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Scholars argue that western Honduras was occupied by Ch’orti’ speakers in the sixteenth century. These reconstructions conform to nationalist pressures to present Honduras as Maya, by using Classic period (AD 200–900) archaeological remains together with sparsely available sixteenth-century documentation. Drawing on existing and newly discovered sources, this article uses an onomastic approach to interpret glossonyms (language names), anthroponyms (personal names), and toponyms (place-names) in order to reconstruct past linguistic territories. The results of the analysis suggest greater Lenca- and Pipil- and smaller Ch’orti’-speaking populations than once thought, and emphasize the multilinguistic and frontier nature of societies in western Honduras. This study also highlights the viability of onomastic approaches in reconstructing linguistic boundaries when source documents provide either vague or contradictory information about languages spoken.

This work advances research on the role of hurricanes in degrading the rocky coastline within Mexico&rsquo, s Gulf of California, most commonly formed by widespread igneous rocks. Under evaluation is a distinct coastal boulder bed (CBB) derived from banded rhyolite with boulders arrayed in a partial-ring configuration against one side of the headland on Ensenada Almeja (Clam Bay) north of Loreto. Preconditions related to the thickness of rhyolite flows and vertical fissures that intersect the flows at right angles along with the specific gravity of banded rhyolite delimit the size, shape and weight of boulders in the Almeja CBB. Mathematical formulae are applied to calculate the wave height generated by storm surge impacting the headland. The average weight of the 25 largest boulders from a transect nearest the bedrock source amounts to 1,200 kg but only 30% of the sample is estimated to exceed a full metric ton in weight. The wave height calculated to move those boulders is close to 8 m. Additional localities with CBBs composed of layered rock types such as basalt and andesite are proposed for future studies within the Gulf of California. Comparisons with selected CBBs in other parts of the world are made.

Previous studies on the role of hurricanes in Mexico&rsquo, s Gulf of California examined coastal boulder deposits (CBDs) eroded from limestone and rhyolite sea cliffs. Sedimentary and volcanic in origin, these lithotypes are less extensively expressed as rocky shores than others in the overall distribution of gulf shores. Andesite that accumulated as serial volcanic flows during the Miocene constitutes by far the region&rsquo, s most pervasive rocky shores. Here, we define a subgroup of structures called barrier boulder deposits (BBDs) that close off lagoons as a result of lateral transport from adjacent rocky shores subject to recurrent storm erosion. Hidden Harbor (Puerto Escondido) is the most famous natural harbor in all of Baja California. Accessed from a single narrow entrance, it is commodious in size (2.3 km2) and fully sheltered by outer andesite hills linked by two natural barriers. The average weight of embedded boulders in a succession of six samples tallied over a combined distance of 710 m ranges between 74 and 197 kg calculated on the basis of boulder volume and the specific gravity of andesite. A mathematical formula is utilized to estimate the wave height necessary to transport large boulders from their source. Average wave height interpreted by this method varies between 4.1 and 4.6 m. Input from fossil deposits and physical geology related to fault trends is applied to reconstruct coastal evolution from a more open coastal scenario during the Late Pleistocene 125,000 years ago to lagoon closure in Holocene time.

Built places hold great power to both shape and mold behavior and communicate meaningful narratives and ideas. Such narratives and meanings are encoded and reproduced via social acts of remembering and forgetting. This paper explores the ways that places are memorialized or forgotten after periods of social and political re-organization when groups of structures or whole sites are abandoned. Herein three memory strategies are emphasized: protecting places, citation of abandoned spaces, and abandonment as an act of forgetting, in order to provide tools for archaeologists discussing memory and abandonment. Each strategy is illustrated using archaeological case studies from the Late Preclassic (300 BCE–100 CE) to Late Classic (600–900 CE) in southeastern Mesoamerica.