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Ancient Maya Cityscapes
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Book Synopsis Approaches to Monumental Landscapes of the Ancient Maya by : Brett Alan Houk
Download or read book Approaches to Monumental Landscapes of the Ancient Maya written by Brett Alan Houk and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a wide spectrum of new approaches to ancient Maya studies in an innovative exploration of how the Preclassic and Classic Maya shaped their world. Moving beyond the towering temples and palaces typically associated with the Maya civilization, contributors present unconventional examples of monumental Maya landscapes. Featuring studies from across the central Maya lowlands, Belize, and the northern and central Maya highlands and spanning over 10,000 years of human occupation in the region, these chapters show how the word "monumental" can be used to describe natural and constructed landscapes, political and economic landscapes, and ritual and sacred landscapes. Examples include a massive system of aqueducts and canals at the Kaminaljuyu site, a vast arena designed for public spectacle at Chan Chich, and even the complex realms of Maya cosmology as represented by the ritual cave at Las Cuevas. By including physical, conceptual, and symbolic ways monumentality pervaded ancient Maya culture, this volume broadens traditional understandings of how the Maya interacted with their environment and provides exciting analytical perspectives to guide future study. A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase
Book Synopsis Lost Cities and Ancient Temples of Mesoamerica by : LEARN ALCHEMICAL
Download or read book Lost Cities and Ancient Temples of Mesoamerica written by LEARN ALCHEMICAL and published by DTTV PUBLICATIONS. This book was released on with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization founded by the Maya peoples. It was noted for its hieroglyphic script—the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas—and its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical design. Since the 1990s, what were once considered mysterious ruins in Mexico have been reconstructed by Archaeologist Winslow Bradford. The complex structures were made of lime-plastered mud bricks with an internal wood framework supporting heavy loads and a stone foundation below. Mayan temples were a place for playing games, holding feasts, and rituals involving human sacrifice. The Maya people-built pyramids as places to worship their gods. These pyramids usually had several smaller temples on top to honor their gods. Worshippers would climb the steep steps up to the temple at the top of the pyramid to leave gifts and pray. Some pyramids also had "sacred stairways" or ramps leading up to them. You might be interested to learn that the Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization established by the Maya peoples and renowned for its hieroglyphic script—the only known fully developed language system of the pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its architectural design, engineering, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical design. Mayans were a Mesoamerican civilization living in what is now Guatemala, Honduras, and parts of Mexico. They are believed to have had some contact with the Olmecs who preceded them in Mexico. Their culture ultimately became more complex than other nearby civilizations such as Teotihuacan (in today's Mexico City), Zapotec (in today's Oaxaca), or Tula (in today's Hidalgo). The rise and fall of these three kingdoms left behind massive monuments still standing today that had survived centuries without being covered by new civilizations coming in on top of them. Like happened at many other sites around Mexico & Central America, where older buildings were simply built over when newer ones came along later on top of them...
Book Synopsis The Technology of Maya Civilization by : Zachary X. Hruby
Download or read book The Technology of Maya Civilization written by Zachary X. Hruby and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Maya shaped their world with stone tools. Lithic artifacts helped create the cityscape and were central to warfare and hunting, craft activities, cooking, and ritual performance. 'The Technology of Maya Civilization' examines Maya lithic artefacts made of chert, obsidian, silicified limestone, and jade to explore the relationship between ancient civilizations and natural resources. The volume presents case studies of archaeological sites in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. The analysis draws on innovative anthropological theory to argue that stone artefacts were not merely cultural products but tools that reproduced, modified, and created the fabric of society.
Download or read book Collapse written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times
Book Synopsis The Archaeology of Ancient Cities by : Glenn R. Storey
Download or read book The Archaeology of Ancient Cities written by Glenn R. Storey and published by Eliot Werner Publications. This book was released on 2020-12-31 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities are the largest "artifacts" investigated by archaeologists--entities that have been under academic scrutiny for a long time. Urban places are both physical and social agglomerations, fostering the most intense interaction of any human settlement. Archaeological evidence illustrates how ancient cities worldwide were similar in origin, development, and maturation, showing considerable isomorphism with modern cities. This book explores issues of definition and the essential elements of cities, offers a new heuristic typology of cities, and reviews case studies of six ancient cities (Copan, Great Zimbabwe, Gyeongju, Hierakonpolis, Rome, and Teotihuacan) with illustrative exercises at the end of each chapter. Cities have been characterized as "social reactors" working much like a star in creating an explosive increase in human connectivity. Urban planning, both ancient and modern, helps us understand the essence of this--the most exciting and vibrant product of the human tendency to nucleate.
