1st Edition

Architectural Energetics in Archaeology Analytical Expansions and Global Explorations

Edited By Leah McCurdy, Elliot M. Abrams Copyright 2019
322 Pages
by Routledge

322 Pages
by Routledge

322 Pages
by Routledge

Archaeologists and the public at large have long been fascinated by monumental architecture built by past societies. Whether considering the earthworks in the Ohio Valley or the grandest pyramids in Egypt and Mexico, people have been curious as to how pre-modern societies with limited technology were capable of constructing monuments of such outstanding scale and quality. Architectural energetics... Read more



1: Massive Assumptions and Moundbuilders: The History, Method, and Relevance of Architectural Energetics



Elliot M. Abrams and Leah McCurdy





2: Built Environments and Social Organizations: A Comparative View from Asia



Nam C. Kim and Jina Heo





3: Pharaonic Power and Architectural Labor Investment at the Karnak Temple Complex



Megan Drennan and Michael J. Kolb





4: An Energetics Approach to the Construction of the Heuneburg: Thoughts on Celtic Labor Cost Choices



François Remise





5: To House and Defend: The Application of Architectural Energetics to Southeast Archaic Greek Sicily



Jerrad Lancaster





6: Labor Mobilization and Medieval Castle Construction in at Salemi, Western Sicily



Michael J. Kolb, Scott Detrich Kirk, and William M. Balco





7: Labor Recruitment among Tribal Societies: An Architectural Energetic Analysis of Serpent Mound, Ohio



Jamie L. Davis, Jarrod Burks, and Elliot M. Abrams





8: The Energetics of Earthen Landscape Modification: An Assessment of an Emerging Mississippian Polity



Cameron H. Lacquement





9: Dual Labor Organization Models for the Construction of Monumental Architecture in a Corporate Society



Anthony James DeLuca





10: Peopling Monuments: Virtual Energetics and Labor Impact Analysis of Monumental Construction at Xunantunich, Belize



Leah McCurdy





11: A Construction Management Approach to Building the Monumental Adobe Ciudadelas at Chan Chan, Peru



Richard L. Smailes





12: Towards a Multiscalar Comparative Approach to Power Relations: Political Dimensions of Urban Construction at Teotihuacan and Copan



Tatsuya Murakami





13: The Future of Architectural Energetics in 2D and 3D



Leah McCurdy and Elliot M. Abrams

Biography

Leah McCurdy is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and a Research Associate with The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Leah earned her PhD from UTSA in 2016 with her dissertation focused on the application of energetics and labor analysis to the ancient Maya site of Xunantunich, Belize. Leah has been excavating at Xunantunich since 2008 to collect data relevant to her research interests in ancient construction practices, cooperative labor, the intersections of monumentality and community, as well as the meaning of the ancient built environment.





Elliot M. Abrams is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Ohio University. He refined and promoted the methodology of architectural energetics in How the Maya Built Their World (1994). In addition to his archaeological research in Mesoamerica, he has conducted excavations in the Ohio Valley for over three decades. He coedited (with AnnCorinne Freter) The Emergence of the Moundbuilders: The Archaeology of Tribal Societies in Southeastern Ohio (2005), which outlines the formation of sedentary tribal communities. He also studies environmental change, economic institutions, and social power through the lens of anthropological archaeology.