ANT 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Urban Sprawl, Pueblo Bonito, Societal Collapse
Document Summary
Lecture 18: la milpa: research at an ancient maya city. Founded in 1000bc, early settlement was ground level patio group, heavy use of maize, pottery. City-states centered on divine kingship, warfare, population growth, artistic achievement, epigraphy plays major role in classic maya studies. Power was based on economic & religious sanctions. General characteristics of maya cities (plazas, pyramids, palaces, rural population) Evaluating the ancient maya city of la milpa, belize in absence of hieroglyphic text. Re-positioned stela with glyphs, pyramid temple and fallen stela. Modified growth curve population models, political history, & renovation is evident abandonment processes. Importance of studying collepse" in the archaeological record. Societal collapse is one of the few concepts available for examining the longevity and decline of cities. Cities expand/contract & are abandoned w/o total societal collapse (and in other cases cities survive episodes of societal collapse) Importance for global comparisons of urbanism & the organization of human settlements.
