consistent with introduced Colocasia esculenta (taro) were found. Because of limited age control, we are uncertain if the microfossils are prehistoric. Problems associated with identifying taxa with small starch grains in extractions from weathered deposits are highlighted.     

Paleoenvironment and anthracology: determination of variations in humidity based on anatomical characters in archealogical plant charcoal (Ambato Valley,Catamarca, Argentina)

Anatomical features related to water deficiency were analyzed in archaeological plant charcoal as a paleoenvironmental indicator. The end of the Aguada settlements in the Valley of Ambato (Catamarca, Argentina), which took place towards the end of the first millennium of this era, was used as the case study. Tools from Ecological Anatomy were applied to recreate paleoenvironmental scenery for the studied processes. The results of the analyses showed that this area must have been undergoing a period of arid conditions during the studied period.     

Late Stone Age subsistence in the Tilemsi Valley, Mali: Stable isotope analysis of human and animal remains from the site of Karkarichinkat Nord (KN05) and Karkarichinkat Sud (KS05)

The pathways leading to the adoption of cereal cultivation and pastoralism in West Africa are poorly understood. In order to elucidate the transition to food production during the Late Stone Age in Mali’s Tilemsi Valley samples of ancient and modern human and animal remains were selected for carbon and oxygen isotope analysis. Our results indicate the inhabitants of Karkarichinkat Nord (KN05) consumed considerable quantities (85%) of carbon derived from C₄ plants, either directly in the form of C₄ grasses such as wild Panicum sp. and possibly domestic Pennisetum sp. or indirectly through the consumption of C₄ grazers such as Bos sp. and Ovis sp.     

Palaeolithic engravings and sedimentary environments in the Côa River Valley (Portugal): implications for the detection,interpretation and dating of open-air rock art

The pre-Magdalenian phase of the Côa River Valley open-air rock art is mostly distributed at the boundary between the rocky valley slopes and the floodplain that correspond to the most favourable geomorphological setting for the preservation of pecked and deeply superposed engravings of the most famous artistic phase of the area. The natural vertical panels of the engraved art located at this geomorphological interface have suffered weathering during two cold events of the Lateglacial. They were buried by several colluvial and alluvial deposits. The reconstruction of the sedimentary and archaeological context of the CôaRiver Valley engraving permits a better assessment of the preservation processes and interpretation of Palaeolithic open-air rock art.     

The use of SEM-EDS,PIXE and EDXRF for obsidian provenance studies in the Near East: a case study from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia)

In this paper we evaluate the relative analytical capabilities of SEM-EDS, PIXE and EDXRF for characterizing archaeologically significant Anatolian obsidians on the basis of their elemental compositions. The study involves 54 geological samples from various sources, together with an archaeological case study involving 100 artifacts from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (central Anatolia). With each technique the artifacts formed two compositional groups that correlated with the East Göllü Da? and Nenezi Da? sources. The non-destructive capabilities of these methods are emphasized (albeit with certain analytical limitations in the case of SEM-EDS), suggesting important new techniques for Near Eastern obsidian provenance studies.