Ancient Mesoamerican Population History: Urbanism, Social Complexity, and Change

Advances in archaeology and technology have changed the way that population estimates can be achieved, providing new understandings of Mesoamerican urbanism, development, and changes over time. This book presents methods for determining population estimates, field methods for settlement pattern studies, and new technologies such as LiDAR that have expanded views of the ground in forested areas. Contributions to this book provide a view of ancient landscape use and modification that was not possible in the twentieth century.

Format: Hardback
Length: 432 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2024
Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Establishing ancient population numbers and determining how they were distributed across a landscape over time are two of the most pressing problems in archaeology. Accurate population data is crucial for modeling, interpreting, and understanding the past. Advances in both archaeology and technology have changed the way that such approximations can be achieved. This book reexamines the demography in ancient Mesoamerica, including research from both highland central Mexico and the tropical lowlands of the Maya and Olmec areas. Contributors present methods for determining population estimates, field methods for settlement pattern studies to obtain demographic data, and new technologies such as LiDAR (light detecting and ranging) that have expanded views of the ground in forested areas. Contributions to this book provide a view of ancient landscape use and modification that was not possible in the twentieth century. This important new work provides new understandings of Mesoamerican urbanism, development, and changes over time.

Contributors:

Traci Ardren
Luke Auld-Thomas
M. Charlotte Arnauld
Barbara Arroyo
Marcello Canuto
Adrian S. Z. Chase
Arlen F. Chase
Diane Z. Chase
Elyse D. Z. Chase
Javier Estrada
Gary M. Feinman
L. J. Gorenflo
Julien Hiquet
Scott R. Hutson
Gerardo Jimenez Delgado
Eva Lemonnier
Rodrigo Liendo
JosÉ Lobo
Javier Lopez Mejia
Michael L. Loughlin
Deborah Nichols
Christopher A. Pool
Ian G. Robertson
Jeremy A. Sabloff
Travis W. Stanton

Weight: 966g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780816553181