The Geoarchaeology of a Terraced Landscape

Aleksander Borejsza is professor of archaeology at the Universidad AutOnoma de San Luis PotosI. Isabel RodrIguez LOpez works as a freelance archaeologist in Mexico. Charles D. Frederick is a consulting geoarchaeologist and research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the coeditor of Landscape and Land Use in Postglacial Greece (2000). Michael E. Smith is professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He is the author and editor of several books on the Aztecs, including Aztec City-State Capitals (2008) and The Postclassic Mesoamerican World (2003).

"Landscapes are more than merely composites of features. Not visible but of great importance are the processes by which features form and then evolve through recombination into landscapes. Employing geoarchaeology with a healthy dose of ethnohistory, this book uses a terraced hill in central Mexico to demonstrate--masterfully--how to unravel the subtle nuances and complexities of the creation of landesque capital. It is a major contribution to Mesoamerican studies and stands to revolutionize the field of landscape archaeology." --William E. Doolittle, professor, Department of Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin "This is a first-rate geoarchaeological study, an example of anthropological archaeology at its best. Few studies have dealt so effectively with the specifics of terrace construction, chronology, and function, and especially how terraces may have been modified over time through the impacts of cultural and natural forces. The book will serve as a model for future geoarchaeological studies." --Jeffrey R. Parsons, emeritus professor of anthropology and emeritus curator of Latin American Archaeology, University of Michigan "This is a milestone publication in geoarchaeology and a book that every serious ecologically oriented archaeologist needs to read and have on their bookshelf for consultation in future fieldwork. The authors employ a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of terraced landscapes, integrating ethnohistoric, ethnographic, archival research, and standard archaeological survey and excavation, with geoarchaeological investigation of both prehispanic and modern landscapes. It is one of the most comprehensive and scholarly treatments on the subject available today." --Kenneth Hirth, professor of anthropology, Pennsylvania State University and author Obsidian Craft Production in Ancient Central Mexico (University of Utah Press 2006)