The Growth Trajectories of Mesoamerican Cities

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The growth trajectory of a city through time is responsive to both internal and external forces. The shapes of such trajectories provide information about a variety of social, political, and economic processes that operated in the past. We present and analyze data from both well-excavated cities and regional settlement surveys in Mesoamerica. The patterns we discuss include: sudden vs. gradual growth; the relative and absolute urban sizes during apogee periods; and the nature of city origins (new foundation vs. growth from an existing smaller settlement), and the frequency of episodes of urban collapse or abandonment.. We explore some of the institutional and social factors that likely contributed to the specific shapes of the urban growth trajectories we identify. This research is part of an interdisciplinary project on the persistence of settlements in premodern times. A better understanding of the shapes and durations of city growth trajectories has implications for research on contemporary settlements, and contributes to the broader field of urban sustainability science.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32527