In this article we present and contextualize a potential example of early Mesoamerican dot numeration on a fragmentary Middle Preclassic ceramic figurine dating to 750-650 cal BC from the site of La Blanca, San Marcos, Guatemala. We begin with a brief discussion of numerical systems and their relationship to developments in early writing and graphic notation. We then situate the few known examples of Mesoamerican numeration that predate the Late Preclassic (300 BC-AD 250) period. From there, we pivot to the early urban center of La Blanca and its robust figurine tradition before turning our attention to the series of dots that mark this small ceramic object. We argue that this unique fragmentary figurine hints at the relationship between numeration, bodies, and identity in ancient Mesoamerican worldviews. En este art & iacute;culo presentamos y contextualizamos un posible ejemplo de la enumeraci & oacute;n con puntos en una figurilla fragmentada del Precl & aacute;sico medio, fechado en 750-650 aC, procedente del sitio La Blanca, San Marcos, Guatemala. Comenzamos con una breve discusi & oacute;n de sistemas num & eacute;ricos y sus relaciones con el desarrollo de la escritura y la notaci & oacute;n gr & aacute;fica. A continuaci & oacute;n, discutimos los pocos ejemplos de enumeraci & oacute;n Mesoamericana conocidos en este momento, que se fechan antes del Precl & aacute;sico tard & iacute;o (300 aC-250 dC). A partir de ah & iacute;, consideramos el centro urbano temprano de La Blanca y su tradici & oacute;n robusta de figurillas cer & aacute;micas, antes de discutir la serie de puntos que adornan este objeto peque & ntilde;o de cer & aacute;mica. Opinamos que este & uacute;nico fragmento de figurilla insin & uacute;a una relaci & oacute;n entre la enumeraci & oacute;n y la identidad en la cosmovisi & oacute;n de la Mesoam & eacute;rica antigua.

Many regions within the modern Republic of Guatemala, most significantly the Pacific coastal plain, were linked by cultural exchanges and by trade to the Gulf Coast and Central Highlands of Mexico during the Formative period. These exchanges are evident in many classes of material culture that are preserved archaeologically, from architecture and elements of urban design to sculpture and smaller objects such as pottery, figurines, and items of personal adornment. This chapter explores patterns of direct and indirect interaction and also considers how the labeling of imagery as “Olmec” can, at times, obscure its specific social uses along the Pacific coast of Guatemala rather than provide insights. More useful is a consideration of how material culture—or the world of objects—transformed during the Formative period in this region of Guatemala. The changes were significant and highlight the social, economic, and political processes of the time, in which the production and use of material culture played important roles.

We present macrobotanical, starch, and phytolith data from artifacts and sediments from Middle Formative La Blanca (1000–600 cal BC) and Late Formative El Ujuxte (600 cal BC–cal AD 115 ) in the Soconusco region in Guatemala. Potential economic plants identified included palm (cf. Arecaceae), two varieties of maize ( Zea mays ), guava ( Psidium guajava ), bean (Phaseolus), chili peppers ( Capsicum ), squash (Cucurbitaceae), custard apple (Annonaceae), coco plum (Chrysobalanaceae), lerén ( Calathea ), arrowroot ( Maranta ), and bird-of-paradise ( Heliconia ). The results suggest that control of food production and consumption was critical for the transition from complex chiefdoms during the Middle Formative to the archaic state in the Late Formative. The arrival of a more productive South American variety of maize at El Ujuxte (about 2549 BP) allowed elites to exploit an already existing broad-based economic system and to use the maize-based religious system to increase control over maize agricultural practices and maintain power through ideology and disciplinary power. These data suggest that the arrival of fully domesticated South American maize likely influenced the overall development of Mesoamerican state-level societies.

This volume on the earliest lowland Maya pottery began without a name and remained nameless until it was nearly completely written.Like the pre-Mamom era itself, even now a better moniker eludes us, and the reader will note that, while the participating authors agree there is something called pre-Mamom, we cannot yet reach consensus on exactly how to define it, set parameters on it, or place it precisely in absolute or relative time.In fact, we are not yet certain whether we have one pre-Mamom component or multiple, sequential pre-Mamoms, nor are we clear about exactly how many ceramic spheres we have encountered in our collective surveys and excavations.There is, however, substantial agreement among the authors on one point: the first potters in the Maya lowlands may not have been recognizably Maya when they started firing ceramics about 1000 BC, but they were by the time the pre-Mamom period ended around 600 BC.This evolution is evident in the ensuing Mamom ceramic sphere (600-300 BC), which constituted a broadly recognizable tradition in the Maya lowlands, materialized in the collective acceptance of waxy ware ceramic technology, monochrome slips, common vessel forms, and inferred similar functionality that undergirded

