edited by William L. Fash Jr. and Leonardo López Luján
contributions by Dan Healan, Rex Koontz, Alfredo Lopez Austin, Joyce Marcus, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Patricia Plunket, William Ringle, Amparo Robles, William Saturno, Alexandre Tokovinine, Gabriela Urunuela, Zoltan Paulinyi, George J. Bey III, Robert H. Cobean, Ann Cyphers, Anna Di Castro, Barbara W. Fash, Susan Gillespie and David C. Grove
Harvard University Press, 2009
Cloth: 978-0-88402-344-9 | Paper: 978-0-88402-378-4
Library of Congress Classification F1434.2.A7P74 2005
Dewey Decimal Classification 972.01

ABOUT THIS BOOK
ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Art of Urbanism explores how the royal courts of powerful Mesoamerican centers represented their kingdoms in architectural, iconographic, and cosmological terms. Through an investigation of the ecological contexts and environmental opportunities of urban centers, the contributors consider how ancient Mesoamerican cities defined themselves and reflected upon their physical—and metaphysical—place via their built environment. Themes in the volume include the ways in which a kingdom’s public monuments were fashioned to reflect geographic space, patron gods, and mythology, and how the Olmec, Maya, Mexica, Zapotecs, and others sought to center their world through architectural monuments and public art.

This collection of papers addresses how communities leveraged their environment and built upon their cultural and historical roots as well as the ways that the performance of calendrical rituals and other public events tied individuals and communities to both urban centers and hinterlands. Twenty-three scholars from archaeology, anthropology, art history, and religious studies contribute new data and new perspectives to the understanding of ancient Mesoamericans’ own view of their spectacular urban and ritual centers.