Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Over the past 20 years, archaeologists working in the Andes and Mesoamerica have broadened the definitions on urbanism and emphasized the social, political, and economic relations within and between urban settlements. Urban centers in these regions developed much differently from other parts of the world and as such do not conform to Western notions of urbanism. This has prompted the use of new theories, technologies, and methods. Participants in this session revisit perennial questions and debates in Americanist urban archaeology and consider how our understanding of urbanism has changed over the last 20 years. In the process, contributors might also highlight both methodological and technological innovations, the diversity of urban forms and life in ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes, and how such spaces were constituted, experienced, or perceived in the past. Themes to be explored include, among other things, the economic foundations of cities; the spatial organization of urban centers, including dispersed and low-density urbanism; the materiality of urban places and things; urban planning and infrastructures; social arrangements; identities and inequalities; the relational aspects of urban-rural assemblages; and the dynamics and tensions between top-down and bottom-up political processes.
Other Keywords
Urbanism •
Highland Mesoamerica: Classic •
Survey •
Andes: Late Intermediate •
Settlement patterns •
Digital Archaeology: GIS •
Teotihuacan •
Geoarchaeology •
Architecture •
LiDAR
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
Republic of Peru (Country) •
Republic of Panama (Country) •
Republic of Colombia (Country) •
Netherlands Antilles (Country) •
Aruba (Country) •
Republic of Ecuador (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Republic of Chile (Country) •
South America (Continent)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)
- Documents (12)
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The Aesthetics and Poetics of Infrastructures in Ancient Andean Urbanism (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Social scientists have stressed the invisibility of modern infrastructures, whether roads, irrigation systems, or hidden electrical wires and plumbing. They have argued in turn that as a system of interconnected substrates, infrastructures recede to the background and become the subject of conscious reckoning...
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The Casma State Heartland: A Community-Centered Regional Perspective (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation explores the development, apogee, and denouement of the Casma State in the hinterland context of its capital city, El Purgatorio. El Purgatorio developed within a congested countryside populated by ethnically homogenous people who recognized their own North-Central Coastal identity. In the fourteenth...
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Decolonizing the Concept of Urbanism: Early Formative Mesoamerica and Native North America in Comparative Perspective (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The colonialist academic project has long obliterated complexity in the precontact Americas. From the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the complexity of Mesoamerican societies was erased; for example, the massive cities encountered by Cortés were deconstructed as simple villages/towns inhabited by tribes. Not...
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Extending Teotihuacan's Past: Ceramic Insights from Lidar-Based Surface Survey (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation, we will explore the density patterns of ceramics in the Teotihuacan Valley, from the Patlachique phase to the Mexica occupation. Our research is based on an initial ceramic analysis conducted using a recent lidar-based surface survey. To manage and visualize the density maps more efficiently, we...
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Kin, Ancestors, and Commensality: A New Vision for Huari Urbanism in Middle Horizon Peru (600–1000 CE) (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Home to as many as 70,000 residents at its height, Huari was the largest city in the precolumbian Andes. The city’s organization, however, has long perplexed scholars. There is abundance evidence for wealth and significant social stratification, alongside displays of violence and power. Yet, researchers have yet to...
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Measuring Urban Mobility and Accessibility in a Mesoamerican Context (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While spatial analysis has become commonplace in archaeology, the social implications of mobility and accessibility in urban contexts remain an aspect that can be studied in much more depth. Drawing theories and methodologies from urban design has long been a staple for understanding the lived built environment, and...
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Redefining the “City” during a Time of Risk: The Site of Achanchi and the Chanka Heartland of Andahuaylas, Central Highland Peru (1000–1400 CE) (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditional models of ancient cities have dominated archaeological discourse for nearly a century. This paper seeks to diversify definitions and assumptions regarding ancient cities, especially during periods of heightened economic and social risk. Using the large Late Intermediate Period (1000-1400 CE) ridge-top site...
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Settlement Patterns, Urbanism, Neighborhoods: Comparative Perspectives from Grupo Gallinazo and Cerro San Isidro, Coastal Peru (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper explores the formation, morphology, and neighborhood organization of two early urban settlements on the north coast of Peru – Grupo Gallinazo (~100 BCE–700 CE), Virú Valley, and Cerro San Isidro (~800 BCE–1500 CE), Nepeña Valley. Investigating variations in spatial arrangements and settlements at these two...
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Understanding Food Production in Teotihuacan: New Approaches (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Teotihuacan was one of the largest and most prominent ancient cities in Mesoamerica during the Classic period (150-600 CE). The city housed an estimated population of 100,000 people at its height, all in need of food, shelter, and basic necessities. Spaces dedicated to the production and consumption of foodstuffs in...
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Urban Political Systems in the Huaxtec Region: Large-Scale Settlements and Royal Sculpture (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation we explore political arrangements, settlement organization, and urban dwelling in northern Veracruz during the Postclassic Period. We use the spatial distribution of royal Huastec sculpture, and its placement within the sites. We aim to address Huastec cities and urbanism at the local level.
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Visualizing the Origins of Monumentality: The Case of Tiwanaku, Bolivia (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists examining early urban formations in the Andean Lake Titicaca basin have recently framed them as early “proto-urban” centers. In this paper, we reflect on our current understanding of the region’s proto-urbanism by deploying visualization methodologies to synthesize the evidence for Late Formative...
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Xochitécatl-Cacaxtla: Una ciudad dos veces abandonada (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El tema del abandono de las ciudades arqueológicas, se ha tratado en muchos estudios, pero en este caso la particularidad es el “retorno”, en Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla se identifican dos periodos de ocupación, el primero de 800 aC a 200 dC, y el segundo del año 650 dC al 950 dC. La causa del primer abandono fue la erupción...