In this abundantly illustrated third and final volume on the artifacts found by Edward H. Thompson in the Well of Sacrifice, specialists analyze the great variety of objects and debate whether they represent evidence of dateable prehistorical ritual. The collection includes the rare remains of hundreds of textiles, wooden objects, and copal incense offerings that were preserved in the waters of this limestone sinkhole, as well as the lithics, ceramics, and bone and shell artifacts commonly found in Maya burials and caches, and about 250 mammalian remains. These objects are remarkable for having been cut, torn, broken, and burned before they were thrown into the green waters of the sacred well at Chichen Itza.

This volume is one of seven in a series about the 1959–1963 excavations at Altar de Sacrificios, Department of Petén, Guatemala. Here, project director Gordon Willey describes the artifacts recovered and reviews them in the context of a general comparison of Maya lowland archaeology.

This is the first of two volumes addressing the Harvard University excavations in an outlying residential zone of the Copan in Honduras. The book offers detailed descriptions of ceramics and all other artifacts during 1976–1977. The materials pertain largely to the Late Classic Period. Ceramics are presented according to the type-variety system.

Joyce Marcus reconstructs Classic Maya political organization through the use of evidence derived from epigraphy, settlement pattern surveys, and locational analysis. This study describes the development of a four-tiered settlement hierarchy and its subsequent collapse.

Seibal is a major ruin of the southern Maya lowlands, its vast ceremonial center covering several high hills on the banks of the Pasión River in the Guatemalan Department of Petén. In five volumes published over a 15-year period, the archaeological team headed by Gordon R. Willey presents a comprehensive review of their fieldwork from 1964 to 1968 and the results of many years of subsequent data analysis.

The volumes also report on explorations in the peripheral settlements outside of the Seibal center and provide a regional view of the evolution of lowland Maya culture from the Middle and Late Preclassic through the Late Classic periods.

Seibal is a major ruin of the southern Maya lowlands, its vast ceremonial center covering several high hills on the banks of the Pasión River in the Guatemalan Department of Petén. In five volumes published over a 15-year period, the archaeological team headed by Gordon R. Willey presents a comprehensive review of their fieldwork from 1964 to 1968 and the results of many years of subsequent data analysis.

The volumes also report on explorations in the peripheral settlements outside of the Seibal center and provide a regional view of the evolution of lowland Maya culture from the Middle and Late Preclassic through the Late Classic periods.

Seibal is a major ruin of the southern Maya lowlands, its vast ceremonial center covering several high hills on the banks of the Pasión River in the Guatemalan Department of Petén. In five volumes published over a 15-year period, the archaeological team headed by Gordon R. Willey presents a comprehensive review of their fieldwork from 1964 to 1968 and the results of many years of subsequent data analysis.

The volumes also report on explorations in the peripheral settlements outside of the Seibal center and provide a regional view of the evolution of lowland Maya culture from the Middle and Late Preclassic through the Late Classic periods.

Seibal is a major ruin of the southern Maya lowlands, its vast ceremonial center covering several high hills on the banks of the Pasión River in the Guatemalan Department of Petén. In five volumes published over a 15-year period, the archaeological team headed by Gordon R. Willey presents a comprehensive review of their fieldwork from 1964 to 1968 and the results of many years of subsequent data analysis.

The volumes also report on explorations in the peripheral settlements outside of the Seibal center and provide a regional view of the evolution of lowland Maya culture from the Middle and Late Preclassic through the Late Classic periods.

Seibal is a major ruin of the southern Maya lowlands, its vast ceremonial center covering several high hills on the banks of the Pasion River in the Guatemalan Department of Peten. In five volumes published over a 15-year period, the archaeological team headed by Gordon R. Willey presents a comprehensive review of their fieldwork from 1964 to 1968 and the results of many years of subsequent data analysis. The volumes also report on explorations in the peripheral settlements outside of the Seibal center and provide a regional view of the evolution of lowland Maya culture from the Middle and Late Preclassic through the Late Classic periods.

Archaeological Frontiers and External Connections is the fourth volume in the Handbook of Middle American Indians, published in cooperation with the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University under the general editorship of Robert Wauchope (1909–1979). Volume editors are Gordon R. Willey (1913–2002), Bowditch Professor of Mexican and Central American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and Gordon F. Ekholm (1909–1987), Associate Curator of Mexican Archaeology of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

This volume presents an intensive study of matters of significance in various areas: archaeology and ethnohistory of the Northern Sierra, Sonora, Lower California, and northeastern Mexico; external relations between Mesoamerica and the southwestern United States and eastern United States; archaeology and ethnohistory of El Salvador, western Honduras, and lower Central America; external relations between Mesoamerica and the Caribbean area, Ecuador, and the Andes; and the case for and against Old World pre-Columbian contacts via the Pacific. Many photographs accompany the text.

The Handbook of Middle American Indians was assembled and edited at the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University with the assistance of grants from the National Science Foundation and under the sponsorship of the National Research Council Committee on Latin American Anthropology.

