Barbara L. Stark

With antecedents reaching back to the Olmec era (1500–600 BCE), complex societies from CE 300–900/1000 in the Gulf lowlands display architectural and material culture indications of both authoritarian and collective governance principles over two large areas, each with a distinctive version of a common architectural layout. The two areas include multiple polities adhering to particular layouts of structures providing key urban services. Our information derives from pedestrian surveys and mapping covering about 5,000 km², plus remote sensing over 53,000 km². Remote sensing reveals the extraordinary extent and consistency of the predominant architectural patterns. Starting with the Olmec era and continuing to CE 600 some sculpture glorifies individual rulers, but, at the same time, architecture shows the importance of corporate groups and public access to services that represent a more collective emphasis. Between CE 300 to 900, monumental platforms that supported palatial residences indicate powerful elites and rulers. Long mounds located on each side of the main plazas likely supported multiple rooms used by corporate civic groups. In some centers, multiple plaza groups attest to division of authority across several factions, as do chains of plazas in other cases. Thus, both authoritarian and collective principles are built into the design of urban centers. The replication of common architectural patterns across the study area suggests open networks of interaction consonant with low-density urbanism in the tropics. We concentrate our discussion of governance in south-central Veracruz during CE 300–900, for which we have more complete data, and we more briefly characterize the larger temporal and spatial framework. Eventually these urban networks collapsed due to a complex set of factors, but one ingredient may have been increasing disparities in wealth and corrosion of collective action.

The ballgame, played in an open-air public facility, was an integral institution for most major Mesoamerican centers. Although its social roles likely included political and social mediation among polities or communities, who could witness a game? Our estimates of the numbers of viewers derive from lines of sight toward the playing alley from nearby construction and plazas or other open ground. Focusing on centers in south-central and southern Veracruz, Mexico, we assess court viewership relative to people accommodated in the main plaza to determine the degree to which prime ballgame viewership was restricted. Ratios of prime viewers to plaza capacities for primary and secondary centers show that relative limitations in viewership did not covary consistently with the settlement hierarchy. We show that viewership was markedly curtailed compared to public assembly space in plazas and likely favored the upper echelons of society.

Elaborate urban gardens and parks played key roles in social competition, imperial and primordial symbolism, and public amenity access. Comparative data from 19 societies or cultural traditions indicate the varied content, activities, and contexts of elaborate (and sometimes ordinary) urban gardens and parks in pre-modern states and empires. Despite sparse economic characterizations, investments in them often represented a horizontal grandeur rivalling palatial and monumental construction. Investments in and access to urban parks and gardens are intimately related to the political economy and governance.

This paper presents initial findings from longer-term transdisciplinary research concerning the social dynamics of urban neighbourhoods. It examines the spatial clustering of ethnicity and class in neighbourhoods over urban history, from Bronze Age Mesopotamia to contemporary cities. Fourteen distinct drivers of social clustering are identified, grouped under the headers of macro-structural forces, the state, local regimes and institutions, and bottom–up processes. The operation of these processes is examined through three historical and three archaeological case studies of clustering. It is concluded that: clustering is a common, but not universal, attribute of cities; there is much variation in clustering patterns, both within and between cities and urban traditions; and, consideration of a wide variety of drivers is required to understand historical and modern residential dynamics.

Urban settlement in the western lower Papaloapan River basin in the Gulf lowlands was dispersed and likely employed intensive gardening near domiciles. Land surrounding homes also may have played a symbolic role in these agrarian societies. Water works—formal ponds associated with temple platforms and other prominent structures as well as with many residential mounds—support the idea of symbolic as well as practical functions in land use around buildings. Dispersed occupation occurs in low elevations suited to recessional planting, a technique that takes advantage of dry season ground moisture in low areas where rain and flood waters recede as the water table drops. We analyze elevational zones to show greater settlement density in the low-lying Blanco River delta than in higher elevations upriver. Analysis of distances between archaeological residences and wetlands and drainages shows that residences generally were close to seasonally flooded areas. We also highlight anthropogenic qualities in the alluvial landscape, offering a land use perspective distinct from other views of agricultural intensification. The settlement pattern is compatible with Mesoamerican forms of urbanism.