Preceramic Mesoamerica

Preceramic Mesoamerica delivers cutting-edge research on the Mesoamerican Paleoindian and Archaic periods. The chapters address a series of fundamental questions in American archaeology including the peopling of the Americas, human adaptations to late glacial landscapes, the Neolithic transition, and the origins of sedentism and early village life. This volume presents innovative and previously unpublished research on the Paleoindian and Archaic periods and evaluates current models in light of new findings. Examples include breakthroughs in dating Mesoamerica's earliest sites and their implications for models of hemispheric colonization; the transition to postglacial patterns of settlement and subsistence; divergent pathways to initial sedentism; the possibility of Archaic-period monumentality; changing patterns of interregional exchange and interaction; and debates surrounding the origins of agriculture, ceramics, and full-time village life. The volume provides a new perspective on the Mesoamerican Preceramic for students and scholars in archaeology, anthropology, and history. Readers will come to understand how the Preceramic contributed to the emergence of the cultural traditions that anthropologists recognize as Mesoamerica.

Jon C. Lohse is a senior associate at Terracon Consultants, Inc., a research associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and a member of the Gault School for Archeological Research. His research interests include Archaic and Paleoindian periods and cultural developments in Central America, environmental reconstruction and adaptation, developing models for locally specific culture histories, and variations in lithic technologies. Aleksander Borejsza is a full-time Professor and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He has excavated in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Spain. He uses archaeology and earth science to study past agriculture and rural life, the Preceramic and Formative periods of Mesoamerica, and late Quaternary environmental change. Arthur A. Joyce is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA. His research interests include the archaeology of political life, religion, urbanism, materiality, ecology, and the preceramic in ancient Mesoamerica. He directs interdisciplinary archaeological research in the highlands and lowlands of Oaxaca.

1. When is a Mesoamerican? Pleistocene origins of the Mesoamerican tradition 2. Empty gourds make the most noise? Theories and data in the study of the Archaic period in Mesoamerica 3. Tales of the Terminal Pleistocene: Clovis in Northern Mexico and the first Mesoamericans 4. La Cueva de los Hacheros: an early habitation site in Michoacan, Mexico 5. Yuzanu 50, an ephemeral camp of the Younger Dryas in the Mixteca Alta 6. Paleoindian sites from Central Mexico: paleoenvironment and dating 7. Sitio Chivacabe, an early Paleoindian site in western Highland Guatemala 8. The Paleoindian to Archaic transition in Central America: Esperanza phase projectile points recovered at the El Gigante rockshelter site, Honduras 9. The lacustrine preceramic cultures in the Basin of Mexico: recent contributions 10. The Preceramic in Oaxaca 11. Preceramic occupations in north-central and western Mexico: a regional perspective 12. Las Estacas, an early Archaic site in Morelos 13. Preceramic lifeways on the Mesoamerican South Pacific coast 14. Wetland villages in Soconusco, 6000-2000 bce: a new interpretation of Archaic shell mounds 15. Yuzanu 36, a late Archaic site in the Mixteca Alta 16. The end of the Archaic in the Soconusco region of Mesoamerica: a tipping point in the local trajectory toward agricultural village life 17. Sourcing Preceramic obsidian from Las Estacas, Morelos, and Yuzanu 36, Oaxaca, in the context of early Mesoamerican lithic procurement patterns 18. Preceramic archaeology in Mesoamerica: recent developments and future directions