Book Synopsis City-states of the Maya by : Rocky Mountain Institute for Pre-Columbian Studies
Download or read book City-states of the Maya written by Rocky Mountain Institute for Pre-Columbian Studies and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis The Ancient Urban Maya by : Scott R. Hutson
Download or read book The Ancient Urban Maya written by Scott R. Hutson and published by . This book was released on 2018-01-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hutson examines the Mesoamerican lowland cities of the empire and asks, "Why did people choose to live in cities?" Offering a synthesis of previous research on Maya cities, Hutson describes the composition and attractions of these cities by examining the function of boundaries, agency, and the actors involved."--Source inconnue.
Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya by : Walter R. T. Witschey
Download or read book Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya written by Walter R. T. Witschey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-12-24 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya offers an A-to-Z overview of the ancient Maya culture from its inception around 3000 BC to the Spanish Conquest after AD 1600. Over two hundred entries written by more than sixty researchers explore subjects ranging from food, clothing, and shelter to the sophisticated calendar and now-deciphered Maya writing system. They bring special attention to environmental concerns and climate variation; fresh understandings of shifting power dynamics and dynasties; and the revelations from emerging field techniques (such as LiDAR remote sensing) and newly explored sites (such as La Corona, Tamchen, and Yaxnohkah). This one-volume reference is an essential companion for students studying ancient civilizations, as well as a perfect resource for those planning to visit the Maya area. Cross-referencing, topical and alphabetical lists of entries, and a comprehensive index help readers find relevant details. Suggestions for further reading conclude each entry, while sidebars profile historical figures who have shaped Maya research. Maps highlight terrain, archaeological sites, language distribution, and more; over fifty photographs complement the volume.
Book Synopsis Early Mesoamerican Cities by : Michael Love
Download or read book Early Mesoamerican Cities written by Michael Love and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-06 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urbanization is a phenomenon that brings into focus a range of topics of broad interest to scholars. It is one of the central, enduring interests of anthropological archaeology. Because urbanization is a transformational process, it changes the relationships between social and cultural variables such as demography, economy, politics, and ideology. As one of a handful of cases in the ancient world where cities developed independently, Mesoamerica should play a major role in the global, comparative analysis of first-generation cities and urbanism in general. Yet most research focuses on later manifestations of urbanism in Mesoamerica, thereby perpetuating the fallacy that Mesoamerican cities developed relatively late in comparison to urban centers in the rest of the world. This volume presents new data, case studies, and models for approaching the subject of early Mesoamerican cities. It demonstrates how the study of urbanism in Mesoamerica, and all ancient civilizations, is entering a new and dynamic phase of scholarship.
Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology by : Deborah L. Nichols
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology written by Deborah L. Nichols and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-22 with total page 996 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology provides a current and comprehensive guide to the recent and on-going archaeology of Mesoamerica. Though the emphasis is on prehispanic societies, this Handbook also includes coverage of important new work by archaeologists on the Colonial and Republican periods. Unique among recent works, the text brings together in a single volume article-length regional syntheses and topical overviews written by active scholars in the field of Mesoamerican archaeology. The first section of the Handbook provides an overview of recent history and trends of Mesoamerica and articles on national archaeology programs and practice in Central America and Mexico written by archaeologists from these countries. These are followed by regional syntheses organized by time period, beginning with early hunter-gatherer societies and the first farmers of Mesoamerica and concluding with a discussion of the Spanish Conquest and frontiers and peripheries of Mesoamerica. Topical and comparative articles comprise the remainder of Handbook. They cover important dimensions of prehispanic societies--from ecology, economy, and environment to social and political relations--and discuss significant methodological contributions, such as geo-chemical source studies, as well as new theories and diverse theoretical perspectives. The Handbook concludes with a section on the archaeology of the Spanish conquest and the Colonial and Republican periods to connect the prehispanic, proto-historic, and historic periods. This volume will be a must-read for students and professional archaeologists, as well as other scholars including historians, art historians, geographers, and ethnographers with an interest in Mesoamerica.
Book Synopsis The Maya Forest Garden by : Anabel Ford
Download or read book The Maya Forest Garden written by Anabel Ford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using studies on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, the authors show that the ancient Maya were able to support, sustainably, a vast population by farming the forest—thus refuting the common notion that Maya civilization devolved due to overpopulation and famine.
