Settlement and Politics in Three Classic Maya Polities (Monographs in World Archaeology)

Original survey research in the Greater Rosario Valley provides the background to this comparative study of three Maya polities (Rosario, Ojo de Agua and Los Encuentros). Comparison of these three adjoining states is made with reference to multiple features including; civic hierarchies, territorial divisions, political boundaries, capitals, civic plaza layouts, residential compositions, population distributions, civic distributions and government sizes. Because these three polities are outside the most heavily urbanised areas of Maya settlement, the role of peripheries is a central theme in this book, which makes advances in the understanding of political centralization, pyramidal vs.hierarchical regimes and the integration of diverse populations divided by status and ethnicity.