TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying integrative built environments in the archaeological record
T2 - An application of New Urban Design Theory to ancient urban spaces
AU - Peuramaki-Brown, Meaghan M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported here was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship, the University of Calgary Department of Archaeology and Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, and the Choquette Family Foundation Global Experience Fund. I thank my dissertation committee (Kathryn Reese-Taylor, Geoffrey McCafferty, Scott Raymond, Denise Brown, Marcello Canuto, and Jason Yaeger) for their helpful comments, MVAP staff and students, and the Belize Institute of Archaeology for permission to work at Buenavista del Cayo. I also thank the two anonymous reviewers whose feedback led to significant changes and (I hope) improvements. All errors of fact or interpretation are strictly my own.
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - Ancient Maya settlement patterns have long been described as dispersed. Instances of low-density or dispersed urbanism among agrarian-based societies are common in tropical civilizations, and are of particular interest due to their expressed problem of social integration. Traditionally, archaeologists have focused on classic hallmarks of state integration, including force, infrastructural control, large-scale ritual, and kinship; thus, reflecting the polar extremes of integration. Current models accord a more multi-scalar and dynamic nature to state and urban organization, and the need to pursue diachronic perspectives that consider more subtle and varied degrees of integration. With regard to settlement, examining the total patch of occupation on a landscape, how it developed, how it was divided up, and in turn brought together, is of interest. In this study I apply criteria developed in New Urban Design Theory, a body of thought and practice concerned with modern-day issues of dispersed and low density settlement, to evaluate an architectural complex at the Classic Maya centre of Buenavista del Cayo, Belize, believed to have functioned as an integrative space within the civic entity.
AB - Ancient Maya settlement patterns have long been described as dispersed. Instances of low-density or dispersed urbanism among agrarian-based societies are common in tropical civilizations, and are of particular interest due to their expressed problem of social integration. Traditionally, archaeologists have focused on classic hallmarks of state integration, including force, infrastructural control, large-scale ritual, and kinship; thus, reflecting the polar extremes of integration. Current models accord a more multi-scalar and dynamic nature to state and urban organization, and the need to pursue diachronic perspectives that consider more subtle and varied degrees of integration. With regard to settlement, examining the total patch of occupation on a landscape, how it developed, how it was divided up, and in turn brought together, is of interest. In this study I apply criteria developed in New Urban Design Theory, a body of thought and practice concerned with modern-day issues of dispersed and low density settlement, to evaluate an architectural complex at the Classic Maya centre of Buenavista del Cayo, Belize, believed to have functioned as an integrative space within the civic entity.
KW - Built environment
KW - Community
KW - Integration
KW - Maya
KW - New urban design theory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84886311776&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jaa.2013.09.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jaa.2013.09.006
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:84886311776
SN - 0278-4165
VL - 32
SP - 577
EP - 594
JO - Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
JF - Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
IS - 4
ER -