CIUDADES MESOAMERICANAS

Knowledge of Mesoamerican cities is mostly exclusive of major socio-political - religious centers. The majority of the population of these cities lived in the vicinity in less comfortable and precarious situations. The article on the "Joya de Cerén" accounts for interesting aspects of this other side of the coin. The essays comprising this volume are not intended to be a complete vision of Mesoamerican cities. They are a selection of some Mesoamerican cities, (mostly in Guatemala) that are not as well known to the non-specialized public such as: Tak'alik Ab'aj, the classic city of Cotzumalguapa, Joya de Cerén, Río Azul, Dos Pilas-Aguateca-Cancuén and Zapatera. These research works offer some interesting features, privileging certain geographical representation, of mostly ignored Mesoamerican cities: their structure and function as centers of social congregations; their urban settings in relation with their cosmogony; their governmental and sacred character; their architecture with similar patterns. The authors of the studies also examined the interaction that took place between some of them by the results extracted from the confrontation of their buildings, their ceramics and their working tools.