1st Edition
Settlement Ecology of the Ancient Americas
In this exciting new volume several leading researchers use settlement ecology, an emerging approach to the study of archaeological settlements, to examine the spatial arrangement of prehistoric settlement patterns across the Americas. Positioned at the intersection of geography, human ecology, anthropology, economics and archaeology, this diverse collection showcases successful applications of the settlement ecology approach in archaeological studies and also discusses associated techniques such as GIS, remote sensing and statistical and modeling applications. Using these methodological advancements the contributors investigate the specific social, cultural and environmental factors which mediated the placement and arrangement of different sites. Of particular relevance to scholars of landscape and settlement archaeology, Settlement Ecology of the Ancient Americas provides fresh insights not only into past societies, but also present and future populations in a rapidly changing world.
Part 1: Overview
Chapter 1. Settlement Ecology in the Ancient Americas: An Introduction by Lucas C. Kellett and Eric E. Jones
Part 2: North America
Chapter 2. The Ecology of Changing Settlement Patterns among Piedmont Village Tradition Communities in Southeastern North America, AD 800–1600 by Eric E. Jones
Chapter 3. Settlement Ecology at Singer-Moye: Mississippian History and Demography in the Southeastern United States by Stefan Brannan and Jennifer Birch
Chapter 4. Settlement Ecology in the Precontact North American Southwest by Scott E. Ingram
Part 3. Central America
Chapter 5. Political-Economic Strategies and Settlement Ecology in the Mesoamerican Gulf Lowlands: Olmec, Epi-Olmec, and Classic Period Settlement in the El Mesón Area of the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin, Veracruz, Mexico by Michael L. Loughlin
Chapter 6. Climate, Ecology, and Social Change in Prehispanic Northwestern Mesoamerica by Michelle Elliot
Chapter 7. Agrarian and Settlement Ecology in the Classic Maya Lowlands: A Comparative Analysis of La Joyanca (Guatemala) and Río Bec (Mexico) by Eva Lemonnier
Chapter 8. Identifying Settlement Variability in the Isthmo-Colombian Area: Alternative models from the Upper General Valley of the Diquis archaeological subregion by Roberto Herrera
Part 4. South America
Chapter 9. Chanka Settlement Ecology: Disentangling Settlement Decision Making during a Time of Risk in the Andean Highlands by Lucas C. Kellett
Chapter 10. Encountering Forgotten Landscapes: Water, Climate, and Two Millenia of Settlement Location Choices in the Ica-Nasca Region of Southern Coastal Peru by Hendrik Van Gijseghem
Chapter 11. The Organics of Settlement Patterns in Amazonia by Fernando Almeida
Biography
Lucas C. Kellett is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maine at Farmington, USA.
Eric E. Jones is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Wake Forest University, USA.