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsFraming Complexity in Formative Mesoamerica. Lisa DeLance and Gary M. Feinman, eds. Denver: University Press of Colorado, 2022, 336 pp. $79.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-64642-287-6.Michael LoveMichael LoveCalifornia State University, Northridge Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmailPrint SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 79, Number 3Fall 2023 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/726718 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected].PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Pacific slope of southeastern Mesoamerica, which extends from Chiapas, Mexico through Guatemala and into El Salvador, was filled during the Late Preclassic period with great cities linked by flourishing trade, elite ideologies, and a vibrant material culture that included monumental architecture and innovative art traditions. This chapter explores the shared ideological and material culture systems that linked the cities of this region, and considers what the Pacific slope in particular contribute to ongoing discussions of chronology, migration, political economy, and ideology, processes of state formation and urbanism, the advent of early writing, the construction of social identity, and the collapse of complex societies in the greater Maya region.

I thank my colleagues for their comments, but I disagree with their assessment.

The Emergence of Premodern States: New Perspectives on the Development of Complex Societies. JEREMY A. SABLOFF and PAULA L. W. SABLOFF, editors. 2018. SFI Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico. iv + 369 pages. $26.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-947864-12-2. - Volume 30 Issue 2

In this article we argue that concepts of replication took shape during the early years of Mesoamerican history through the creation of forms that were entirely handmade. Much attention has been paid in the literature to molds and their implications for the production of multiples. Yet an interest in replication appears centuries earlier in the form of Preclassic handmodeled figurines, which embody a tension between repetition and innovation. As our testing ground, we use the corpus of ceramic figurines produced during the Middle Preclassic period (900–300 BC) at the site of La Blanca, Guatemala. La Blanca rose to prominence on the Pacific coast by 900 BC and controlled a regional system that was much larger and more hierarchically structured than anything previously seen (Love 2007, 288–89). It maintained its prominence for approximately three hundred years, covered more than three hundred hectares at its peak, boasted some of the earliest monumental architecture in Mesoamerica, and was characterized by marked social stratification measured by differential household access to jade and other prestige goods (Love 2002, 2016; Love and Guernsey 2011).

Recently, Inomata and colleagues (2014) proposed a revision to Shook and Popenoe de Hatch's (1999) chronology of Kaminaljuyu, recommending a new chronology based on detailed Bayesian analysis of the calibrated dates. In this article, I present data suggesting that Inomata and colleagues' proposed chronology should be viewed with caution, especially with regard to the apogee of Kaminaljuyu, the Verbena and Arenal phases. Furthermore, the impact of their revised chronology is overstated because the model of highland-to-lowland diffusion that they attack has long been moribund.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteVolume 18, Issue 3 p. 693-695 Networks of power: political relations in the Late Postclassic Naco Valley, Honduras – By Edward Schortman & Patricia Urban MICHAEL LOVE, MICHAEL LOVE California State University NorthridgeSearch for more papers by this author MICHAEL LOVE, MICHAEL LOVE California State University NorthridgeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 07 August 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2012.01787_4.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume18, Issue3September 2012Pages 693-695 RelatedInformation

Beside one of the earliest Preclassic pyramids in Guatemala the authors discovered a large basin fashioned in clay and shaped like a quatrefoil. The use of the quatrefoil theme on other carvings reveals its association with water and its symbolic role as the mouth of an underworld. Excavations in an adjacent mound exposed an affluent community, rich in figurines. This juxtaposition of monuments and residence at La Blanca shows a society of 900-600 BC in which ritual and the secular power were well integrated.

Recent research on the southern highlands and Pacific Coast of Mesoamerica has investigated topics of interest to all archaeologists. Although best known for studies on the development of early social complexity, research in the region also has addressed hunter/gatherer subsistence patterns, early sedentism, the origins of food production, the development of the state, migration, the construction of social identity, political economy, and the collapse of complex societies. Research has accelerated in the past ten years, fueled by efforts of scholars from a number of disciplines. Recent paleo-ecological studies have provided much needed data for understanding human social action against the backdrop of the natural environment, while the region also has been the scene for testing numerous innovative theories of social change. Studies of identity and its manifestation in material culture have been especially productive.