scholarly journals THE SIZE OF PLAZAS IN MESOAMERICAN CITIES AND TOWNS: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alanna Ossa ◽  
Michael E. Smith ◽  
José Lobo
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Maya Archaeology ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
South Central ◽  
Passive Viewing ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Regional Settlement ◽  
Size Scales

We present quantitative data on population size and plaza area in three groups of ancient Mesoamerican settlements: a sample of 30 Late Postclassic cities and towns from throughout Mesoamerica and two regional settlement systems from the Classic period, including south-central Veracruz (the Mixtequilla) and the Palenque region. Plaza size scales with population in a sublinear relationship in all three groups, meaning that larger settlements had considerably less plaza area per capita than smaller settlements. These results suggest that the currently popular interpretation drawn from Classic Maya archaeology that plazas were places designed to hold the entire urban population for passive viewing of spectacles may be incomplete. We argue that the observed quantitative relationships between population and plaza area support the notion that plazas were designed to be used for a variety of purposes—including several types of ceremonies and marketplaces—held at different times following a regular schedule.

Swamps, canals, and the locations of ancient Maya cities

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (212) ◽  
pp. 206-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. W. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Radar Data ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Rank Ordering ◽  
Topographic Information ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Mapping Discovery

The recent radar mapping discovery of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands provides new perspectives on classic Maya civilization. Swamps seem to have been drained, modified, and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones. The largest sites of Maya civilization are located on the edges of swamps. By combining radar data with topographic information, it is possible to suggest the reasons for the choice of urban locations. With the addition of patterns elicited from rank-ordering of Maya cities, it is also possible to suggest more accurate means of defining Classic period Maya polities.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND EMPLOYMENT FLUCTUATIONS ON RURAL SETTLEMENT TRENDS

Baltic Region ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Gennady M. Fedorov ◽  
Sebastian Kinder ◽  
Tatyana Yu. Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Regional Economies ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Employment Fluctuations ◽  
National Settlement ◽  
National Settlement System ◽  
Regional Settlement

Structural changes in the economy and spatial and inter-settlement differences in living standards and quality of life lead to fundamental alterations in the national settlement system. Settlement polarisation is gathering momentum, along with the movement of rural population from Russia’s east and north to its southern and metropolitan regions. These processes benefit urban agglomerations. Typological differences between regional settlement systems, still poorly understood but essential for strategic and spatial planning, are growing. This article draws on the concept of the geographical demographic situation; it uses official statistics on Russian regions and Kaliningrad municipalities and settlements to explore the connection between rural settlement trends and employment fluctuations caused by structural shifts in Russian regional economies. It is shown how settlement polarisation affects differences in settlement trends of meso- and microdistrict levels. Regions are identified that have a capacity for rural-urban migration and corresponding rural employment structure and trends.

Trace Element Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from a Classic Maya Residential Group at Nohmul, Belize

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Hammond ◽  
Mary D. Neivens ◽  
Garman Harbottle
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation Analysis ◽  
Trace Element Analysis ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Residential Group ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Before And After

Forty-nine obsidian artifacts from a Classic period residential group at Nohmul, northern Belize, have been analyzed by neutron activation analysis. The majority of the samples originated from Ixtepeque, and the remainder from El Chayal. Increasing prominence of the Ixtepeque source from the Late Classic into the Terminal Classic (i.e., before and after ca. A.D. 800) suggests greater use of a coastal distribution route known to have originated in the Formative and to have remained in use through the colonial period.

REGIONAL SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS AND TERRITORIES WITH PREFERENTIAL MODES INTERACTION AND DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES

2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
N.G. YUSHKOVA ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The State ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Planning Practice ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Territorial Planning ◽  
Regional Systems ◽  
Regional Settlement

The presence in the newest Russian urban planning practice of special objects of professional activity - local urbanized formations is revealed. Their appearance is due to the adoption of new regulatory legal acts in various sectors of activity, significantly expanding the scope of the Urban Planning Code of the Russian Federation. They establish general requirements for the formation of territories with preferential development regimes and their subsequent use, which contain the prerequisites for significant changes in the state of territorial objects and their systems. However, to date, they are not fully used either at the stage of developing urban planning documentation, or at the stage of its implementation. Urban planning practice indicates the need to establish the relationship between the properties and characteristics of regional systems of settlements and local formations, depending on environmental factors. As a result of the analysis and systematization of modern experience in the implementation of projects for the development of local territories, the influence of the activity of their urban development on the parameters of the functioning of regional systems has been established. The revealed dependence is proposed to be used in the development of model schemes for the reorganization of regional systems, which characterize their susceptibility to the emergence of new centers of urban development. The expediency of using the developed theoretical models in the process of improving the methodology of territorial planning has been substantiated. Purposeful planning of local territories in settlement systems is presented as forecasting the emergence of new foci of development through a comprehensive assessment and consideration of the available resource potential. Thus, it ensures the regulated development of the territory. This is expressed in the achievement of the predicted parameters of changes in the state of regional settlement systems, corresponding to the conditions and requirements of their functioning. The main difference between the proposed methodology and traditional approaches lies in the simultaneous provision of the stability of the formed spatial structures and the innovation of the forms of regional systems due to the activity of local formations.