Book Synopsis Mesoamerican Archaeology by : Lisa Overholtzer
Download or read book Mesoamerican Archaeology written by Lisa Overholtzer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-02-22 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique and wide-ranging introduction to the major prehispanic and colonial societies of Mexico and Central America, featuring new and revised material throughout Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice, Second Edition, provides readers with a diverse and well-balanced view of the archaeology of the indigenous societies of Mexico and Central America, helping students better understand key concepts and engage with contemporary debates and issues within the field. The fully updated second edition incorporates contemporary research that reflects new approaches and trends in Mesoamerican archaeology. New and revised chapters from first-time and returning authors cover the archaeology of Mesoamerican cultural history, from the early Gulf Coast Olmec, to the Classic and Postclassic Maya, to the cultures of Oaxaca and Central Mexico before and after colonization. Presenting a wide range of approaches that illustrate political, socio-economic, and symbolic interpretations, this textbook: Encourages students to consider diverse ways of thinking about Mesoamerica: as a linguistic area, as a geographic region, and as a network of communities of practice Represents a wide spectrum of perspectives and approaches to Mesoamerican archaeology, including coverage of the Postclassic and Colonial periods Enables readers to think critically about how explanations of the past are produced, verified, and debated Includes accessible introductory material to ensure that students and non-specialists understand the chronological and geographic frameworks of the Mesoamerican tradition Discusses recent developments in the contemporary theory and practice of Mesoamerican archaeology Presents new and original research by a team of internationally recognized contributors Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice, Second Edition, is ideal for use in undergraduate courses on the archaeology of Mexico and Central America, as well as for broader courses on the archaeology of the Americas.
Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology by : Christian Isendahl
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology written by Christian Isendahl and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology presents theoretical discussions, methodological outlines, and case-studies describing the field of overlap between historical ecology and the emerging sub-discipline of applied archaeology to highlight how modern environments and landscapes have been shaped by humans. Historical ecology is based on the recognition that humans are not only capable of modifying their environments, but that all environments on earth have already been directly or indirectly modified. This includes anthropogenic climate change, widespread deforestations, and species extinctions, but also very local alterations, the effects of which may last a few years, or may have legacies lasting centuries or more. With contributions from anthropologists, archaeologists, human geographers, and historians, this volume focuses not just on defining human impacts in the past, but on the ways that understanding these changes can help inform contemporary practices and development policies. Some chapters present examples of how ancient or current societies have modified their environments in sustainable ways, while others highlight practices that had unintended long-term consequences. The possibilities of learning from these practices are discussed, as is the potential of using the long history of human resource exploitation as a method for building or testing models of future change. The volume offers overviews for students, researchers, and professionals with an interest in conservation or development projects who want to understand what practical insights can be drawn from history, and who seek to apply their work to contemporary issues.
Book Synopsis Capturing the Senses by : Giacomo Landeschi
Download or read book Capturing the Senses written by Giacomo Landeschi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-06-12 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open-access book surveys how digital technology can contribute effectively to improving our understanding of the past, through a sensory engagement based on the evidence of material culture. In particular, it encourages specialists to consider senses and human agency as important factors in studying ancient space, while recognising the role played by digital tools in enhancing a human-centred form of analysis. Significant advances in archaeological computing, digital methods, and sensory approaches have led archaeologists to rethink strategies and methods for creating narratives of the past. Recent progress in data visualisation and implementation, as well as other nascent digital sensory methods, means that it is now easier to explore and experience ancient space from a multiscalar perspective, from the individual body or single building to the wider landscape. The chapters in Capturing the Senses: Digital Methods for Sensory Archaeologies present innovative methods for representing an embodied experience of ancient space, simulating (but not recreating) ancient behaviours and social interaction. Chapters cover topics including the potentials and pitfalls of visualising, recreating, and re-enacting/experiencing the senses in Virtual Reality environments and also digital reconstructions and auralisations of ancient spaces to study sound sensory perception. Overall, the book demonstrates that multisensory approaches can give a new perspective on how ancient spaces were intended to be used by inhabitants to fulfil a series of purposes including conveying messages and regulating movement. This is an open-access book.
Book Synopsis Urbanism in the Preindustrial World by : Glenn R. Storey
Download or read book Urbanism in the Preindustrial World written by Glenn R. Storey and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2006-04-30 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The growth of Greek cities in the first millennium BC / Ian Morris -- Did the population of imperial Rome reproduce itself? / Elio Lo Cascio -- Epidemics, age at death, and mortality in ancient Rome / Richard R. Paine and Glenn R. Storey -- Seasonal mortality in imperial Rome and the Mediterranean : three problem cases / Brent D. Shaw -- Population relationships in and around medieval Danish towns / Hans Christian Petersen, Jesper L. Boldsen, and Richard R. Paine -- Colonial and postcolonial New York : issues of size, scale, and structure / Nan A. Rothschild -- An urban population from Roman Upper Egypt / Roger S. Bagnall -- Precolonial African cities : size and density / Chapurukha Kusimba, Sibel Barut Kusimba, and Babatunde Agbaje-Williams -- Urbanization in China : Erlitou and its hinterland / Li Liu -- Population growth and change in the ancient city of Kyongju / Sarah M. Nelson -- Population dynamics and urbanism in premodern island Southeast Asia / Laura Lee Junker -- Identifying Tiwanaku urban populations : style, identity, and ceremony in Andean cities / John Wayne Janusek and Deborah E. Blom -- Late classic Maya population : characteristics and implications / Don S. Rice -- Mortality through time in an impoverished residence of the Precolumbian city of Teotihuacan : a paleodemographic view / Rebecca Storey -- The evolution of regional demography and settlement in the prehispanic Basin of Mexico / L.J. Gorenflo -- Factoring the countryside into urban populations / David B. Small -- Shining stars and black holes : population and preindustrial cities / Deborah L. Nichols.
