Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Public Architecture, Ritual, and Temporal Dynamics -- 3. The Spatial Arrangement of a Maya City -- 4. Diversity of Power and Authority in a Maya City -- 5. Agriculture as Blue Creek's Economic Base -- 6. The Importance of Trade and Commerce at Blue Creek -- 7. Power and Authority at Blue Creek -- 8. Addressing Some Large and Small Issues -- Notes -- References Cited -- Index.

For two millennia, the site now known as Blue Creek in northwestern Belize was a Maya community that became an economic and political center that included some 15,000-20,000 people at its height. Fairly well protected from human destruction, the site offers the full range of city components including monumental ceremonial structures, elite and non-elite residences, ditched agricultural fields, and residential clusters just outside the core. Since 1992, a multi-disciplinary, multi-national research team has intensively investigated Blue Creek in an integrated study of the dynamic structure and functional inter-relationships among the parts of a single Maya city. Documented in coverage by National Geographic, Archaeology magazine, and a documentary film aired on the Discovery Channel, Blue Creek is recognized as a unique site offering the full range of undisturbed architectural construction to reveal the mosaic that was the ancient city. Moving beyond the debate of what constitutes a city, Guderjan's long-term research reveals what daily Maya life was like.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.