front cover of Ancient Mesoamerican Population History
Ancient Mesoamerican Population History
Urbanism, Social Complexity, and Change
Adrian S. Z. Chase, Arlen F. Chase, and Diane Z. Chase
University of Arizona Press, 2024

Establishing ancient population numbers and determining how they were distributed across a landscape over time constitute two of the most pressing problems in archaeology. Accurate population data is crucial for modeling, interpreting, and understanding the past. Now, advances in both archaeology and technology have changed the way that such approximations can be achieved.

Including research from both highland central Mexico and the tropical lowlands of the Maya and Olmec areas, this book reexamines the demography in ancient Mesoamerica. Contributors present methods for determining population estimates, field methods for settlement pattern studies to obtain demographic data, and new technologies such as LiDAR (light detecting and ranging) that have expanded views of the ground in forested areas. Contributions to this book provide a view of ancient landscape use and modification that was not possible in the twentieth century. This important new work provides new understandings of Mesoamerican urbanism, development, and changes over time.

Contributors

Traci Ardren

M. Charlotte Arnauld

Bárbara Arroyo

Luke Auld-Thomas

Marcello A. Canuto

Adrian S. Z. Chase

Arlen F. Chase

Diane Z. Chase

Elyse D. Z. Chase

Javier Estrada

Gary M. Feinman

L. J. Gorenflo

Julien Hiquet

Scott R. Hutson

Gerardo Jiménez Delgado

Eva Lemonnier

Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo

José Lobo

Javier López Mejía

Michael L. Loughlin

Deborah L. Nichols

Christopher A. Pool

Ian G. Robertson

Jeremy A. Sabloff

Travis W. Stanton

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front cover of Bones of the Maya
Bones of the Maya
Studies of Ancient Skeletons
Edited by Stephen L. Whittington and David M. Reed
University of Alabama Press, 2006
Brings together for the first time a broad spectrum of bioarchaeologists and reveals remarkable data on Maya genetic relationship, demographic, and diseases

New techniques in osteology have yielded findings on Maya diet and health that challenge the ecological model of collapse. This benchmark collection of essays defined the state of Mayan skeletal studies. Its coverage spans the formative through colonial periods, with a geographic focus on the Maya lowlands of northern Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras. Bringing together for the first time a broad spectrum of bioarchaeologists and revealing remarkable data on Maya genetic relationship, demographic, and diseases, the collection covers divers topics such as osteological, dental, bone chemistry, and DNA analyses. The diet and health status of Maya populations is a major theme, especially in relation to social status, gender, and the historical problem of the "collapse." 
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