Archaeology of Southern Mesoamerica comprises the second and third volumes in the Handbook of Middle American Indians, published in cooperation with the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University under the general editorship of Robert Wauchope (1909–1979). The volume editor is Gordon R. Willey (1913–2002), Bowditch Professor of Mexican and Central American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

Volumes Two and Three, with more than 700 illustrations, contain archaeological syntheses, followed by special articles on settlement patterns, architecture, funerary practices, ceramics, artifacts, sculpture, painting, figurines, jades, textiles, minor arts, calendars, hieroglyphic writing, and native societies at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Guatemala highlands, the southern Maya lowlands, the Pacific coast of Guatemala, Chiapas, the upper Grijalva basin, southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and Oaxaca.

The Handbook of Middle American Indians was assembled and edited at the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University with the assistance of grants from the National Science Foundation and under the sponsorship of the National Research Council Committee on Latin American Anthropology.

Embracing a wide range of research, this book offers various views on the intellectual history of Maya archaeology and ethnohistory and the processes operating in the rise and fall of Maya civilization.

The fourteen studies were selected from those presented at the Second Cambridge Symposium on Recent Research in Mesoamerican Archaeology and are presented in three major sections.

The first of these deals with the application of theory, both anthropological and historical, to the great civilization of the Classic Maya, which flourished in the Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize during the first millennium A.D. The structural remains of the Classic Period have impressed travelers and archaeologists for over a century, and aspects of the development and decline of this strange and brilliant tropical forest culture are examined here in the light of archaeological research.

The second section presents the results of field research ranging from the Highlands of Mexico east to Honduras and north into the Lowland heart of Maya civilization, and iconographic study of excavated material.

The third section covers the ethnohistoric approach to archaeology, the conjunction of material and documentary evidence. Early European documents are used to illuminate historic Maya culture. This section includes transcriptions of previously unpublished archival material.

Although not formally linked beyond their common field of inquiry, the essays here offer a conspectus of late-twentieth century Maya research and a series of case histories of the work of some of the leading scholars in the field.

"This is a remarkable book by one of the true geniuses in the field of anthropology during this century and one who provided valuable data for specialists in other disciplines as well."--H. M. Wormington "An engaging manuscript that should charm a broad audience."--Thomas F. Lynch "The field notes of Junius, and Peggy's diary, are valuable records of the excavations, artifacts, and interpretations of the best archaeologists to work in the southern tip of South America."--James G. Griffin Junius Bird's three great archaeological field achievements--at the Strait of Magellan in Chilean Patagonia, in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, and at the sites of early coastal dwellers in northern Peru--made his reputation as a New World prehistorian. His work in south Chile is especially important, since it established the great antiquity of human populations in South America. Until now, most of Bird's Chilean data remained unpublished, but this rich collection of field notebooks from his 1936 and 1937 excavations makes this primary information available for the first time. Included in this volume are new data from Bird's excavations at Palli Aike, Fell's Cave, and Cañadon Leona as well as Cerro Sota and Mylodon caves. Excerpts from his published articles plus contributions by Juliet Clutton-Brock and Vera Markgraf reinforce the book with major new information about these truly pioneering investigations. Complementing the technical data are excerpts from the field journal kept by Margaret (Peggy) Bird. Witty, charming, and personable, her writings convey the more human aspects of Bird's research while interpreting his theoretical ideas. Finally, the many photographs taken by the Birds add a striking visual dimension to this volume. The Birds' fieldwork took place under conditions, and with a spirit, vastly different from those of most researchers today. The texts and teamwork revealed in Travels and Archaeology in South Chilewill appeal to everyone concerned with the heavily debated question of earliest peopling in the Americas, with South American anthropology and archaeology, and with the days when archaeology truly meant exploration. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Background and Departure Overview South Chile and the Canoe Indians Daily Life Sailing the Channels 2. Chronological Synthesis and Dating The Periods The Radiocarbon Dates 3. Canadon Leona General Description Excavation Information The Artifacts Faunal Remains Possible Age of Deposit Burials Summary Daily Life 4. Palli Aike General Description Excavation in Two Phases Excavation Information The Artifacts Possible Age of Deposit Faunal Remains Human Remains Daily Life 5. Fell's Cave General Description Excavation Information, 1936-1937 The Artifacts Faunal Remains Daily Life Excavations by John Fell and the French Mission Excavations, 1969-1970 The Carnivore Remains Excavated at Fell's Cave in 1970. By Juliet Clutton-Brock Fell's Cave: 11,000 Years of Changes in Paleoenvironments, Fauna, and Human Occupation. By Vera Markgraf 6. Cerro Sota Cave General Description Excavation Information The Artifacts Faunal Remains A Group Burial Probable Dating of the Deposit Daily Life 7. Mylodon Cave Background Structure of the Floor Deposit Results and Conclusions Human Remains Sloth Skin Broken or "Cut" Bone Domestication of the Sloth Summary of Evidence Age of Remains Two Additional Specimens