Over two thousand years ago, Oaxaca, Mexico, was the site of one of the New World's earliest episodes of primary state formation and urbanism, and today it is one of the world's archaeologically best-studied regions. This volume, which thoroughly revises and updates the first edition, provides a highly readable yet comprehensive path to acquaint readers with one of the earliest and best-known examples of Native American state formation and its consequences as seen from the perspectives of urbanism, technology, demography, commerce, households, and religion and ritual. Written by prominent archaeological researchers who have devoted decades to Oaxacan research and to the development of suitable social theory, the book places ancient Oaxaca within the context of the history of ideas that have addressed the causes and consequences of social evolutionary change. It also critically evaluates the potential applicability of more recent thinking about state building grounded in collective action and related theories.

THEMATIC ISSUE: RETHINKING URBANIZATION AND ITS LIVING LANDSCAPES FROM THE INSPIRING PERSPECTIVE OF A GREAT “MAESTRO” Edited by Marcella Frangipane and Linda Manzanilla INTRODUCTION. THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF THE “CITY” IN EARLY SOCIETIES Marcella Frangipane THE ORIGINS OF CIVIC LIFE – A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE David Wengrow MESOPOTAMIA AND NEIGHBOURING REGIONS SIXTY YEARS AFTER CITY INVINCIBLE, SURVEYS AND THE URBAN REVOLUTION IN QUESTION Pascal Butterlin THE CITY OF URUK AND ITS HINTERLAND Hans J. Nissen (Hainfeld) THE TYRANNY OF FRICTION Guillermo Algaze REFLECTIONS ON SURVEY AND SURVEILLANCE IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF WESTERN ASIA Susan Pollock, Reinhard Bernbeck LEVANT THE URBANIZATION OF THE SOUTHERN LEVANT IN ITS NEAR EASTERN SETTING Pierre de Miroschedji FAR FROM THE RIVER: PHYSICAL AND METAPHORICAL USE OF THE TERRITORY AND ITS WATER RESOURCES IN EARLY AND MIDDLE BRONZE AGE SYRIA Davide Nadali, Frances Pinnock AFRICA THE ORIGIN OF URBAN SOCIETIES IN THE NILE VALLEY Maria Carmela Gatto URBANISATION IN THE CENTRAL SAHARA IN GARAMANTIAN TIMES: A LOOK FROM THE SOUTH Lucia Mori MESOAMERICA AND THE ANDES CORPORATE SOCIETIES WITH EXCLUSIONARY SOCIAL COMPONENTS: THE TEOTIHUACAN METROPOLIS Linda R. Manzanilla POPULATION, SCALE, AND THE FRAMING OF LONG-TERM HISTORY Gary M. Feinman, Linda M. Nicholas ANCIENT MAYA LOWLANDS: FROM FAKE FEUDS ABOUT “URBANISM” TO RENEWED STUDIES OF SETTLEMENT PATTERNS Dominique Michelet, Philippe Nondédéo ECOLOGICAL VARIATION AND TRAJECTORIES OF PREHISPANIC ANDEAN URBANISM R. Alan Covey WEST OF EDEN: ADAMS VISITS THE ANDES Terence N. D'Altroy EUROPE THE QUESTION OF “PROTO-URBAN” SITES IN LATER PREHISTORIC EUROPE Anthony Harding SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND DEVELOPMENTS TOWARDS URBAN LIFE IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ITALY DURING THE BRONZE AGE Alberto Cazzella, Giulia Recchia BEFORE THE CITY: THE LAST VILLAGES AND PROTO-URBAN CENTRES BETWEEN THE PO AND TIBER RIVERS Andrea Cardarelli Per acquistare l'ebook dei singoli estratti clicca qui

Over the past 70 years, knowledge of the archaeological past has expanded geometrically, enhanced by new methodologies and evolving frameworks. The career and contributions of Robert McC. Adams spurred and spanned this era, as a champion of regional settlement pattern survey in Southwest Asia and an innovative and eclectic theoretician. Spurred initially by the cultural ecology paradigm, Adams rapidly eclipsed it, promoting greater focus on networks of human social relations, multiscale analyses, and more macro-frames for the examination of deep historical records of change. Here, we draw on the findings from two large systematically surveyed regions, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, and southeastern coastal Shandong, China, to illustrate empirically the wisdom of Adams' perspectives for understanding millennial-long records of demographic and political economic transition across these two extensive preindustrial landscapes.

A comprehensive account of a pioneering archaeological project in the province of Shandong that transformed understandings of regional settlement patterns From 1995 to 2007, researchers from China and the United States conducted a systematic, full-coverage regional archaeological survey in southeastern Shandong Province, China, covering an area of more than 1,400 square kilometers. This pioneering multiyear international project transformed the archaeological understanding of regional settlement patterns from the Neolithic to the Han period in southeastern Shandong. As an update of the 2012 synthesis published in Chinese, this volume is the most detailed account of the project in English. The team discovered many new sites, including the earliest known Neolithic settlements in the area, and revealed distinctly different regional settlement patterns in the hinterlands of the two largest late Neolithic sites, Liangchengzhen and Yaowangcheng. The book includes field procedures, methods of analysis, and descriptions of major sites generously illustrated with maps as well as photographs of key artifacts and archaeological localities.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on the BAR Digital platform. Archaeological investigations at the prehispanic Ejutla site in Oaxaca, Mexico, have had a foundational role in reframing our perspectives on Mesoamerican economies, specifically craft specialization. This volume reports on the excavations of a residential complex located at the southern limits of the Valley of Oaxaca system, where evidence was recovered for multiple craft activities associated with a single non-elite domestic unit. The residential occupants crafted a variety of ornaments from marine shell, mostly sourced to the Pacific Coast, but few were consumed by the householders themselves. In addition, the Ejutla craftworkers produced a range of ceramic utilitarian vessels, including domestic wares and figurines, as well as small lapidary objects. Many of the craft goods produced were destined for exchange, circulating in both local and longer-distance networks. The findings have laid a basis for new theorizing on prehispanic economic production and the revision of prior notions that presumed principally local economies, in which specialized production for exchange was centered in nondomestic workshops.