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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.The recovery of pine (Pinus spp.) charcoal remains from ceremonial contexts at sites in the Maya Lowlands suggests that pine had a significant role in ancient Maya ritual activities. Data collected by the authors reveal that pine remains are a regular component of archaeobotanical assemblages from caves, sites that were used almost exclusively for ritual purposes, and that pine is often the dominant taxon of wood charcoal recovered. Comparisons with archaeobotanical data from surface sites likewise reveals that pine is common in ceremonial deposits. The authors propose that the appearance of pine remains in ceremonial contexts indicates pine was a valued element of Maya ritual paraphernalia. By basing interpretations with analogous information from ethnography, ethnohistory, iconography, and epigraphy, the use of pine during rituals is argued to be have been linked with a symbolic complex of ritual burning and offering "food" sacrifices to deities. The possibility is raised that burning pine, perhaps as torches, during some ancient rituals was similar to the modern use of candles. The diversity of ceremonial contexts yielding pine suggests that burning pine may have been a basic element of ritual activities that was essential to establish the legitimacy of ritual performances.La recuperaciOn de restos de carbon de pino (Pinus spp.) de contextos ceremoniales en sitios de las tierras bajas mayas sugiere que tuvo un papel significativo en las actividades ceremoniales de los antiguos mayas. Datos recolectados por los autores senalan que los restos de pino son normales dentro de los materiales arqueobotanicos encontrados en cuevas; tipos de sitios usados casi exclusivamento para propOsitos rituales, y que el carbon de pino es el recuperado mas frecuentemente. Ademas, comparaciones con datos arqueobotanicos de otros sitios arqueolOgicos indican que el pino es coman en depOsitos ceremoniales. Los autores proponen que la presencia de restos de pino en contextos ceremoniales revela que fue un elemento significativo en las actividades rituales mayas. Sobre interpretaciones basadas en informacion anciloga procedente de la etnografta, la etnohistoria, la iconografia, y la epigrafia el uso de madera de pino durante rituales tiene probablemente una relaciOn con un complejo de quemas rituales y ofrendas de sacrificios de "comida" a las deidades. Esto surge de la posibilidad de que el uso del pino, posiblemente en antorchas durante ciertos rituales antiguos, fuese similar al empleo moderno de las velas. La diversidad de los contextos ceremoniales en donde se encuentra el pino sugiere que la quema de pino posiblemente haya sido un elemento bcisico de las actividades rituales, esencial para establec...

Xaltocan Mexico City 0 km 1000 N Raised field agriculture in the Basin of Mexico was a highly sustainable farming method that did not depend upon centralised political control. Study of the chinampa system around the Early and Middle Postclassic city of Xaltocan through a combination of remote sensing, GIS, targeted excavation and AMS dating has revealed an extensive area of raised fields that was abandoned when Xaltocan was conquered by an alliance of powerful neighbours during the fourteenth century AD. The rise and abandonment of the chinampa system were thus directly linked to the political economy of the city-state. The failure to revive the raised field systems in the following Aztec period can also be attributed to the impact of political, economic and ecological factors.

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This article examines changes in ritual practices during the Epiclassic period in central Mexico. It presents data recovered from recent excavations of a shrine discovered in Lake Xaltocan in the northern Basin of Mexico. Pottery and AMS dates place the construction and use of the shrine in the Epiclassic period. The shrine was first built during or soon after the collapse of the Teotihuacan state. With the decline of Teotihuacan and the emergence of competing centers, ritual practitioners began human sacrifice: the remains of over 30 individuals were documented, including 13 complete severed crania. This practice suggests conflict as the political landscape became decentralized. Despite how broader processes may have affected behavior, the shrine, ritual practice was fundamentally local. We present archaeobotanical evidence of offerings of food, incense, and flowers that elucidates the microlevel nature of ritual at the shrine.