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Viewing archaeological problems in regional context has become so pervasive that it is easy to forget the relatively recent emergence of systematic regional inquiry in archaeology scarcely ¤ve decades ago (Willey 1953). Following this early lead, in 1960 William Sanders (1965; see Wolf 1976) embarked on a pioneering study of prehistoric regional settlement patterns and cultural ecology in the Teotihuacan Valley, located in the northeastern Basin of Mexico. Intensive archaeological surveys conducted in the valley between 1961 and 1966, designed to discover and map all sites in that area (see Evans et al. 2000; Kolb and Sanders 1996; Marino 1987; Sanders et al. 1975), were augmented by similar efforts in seven other portions of the Basin of Mexico between 1966 and 1975 (Blanton 1972; Goren®o and Sanders 2006; Parsons 1971; Parsons et al. 1982; Sanders and Goren®o 2006; see also Goren®o and Sanders 2006; Parsons et al. 1983)—yielding data on more than 3,700 archaeological sites in that region dating between 1500 BC and 1519 AD. In a synthesis published shortly after the completion of the ¤nal intensive archaeological survey in the basin (Sanders et al. 1979), researchers examined survey , excavation, and ethnohistoric data to explore sociocultural evolution in the region. One of the topics considered in that synthesis was the changing demography of the region and how population change related to sociocultural evolution. However, with the exception of two survey regions (Ixtapalapa and Texcoco) and selected occupations of a third (the Formative and Toltec occupations of the Teotihuacan Valley), the survey data providing the basis for the 1979 synthesis had not been ¤nalized. Data from the remaining three regions surveyed by Jeffrey Parsons appeared in the early 1980s (Parsons et al. 1982, 1983), with much of the 1983 volume generated by a computerized database containing settlement data from the ¤ve survey regions examined by Parsons and colleagues at the University of Michigan. Data from the three regions surveyed by Sanders and his collaborators, in turn, have recently been ¤nalized and computerized (see Goren®o and Sanders 2006). Compiling these data, and organizing them in a form ame15 The Evolution of Regional Demography and Settlement in the Prehispanic Basin of Mexico L. J. Goren®o nable to systematic analysis, introduces the possibility of revisiting many aspects of prehispanic settlement in the Basin of Mexico. One of these topics is the evolution of regional demography and associated settlement patterns and their mutual roles in the emergence of urbanization. This chapter examines data on population and settlement in the Basin of Mexico dating between roughly 1500 BC and AD 1519, as documented primarily by intensive archaeological settlement surveys. The chapter begins by summarizing the methodological basis of settlement data in the basin, notably how they were collected and their reliability as a foundation for exploring demographic change and the evolution of settlement patterns. It then proceeds to an overview of Basin of Mexico demography, exploring total population change over time, tendencies in the regional organization of population by settlement type, and the spatial arrangement of population. An analysis of demographic change and the spatial arrangement of population provides insights on the demographic processes likely underlying documented settlement evolution, including the rise of urbanism in a regional context. The chapter closes by de¤ning a series of problems associated with prehistoric demography and shifts in regional settlement in the basin that require further research. The Study in Context The Basin of Mexico consists of an elevated plain covering roughly 7,000 sq km, surrounded on its western, southern, and eastern sides by high mountain ranges and on its northern side by a series of low, discontinuous ranges of hills (see Sanders et al. 1979:81–89, Figure 15-1). Prior to the completion by the Spanish of a large drain in the northwestern part of the basin in the early seventeenth century to help control ®ooding in Mexico City (Gibson 1964:6), one of the most dominant features of the region was a system of shallow, interconnected lakes in its center, replenished by a combination of springs, rainfall, and seasonal streams fed by runoff from precipitation. Elevations in the basin range from as low as 2,235 m above sea level in the old lake bed to as high as 5,800 m in the massive snowcapped volcanoes in its southeastern corner. Rainfall occurs seasonally, on average ranging from 450 mm annually in the more arid northeastern portion to more than 1,500 mm annually in the southwestern mountains...

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