Collaborative Research: Origins of Urbanization and State Formation

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

This project explores the factors that influence state formation and urbanization. During its apogee in the first half of the first millennium CE, Teotihuacan arose to become the largest city of the pre-Columbian Americas. The city was highly planned, with a monumental urban epicenter and densely settled neighborhoods that incorporated a multi-ethnic population of immigrants who arrived from other parts of Mexico and Central America. Among the enigmas that still pertain to the study of this early American metropolis are (1) its tempo and processes of urbanization; (2) the principal factors that fueled its growing population; (3) its political organization; and (4) what architectural complexes served as seats of governance and administration. These issues are critical for improving current understanding of the deep history of the Americas and the human creation of the earliest cities and states across the globe. The diverse makeup of the research team enhances interdisciplinary, international international scientific collaborations. And the project also trains students in methods of conducting rigorous and empirical scientific research. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Saburo Sugiyama (Arizona State University), Dr. Nawa Sugiyama (Smithsonian Institution), and Dr. David Carballo (Boston University), will undertake three years of archaeological research in the Plaza of the Columns Complex, a likely palace or administrative center located between the ancient city?s two largest monuments: the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon. The research involves close international collaboration between researchers from the US, Mexico, and Japan. This multifaceted, interdisciplinary project will examine the economic, political, and ritual activities that sustained the city through its largest, unexcavated administrative complex. The international team will conduct intensive excavation, geophysical prospection, floor-chemistry analyses, and chronological assessment through a combination of ceramic, C14, and archaeomagnetic analyses. Primary objectives are to define these structures as palatial-administrative complexes, record activity areas associated with their public and private functions, and identify who resided in these complexes and what role they played in governing Teotihuacan.