Ritual and archaic states This volume compares archaic rituals across civilizations exploring theoretical models and interpretations for a variety of cultures and ritual practices focusing especially on the location frequency and role of ritual in each of these societies and their resulting archaeological signatures Variation and change in archaic states: ritual as a mechanism of sociopolitical integration Gary M. Feinman The variety of ritual experience in premodern states Richard Blanton Same same but different: ritual in the archaic states of Pylos and Mycenae Joanne M. A. Murphy Rituals and ceremonies at the Mycenaean Cemetery at Dendra Ann Louise Schallin Feasting and burials on the Peruvian central coast at the onset of the middle horizon Giancarlo Marcone Flores Religious ritual and Wari State expansion Patrick Ryan Williams and Donna J. Nash The role of ideology in emerging hierarchies at late archaic and early horizon sites along the central Coast of Peru Jessica Joyce Christie and Matthew Piscitelli The architecture of ritual and polity at Chaco Canyon Stephen H. Lekson Discussant Alexei Vranich