Ancient Mesoamerican Population History

Adrian S. Z. Chase is a Mesoamerican archaeologist who is currently at the University of Chicago as a Mansueto Institute postdoctoral fellow and Department of Anthropology postdoctoral scholar.Arlen F. Chase is a Mesoamerican archaeologist who is currently a professor in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Houston and is a co-editor of The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World.Diane Z. Chase is a Mesoamerican archaeologist who is currently provost at the University of Houston and a co-editor (with Arlen F. Chase) of Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment.

“Chase et al. have brought together archaeologists working in the arid highlands and the rainforest lowland of Mesoamerica, where the landscape has traditionally meant radically different field methods were used for survey. The papers include insightful discussions of how population estimates are made from surface scatters of artifacts in highland Mesoamerica (and some areas of the northern Yucatán) and from transect survey and test excavations in the lowlands. The papers will challenge current and future researchers to refine chronologies by including radiocarbon dating, to refine interpretations of mounds in population estimates, and to reevaluate sampling strategies now that LiDAR allows complete coverage of sites and regions. The detailed descriptions of settlement pattern research underscore the varied approaches to common problems of identifying housemounds, houses, family size, and ultimately demographic changes over time.”—Heather McKillop, author of Maya Salt Works “This impressive collection revises and updates estimates of ancient population sizes of cultures in Mexico and Central America, which were first published in the 1980s and 1990s. The new technology of lidar provides detailed data that has revolutionized paleodemography.”—CHOICE Connect