Name: Ancient Mesoamerican Population History: Urbanism, Social Complexity, and Change
Author: Chase, Diane Z.
ISBN: 9780816553181

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Establishing ancient population numbers and determining how they were distributed across a landscape over time constitute two of the most pressing problems in archaeology. Accurate population data is crucial for modeling, interpreting, and understanding the past. Now, advances in both archaeology and technology have changed the way that such approximations can be achieved.

Including research from both highland central Mexico and the tropical lowlands of the Maya and Olmec areas, this book reexamines the demography in ancient Mesoamerica. 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

M. Charlotte Arnauld

Bárbara Arroyo

Luke Auld-Thomas

Marcello A. 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 Jiménez Delgado

Eva Lemonnier

Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo

José Lobo

Javier López Mejía

Michael L. Loughlin

Deborah L. Nichols

Christopher A. Pool

Ian G. Robertson

Jeremy A. Sabloff

Travis W. Stanton

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Adrian S. Z. Chase is a Mesoamerican archaeologist who is currently at the University of Chicago as a Mansueto Institute postdoctoral fellow and Department of Anthropology postdoctoral scholar.

Arlen F. Chase is a Mesoamerican archaeologist who is currently a professor in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Houston and is a co-editor of The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World.

Diane Z. Chase is a Mesoamerican archaeologist who is currently provost at the University of Houston and a co-editor (with Arlen F. Chase) of Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment.

REVIEWS

“Chase et al. have brought together archaeologists working in the arid highlands and the rainforest lowland of Mesoamerica, where the landscape has traditionally meant radically different field methods were used for survey. The papers include insightful discussions of how population estimates are made from surface scatters of artifacts in highland Mesoamerica (and some areas of the northern Yucatán) and from transect survey and test excavations in the lowlands. The papers will challenge current and future researchers to refine chronologies by including radiocarbon dating, to refine interpretations of mounds in population estimates, and to reevaluate sampling strategies now that LiDAR allows complete coverage of sites and regions. The detailed descriptions of settlement pattern research underscore the varied approaches to common problems of identifying housemounds, houses, family size, and ultimately demographic changes over time.”—Heather McKillop, author of Maya Salt Works— -

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication
Foreword
List of Figures
List of Tables

I. The Present
1. Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, and Adrian S.Z. Chase – Archaeological Population Studies
in Mesoamerica

II. Urban Considerations
2. Barbara Arroyo and Javier Estrada – The Population of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala during the Preclassic Period: New Perspectives and Considerations
3. Adrian S.Z. Chase, Elyse D.Z. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, and Arlen F. Chase – Population History for Caracol, Belize: Numbers, Complexity, and Urbanism
4. Travis W. Stanton, Scott R. Hutson, and Traci Ardren – People, Pixels, and Points per Square Meter: Using Lidar to Estimate Populations at Coba, Quintana Roo

III. Maya Regional Considerations
5. Scott R. Hutson – Population Estimates and Population Movement in Northwest Yucatan, Mexico
6. M. Charlotte Arnauld, Eva Lemonnier, and Julien Hiquet – Classic Maya Population History as Seen from Rio Bec, Campeche, Mexico
7. Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo, Javier López Mejía, and Gerardo Jiménez Delgado – Ancient Population History in the Palenque Region: The Problem of the Selection of Population Proxies
8. Marcello A. Canuto and Luke Auld-Thomas – Greater than the Sum of Its Surveyed Parts: Reconstructing the Population of Late Classic Peten with Updated Methods and New Data

IV. Central Mexican Regional Considerations
9. Larry J. Gorenflo, Ian G. Robertson, and Deborah Nichols – The Basin of Mexico: Revisiting Prehispanic Population
10. Gary M. Feinman – Prehispanic Population Estimates for the Valley of Oaxaca
11. Christopher A. Pool and Michael L. Loughlin – Reconstructing Population Histories in the Gulf Lowlands: Review and Prospect

V. The Future
12. Jeremy A. Sabloff – Some Comments on Major issues in the Study of Ancient Mesoamerican Population Estimates
13. Adrian S.Z. Chase and José Lobo – The Future of Mesoamerican Settlement Archaeology and Urban Science