Tikal, Guatemala and Mesoamerican urbanism

Haviland, William A.

doi:10.1080/00438243.1970.9979473

Cited by 85 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The Caracol data have been particularly influential in shaping much of this debate, contributing to our understanding of city planning and to the complexities of local populations and politics. At a time when some Mesoamericanists were arguing that Maya sites were ''regal-ritual'' centers (Sanders and Webster 1988), implying a less than urban status, the archaeological data from both Caracol and Tikal, Guatemala, were used to demonstrate a much more complex social situation that was consistent with urbanism (D. Chase et al 1990;Haviland 1970). M. Smith (2007Smith ( , 2010aSmith ( , b, 2011 has since undertaken substantial research on ancient urbanism and demonstrated the diversity that existed in cities and urban planning in antiquity.…”

Section: Maya Urbanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Chase

2016

J Archaeol Res

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Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it is one of the largest, if not the largest Classic period Maya site in the southern Maya Lowlands, home to over 100,000 people at its height between AD 600 and 700. The investigations at Caracol underscore the utility of long-term archaeological projects incorporating large-scale settlement study that combine excavation with varied research designs and the use of a contextual approach. By employing Maya epigraphic history, traditional archaeology, and modern technology like LiDAR, research at Caracol details the rise, maintenance, and fall of an ancient Maya city, affording a large window into ancient Maya lifeways. Archaeological work provides evidence of sustainable agriculture, a market economy, city planning that included a road system, the impact of warfare on the site's inhabitants, the sociopolitical status of women, the role that archaeology can play in refining written history, and the significance of commemorating the cyclical passage of time to the ancient Maya. This article

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Section: Maya Urbanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Chase

2016

J Archaeol Res

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“…Because the spatial parameter was not fully controlled, a multitude of sociopolitical models proliferated. Long-standing questions about Maya urbanism (35,36), their ancient population sizes (37), and the structure of their states (38) remained unanswered, with some researchers insisting that the Maya were not especially developed (39,40) and others arguing for a range of complex systems (41). Similar issues, largely driven by ethnohistory and not epigraphy, existed in the highlands of Mesoamerica, especially in regard to the extent and role of Tula in central Mexican developments (42).…”

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confidence: 99%

Geospatial revolution and remote sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican archaeology

Chase¹,

Chase²,

Fisher

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

253

139

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The application of light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a laserbased remote-sensing technology that is capable of penetrating overlying vegetation and forest canopies, is generating a fundamental shift in Mesoamerican archaeology and has the potential to transform research in forested areas world-wide. Much as radiocarbon dating that half a century ago moved archaeology forward by grounding archaeological remains in time, LiDAR is proving to be a catalyst for an improved spatial understanding of the past. With LiDAR, ancient societies can be contextualized within a fully defined landscape. Interpretations about the scale and organization of densely forested sites no longer are constrained by sample size, as they were when mapping required laborious on-ground survey. The ability to articulate ancient landscapes fully permits a better understanding of the complexity of ancient Mesoamerican urbanism and also aids in modern conservation efforts. The importance of this geospatial innovation is demonstrated with newly acquired LiDAR data from the archaeological sites of Caracol, Cayo, Belize and Angamuco, Michoacán, Mexico. These data illustrate the potential of technology to act as a catalytic enabler of rapid transformational change in archaeological research and interpretation and also underscore the value of on-the-ground archaeological investigation in validating and contextualizing results.T ransformational changes are rare in archaeology and often are best recognized in hindsight (1). However, there are times when advances in technology are so far reaching that they serve as catalysts in transforming our understanding of both the past and the practice of archaeological research, thus triggering a scientific revolution as conceptualized by Thomas Kuhn (2). We believe that advances in the remote geospatial imaging of cultural landscapes, including ancient communities and their anthropogenic hinterlands, constitute such an archeological paradigm shift. Here we present newly acquired data from two recent archaeological projects in different parts of Mesoamerica showcasing the application of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology to ancient urban settlements. In both cases, the nearly 3D data are changing commonly held interpretations of societal development profoundly. The phenomenon described is not limited to archaeology; technical innovations have been noted as spawning advances in other areas of research, such as astrophysics (3). However, the magnitude of change enabled by the use of LiDAR technology is particularly apparent in the archaeology of Mesoamerica.Archaeological research revolves around temporal and spatial data; thus, advances in either parameter can be transformative. Histories of archaeology (1, 4) have noted the change in the discipline from an ancient antiquarian focus on objects to the current scientific enterprise. Great enablers of archaeological research have included various technological enhancements to spatial, temporal, and functional interpretations. Although many technical imp...

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“…The commonly used figure of 5.6 people per house comes from Redfield and villa Rojas's (1934) ethnographic study of the Yucatec Maya village of Chan Kom, Yucatán. This figure was used at Mayapán (A. L. Smith 1962) and at Tikal (Haviland 1970). Alternative figures have been put forward based on sixteenth-century ethnohistorical accounts (e.g., the Cozumel census of 1570; Roys et al 1940), such as Haviland's (1972) figure of 4.9 individuals in a nuclear family.…”

Section: Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, Chunchucmil does not exhibit the spatial pattern discussed by Bishop Landa, in which the richest and most powerful people live closest to the site center (Diane Chase [1986] notes that Landa's account, rather than an accurate description of precolonial settlements in Yucatán, may have been plagiarized from earlier descriptions of colonial towns elsewhere in Latin America). Archaeologists have debated whether this spatial pattern, often called concentric, existed at Classic-period sites such as Tikal, Cobá, and Dzibilchaltún (Arnold and Ford 1980;Folan et al 1982Folan et al , 2009Haviland 1966Haviland , 1970Haviland , 1982Hutson 2016;Kurjack 1974). At Chunchucmil, houselots with substantial architecture (group type 10), implying greater control of resources, are just as common in the residential periphery as they are in the residential core Magnoni et al 2012).…”

Section: The Residential Peripherymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient Maya Commerce : Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil

Hutson¹

2017

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Tikal, Guatemala and Mesoamerican urbanism

Cited by 85 publications

References 5 publications

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Geospatial revolution and remote sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican archaeology

Ancient Maya Commerce : Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil

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