Book Synopsis Landscapes of the Itza by : Linnea Wren
Download or read book Landscapes of the Itza written by Linnea Wren and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An insightful collection, rich in new data and insights; at once the harvest of a generation of fieldwork and the foundation for work to come."--Mary E. Miller, coauthor of The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak "Reminds us that there are always new things to learn about iconic places like Chichen Itza and that we can fall in love with them all over again."--Jennifer P. Mathews, coeditor of Lifeways in the Northern Maya Lowlands: New Approaches to Archaeology in the Yucatan Peninsula "Long overdue. Brings together new data and interpretations about Chichen Itza through a refreshing mix of art history and archaeology, particularistic interpretation, and cross-cultural modeling."--Scott R. Hutson, author of The Ancient Urban Maya: Neighborhoods, Inequality, and Built Form Chichen Itza, the legendary capital and trading hub of the late Maya civilization, continues to fascinate visitors and researchers with unanswered questions about its people, rulers, rituals, economics, religion, politics, and even chronology. Addressing many of these current debates, contributors to Landscapes of the Itza question when the city's construction was completed, what the purposes of its famous pyramid and other buildings were, whether the city maintained strict territorial borders, and how the city's influence was felt in smaller neighboring settlements such as Popola, Ichmul de Morley, and Ek Balam. Special attention is given to the site's visual culture, including its architecture, epigraphy, ceramics, sculptures, and murals. This volume is a much-needed update on recent archaeological and art historical work being done at Chichen Itza, offering new ways of understanding the site and its role in the Yucatan landscape.
Book Synopsis Landscapes and Societies by : I. Peter Martini
Download or read book Landscapes and Societies written by I. Peter Martini and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-11-09 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains case histories intended to show how societies and landscapes interact. The range of interest stretches from the small groups of the earliest Neolithic, through Bronze and Iron Age civilizations, to modern nation states. The coexistence is, of its very nature reciprocal, resulting in changes in both society and landscape. In some instances the adaptations may be judged successful in terms of human needs, but failure is common and even the successful cases are ephemeral when judged in the light of history. Comparisons and contrasts between the various cases can be made at various scales from global through inter-regional, to regional and smaller scales. At the global scale, all societies deal with major problems of climate change, sea-level rise, and with ubiquitous problems such as soil erosion and landscape degradation. Inter-regional differences bring out significant detail with one region suffering from drought when another suffers from widespread flooding. For example, desertification in North Africa and the Near East contrasts with the temperate countries of southern Europe where the landscape-effects of deforestation are more obvious. And China and Japan offer an interesting comparison from the standpoint of geological hazards to society - large, unpredictable and massively erosive rivers in the former case, volcanoes and accompanying earthquakes in the latter. Within the North African region localized climatic changes led to abandonment of some desertified areas with successful adjustments in others, with the ultimate evolution into the formative civilization of Egypt, the "Gift of the Nile". At a smaller scale it is instructive to compare the city-states of the Medieval and early Renaissance times that developed in the watershed of a single river, the Arno in Tuscany, and how Pisa, Siena and Florence developed and reached their golden periods at different times depending on their location with regard to proximity to the sea, to the main trunk of the river, or in the adjacent hills. Also noteworthy is the role of technology in opening up opportunities for a society. Consider the Netherlands and how its history has been formed by the technical problem of a populous society dealing with too much water, as an inexorably rising sea threatens their landscape; or the case of communities in Colorado trying to deal with too little water for farmers and domestic users, by bringing their supply over a mountain chain. These and others cases included in the book, provide evidence of the successes, near misses and outright failures that mark our ongoing relationship with landscape throughout the history of Homo sapiens. The hope is that compilations such as this will lead to a better understanding of the issue and provide us with knowledge valuable in planning a sustainable modus vivendi between humanity and landscape for as long as possible. Audience: The book will interest geomorphologists, geologists, geographers, archaeologists, anthropologists, ecologists, environmentalists, historians and others in the academic world. Practically, planners and managers interested in landscape/environmental conditions will find interest in these pages, and more generally the increasingly large body of opinion in the general public, with concerns about Planet Earth, will find much to inform their opinions. Extra material: The color plate section is available at http://extras.springer.com
