ABOUT THIS BOOK

This volume celebrates the continuing impact of the most notable contributions from The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization by William T. Sanders, Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley. In 1979, this influential work synthesized the results of the Basin of Mexico survey projects and follow-up excavations at several sites, while providing theoretical and methodological lines of research in central Mexico and generally in Mesoamerica.

More than four decades after that book’s publication, the fourteen contributions in this volume review and analyze its theoretical and methodological influence in light of recent research across disciplines. Among a spectrum of authors representing several generations are those who participated directly in the Basin of Mexico surveys—including the late Jeffrey R. Parsons—as well as those who have been actively working on recent projects in the basin and neighboring regions.

Providing a broad and multidisciplinary perspective of the present and future state of research in the area, The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico will be of interest to Mesoamerican and Latin American archaeologists as well as geographers, geologists, historians, and specialists in the study of past environments.

Contributors: Guillermo Acosta Ochoa, Aleksander Borejsza, Destiny Crider, Charles Frederick, Raúl García-Chávez, Larry Gorenflo, Angela Huster, Georgina Ibarra Arzave, Charles Kolb, Frank Lehmkuhl, Abigail Meza Peñaloza, Emily McClung de Tapia, John K. Millhauser, Deborah Nichols, Jeffrey R. Parsons, Serafin Sánchez Pérez, Philipp Schulte, Sergey Sedov, Elizabeth Solleiro Rebolledo, Daisy Valera Fenández, Federico Zertuche

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Carlos E. Cordova is a professor in the Department of Geography at Oklahoma State University. His research centers on geoarchaeology, human-environmental relations in the past, and paleoecology.

Christopher T. Morehart is an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His research centers on political and historical ecology and ethnobotany.

REVIEWS

“An astounding reflection on the legacy of the 1979 masterwork. The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico thoughtfully engages a wide range of voices to reposition themes from the original Green Book in a contemporary context.”
—Kirby Farrah, Gettysburg College

"A fitting tribute to the conceptual frame that stimulated the rapid expansion of empirical information at a regional scale and the archaeological giants who implemented those field studies."
—Gary M. Feinman, The Field Museum

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

1. The Legacies of the Green Book | Carlos E. Cordova and Christopher T. Morehart

Part I: The Basin of Mexico Survey and the Green Book Today

2. The Evolution of a Revolution: The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization | Deborah L. Nichols

3. The Teotihuacan Valley Project and the Teotihuacan Mapping Project: Reflections on the Rural and Urban Classic Teotihuacan Period Research in the Teotihuacan Valley, 1962–1964 | Charles C. Kolb

Part II: New Approaches to the Green Book’s Contribution to Settlement and Demography

4. Why Is Aztec II Black-on-Orange Pottery So Scarce in the Zumpango Region? A Regional Perspective from the Basin of Mexico on Tula’s Collapse and Its Aftermath | Jeffrey R. Parsons and L. J. Gorenflo

5. A Study of Non-Metric Skull Traits from Tlatilco and Xico, in Relation to Classic Teotihuacan | Abigail Meza-Peñaloza, Federico Zertuche, and Raúl García Chávez

6. Mind the Gaps: Thoughts on the Merits of Exploring between the Archaeological Sites Discovered by the Basin of Mexico Survey | Charles Frederick

7. Modern Regional Demographics and Land Use in the Basin of Mexico: Insights from and Impacts on the Archaeological Record | L. J. Gorenflo

Part III: New Approaches to Studying Processes of Environmental Change across Space and Time

8. The Prehispanic Soil Cover of the Basin of Mexico: Its Potential as a Natural Resource in the Teotihuacan Valley | Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo, Serafín Sánchez-Pérez, Georgina Ibarra-Arzave, Sergey Sedov, Frank Lehmkuhl, Philipp Schulte, and Daisy Val

9. Ancient Settlements, Sediments, and Prehistoric Lacustrine Dynamics in Lake Texcoco | Carlos E. Cordova

Part IV: New Observations on Resource Exploitation

10. From Tlacolol to Metepantle: A Reappraisal of the Antiquity of the Agricultural Niches of the Central Mexican Symbiotic Region | Aleksander Borejsza

11. Postclassic/Early Colonial Period Chinampas at El Japón, San Gregorio Atlapulco, Xochimilco: Construction and Chronology | Emily McClung de Tapia and Guillermo Acosta Ochoa

Part V: Reexamining the Political Economy of Interaction in the Basin of Mexico and Beyond

12. Advances in the Study of Archaeological Ceramics of the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Basin of Mexico | Destiny L. Crider

13. Pax Tolteca? Collapse, Conflict, and the Formation of the Tula State | Christopher Morehart, Angela Huster, Abigail Meza-Peñaloza, and Sofía Pacheco-Forés

14. Slow Violence and Vulnerability in the Basin of Mexico | John K. Millhauser

Index

List of Contributors

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