New perspectives on the early cities and states in Mesoamerica

Abstract

The two edited volumes reviewed here provide up-to-date overviews of their respective topics in Mesoamerican archaeology: the development of the early cities in the region (Early Mesoamerican cities) and the ways in which one such city grew to influence or control a large portion of the region (Teotihuacan and Early Classic Mesoamerica). Both volumes were developed from SAA (Society for American Archaeology) conference sessions and—for better or worse—this remains evident in their internal variability in the definition of key terms and the lines of evidence presented in different chapters. Both focus on identifying and discussing the processes behind observed phenomena, rather than binary determinations of whether a given case was or was not a city, state or empire. Most of the chapters in both volumes also include significant quantities of data generated over the past 10–15 years, which provide important updates to traditional narratives. In the case of Cities, the influx of new data is largely driven by the explosive potential of LiDAR to identify landscape-level settlement patterns in lowland portions of Mesoamerica, and the resulting chapters are biased toward lowland cases. In Teotihuacan, much of the new information comes from a majority-Mexican list of authors, who work at sites in a broad range of locations across the country. Both volumes deftly avoid rehashing what have historically been the most visible debates on each of their topics: the Olmec mother/sister culture debate and the nature of Teotihuacan/Maya interaction, respectively.