Spearthrower Owl Hill: A Toponym at Atetelco, Teotihuacan

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Nielsen ◽  
Christophe Helmke
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Great Size ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Historical Individual ◽  
Naming Practices

The important Classic period site of Teotihuacan is renowned for its great size, ancient influence, and intricately decorated polychrome murals. The latter are the focus of the present study, in particular the unique landscape scene from Murals 2 and 3 from Portico 1 of the North Patio of the Atetelco residential compound that depicts a row of toponymic hill signs. The three hills have identical qualifying elements embedded, identified as combinations of an owl and a spearthrower. The murals thus make a repeated reference to a place named “Spearthrower Owl Hill.” The dating of the murals to the Early Xolalpan phase (ca. A.D. 350–450) makes them contemporary with the so-called Teotihuacan entrada into the Maya lowland sites such as Tikal, where hieroglyphic texts make mention of a Teotihuacan-affiliated individual known as “Spearthrower Owl.” From these findings—and based on Mesoamerican naming practices—we go on to suggest that the Atetelco toponym and the historical individual share the name of a common forebear, possibly that of a previously unidentified Teotihuacan martial patron deity. As such, the Early Classic Teotihuacan “Spearthrower Owl” deity has much in common with the legendary Huitzilopochtli of the Late Postclassic Mexica. Our reexamination of the murals from Atetelco shows the enormous potential that further studies in Teotihuacan writing and iconography still have for our understanding of the history and religion of this major Mesoamerican site.

scholarly journals Detecting Classic Maya Settlements with Lidar-Derived Relief Visualizations

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy E. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
View Factor ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Archaeological Prospection ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Pedestrian Survey ◽  
Visualization Techniques ◽  
The Impact

In the past decade, Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) has fundamentally changed our ability to remotely detect archaeological features and deepen our understanding of past human-environment interactions, settlement systems, agricultural practices, and monumental constructions. Across archaeological contexts, lidar relief visualization techniques test how local environments impact archaeological prospection. This study used a 132 km2 lidar dataset to assess three relief visualization techniques—sky-view factor (SVF), topographic position index (TPI), and simple local relief model (SLRM)—and object-based image analysis (OBIA) on a slope model for the non-automated visual detection of small hinterland Classic (250–800 CE) Maya settlements near the polities of Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il in Southern Belize. Pedestrian survey in the study area identified 315 plazuelas across a 35 km2 area; the remaining 90 km2 in the lidar dataset is yet to be surveyed. The previously surveyed plazuelas were compared to the plazuelas visually identified on the TPI and SLRM. In total, an additional 563 new possible plazuelas were visually identified across the lidar dataset, using TPI and SLRM. Larger plazuelas, and especially plazuelas located in disturbed environments, are often more likely to be detected in a visual assessment of the TPI and SLRM. These findings emphasize the extent and density of Classic Maya settlements and highlight the continued need for pedestrian survey to ground-truth remotely identified archaeological features and the impact of modern anthropogenic behaviors for archaeological prospection. Remote sensing and lidar have deepened our understanding of past human settlement systems and low-density urbanism, processes that we experience today as humans residing in modern cities.

The Politics of Classic-Period Ritual Interaction

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Francis Zeitlin
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Sociopolitical Complexity ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Social Competition ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Regional Centers ◽  
Stone Sculpture ◽  
Coastal Lowlands

AbstractThe Classic period along the Oaxaca Coast was a time of population growth and increased sociopolitical complexity, as marked by the prominence of hierarchical settlement systems, large regional centers, and the proliferation of monumental artworks. An iconographic examination of standing stone sculpture from six archaeological sites between the Rio Verde and the Río de los Perros indicates that these later Classic societies were concerned with the same religious themes that prevailed at that time throughout the Peripheral Coastal Lowlands: the Underworld death and rebirth of the celestial deities in mythical events reenacted in the ritual ballgame. With no single dominant power dictating cult orthodoxy, independent political leaders interpreted these rituals freely. As permanent public expressions of the polity's stature, the sculptures and the religious message they encoded appear to have both enhanced a leader's prestige in intergroup social competition and helped foster internal social differentiation.

The Ballcourt Markers of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gerard Fox
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Blood Sacrifice ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Coast Site

AbstractThis study is an iconographic analysis of ballcourt markers from the Late/Terminal Classic Maya site of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico. The squatting posture of the two figures depicted on these markers, while rare in Lowland Maya art, is compared to Late Postclassic images of the earth deities Tlaltecuhtli and Tlaloc from Central Mexico. Contemporaneous examples of this posture are presented from the Gulf Coast site of El Tajin where squatting figures are associated with the rain god specifically and with the themes of ballgame sacrifice and regeneration in general. Tlaloc imagery in Classic Maya art is related to blood sacrifice as a complex, which includes both ritual warfare and autosacrifice. These forms of sacrifice are discussed as engendered categories in both Classic Maya and Aztec society. The Tenam Rosario markers are found to express themes that are consistent with ballgame symbolism throughout Mesoamerica, while conflating male and female aspects of blood sacrifice as regenerative ritual.

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