Preceramic Mesoamerica

Preceramic Mesoamerica delivers cutting-edge research on the Mesoamerican Paleoindian and Archaic periods.

The chapters address a series of fundamental questions in American archaeology including the peopling of the Americas, human adaptations to late glacial landscapes, the Neolithic transition, and the origins of sedentism and early village life. This volume presents innovative and previously unpublished research on the Paleoindian and Archaic periods and evaluates current models in light of new findings. Examples include breakthroughs in dating Mesoamerica’s earliest sites and their implications for models of hemispheric colonization; the transition to postglacial patterns of settlement and subsistence; divergent pathways to initial sedentism; the possibility of Archaic-period monumentality; changing patterns of interregional exchange and interaction; and debates surrounding the origins of agriculture, ceramics, and full-time village life.

The volume provides a new perspective on the Mesoamerican Preceramic for students and scholars in archaeology, anthropology, and history. Readers will come to understand how the Preceramic contributed to the emergence of the cultural traditions that anthropologists recognize as Mesoamerica.

Jon C. Lohse is a senior associate at Terracon Consultants, Inc., a research associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and a member of the Gault School for Archeological Research. His research interests include Archaic and Paleoindian periods and cultural developments in Central America, environmental reconstruction and adaptation, developing models for locally specific culture histories, and variations in lithic technologies.

Aleksander Borejsza is a full-time Professor and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He has excavated in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Spain. He uses archaeology and earth science to study past agriculture and rural life, the Preceramic and Formative periods of Mesoamerica, and late Quaternary environmental change.

Arthur A. Joyce is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA. His research interests include the archaeology of political life, religion, urbanism, materiality, ecology, and the preceramic in ancient Mesoamerica. He directs interdisciplinary archaeological research in the highlands and lowlands of Oaxaca.