Economic geographers correctly note that regional variations in economic activity and population agglomeration are always the result of self-reinforcing processes of resource production, accumulation, exchange, and innovation. This article proposes that essentially similar forces account for the emergence of the world’s earliest cities in the alluvial lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Southern Mesopotamia), sometime during the second half of the fourth millennium BC.

That emergence of early cities in the southern Mesopotamian alluvium must be understood in terms of the unique ecological conditions that existed across the region during the fourth millennium, and the enduring geographical framework of the area, which allowed for the efficient movement of commodities via water transport and facilitated interaction between diverse social units alongside natural and artificial river channels. These conditions promoted evolving long-term trade patterns that, inadvertently, differentially favored the development of polities in the southern Mesopotamian alluvium over contemporary societies in neighboring regions.

More specifically, my contention is that by the final quarter of the fourth millennium the social and economic multiplier effects of trade patterns that had been in place for centuries – if not millennia – had brought about substantial increases in population agglomeration throughout the southern alluvial lowlands. Concurrent with these increases, and partly as a result of them, important socio-economic innovations started to appear in the increasingly urbanized polities of southern Mesopotamia that were unachievable in other areas of the Ancient Near East where urban grids of comparable scale and complexity did not exist at the time. Most salient among these innovations were (1) new forms of labor organization delivering economies of scale in the production of subsistence and industrial commodities to southern societies, and (2) the creation of new forms of record keeping in southern cities that were much more capable of conveying information across time and space than the simpler reckoning systems used by contemporary polities elsewhere. These innovations furnished southern Mesopotamian polities of the fourth millennium with what turned out to be their most important competitive advantage over neighboring societies. More than any other factor, they help explain why complex regionally organized city-states emerged earlier in southern Iraq than elsewhere in the Near East, or the world.

This MA thesis examines the existing body of knowledge of archaeology pertaining to ancient fisheries in Taiwan. Fish has been a main staple for coastal communities of Taiwan since the initial peopling of Taiwan during the Paleolithic period (30,000 BP) and remains an important economic resource in Taiwan today. In spite of the importance of fish as an economic resource, archaeologists have devoted little attention to prehistoric fisheries due to the lack of data. Moreover, prehistoric fisheries in Taiwan have undergone significant changes in the past due to the rapid and drastic environmental changes since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ~23,000 BP and the location of Taiwan on the tectonically active boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. To overcome this gap in knowledge, this thesis aims to comprehensively review the current advancements in the field of ichthyoarchaeology globally, and the (1) the geological history; (2) modern fisheries data; and (3) archaeological records of fish resource exploitation in the region. This review of the history of environmental, ecological, and cultural changes contributes to a comprehensive understanding of ancient fisheries in Taiwan. This information further sheds light on the range of pre-industrial ecological baselines of Taiwanese fisheries, and informs current and future conservation efforts, yielding vital insights into human adaptation amidst climate and environmental changes.

Teotihuacan was a sprawling urban center that came to rule an eponymous expansive polity in the central Mexican highlands from approximately 200 to 600 CE. The conditions that facilitated its initial expansion, however, are not fully understood. This dissertation examines ceramic figurines from Teotihuacan and the three rural sites of Axotlan, Cerro Portezuelo, and Huixtoco in the Basin of Mexico to investigate ancient social relationships, cultural changes, and political transformations during the emergence of the first state-level society in the region.

Ritual activity structures social and religious life, and can be a conduit for expressing ideological views and creating individual and community identity, and maintaining social boundaries. The form, style, and subject matter of figurines were observed to vary both other time and across the Basin of Mexico, indicating transformations in domestic ritual practice and cultural identity in the rural hinterland of the emerging state.

In addition to the widespread adoption of Teotihuacan-style figurines in the three rural sites, one of the most noticeable changes was in the subject matter of the figurines themselves. Emphasis was placed on the physical features of bodies—particularly sexual characteristics—in Formative period figurines, whereas increasing emphasis was placed on clothing, elaborate costumes, and personal ornamentation during the Classic period. Furthermore, feminine bodies were common in the Formative period, but became a small minority in Classic period assemblages, which were dominated by diverse functional types, many of which appear to depict masculine figures.

The appearance of Teotihuacan-style figurines in the three rural assemblages predates the arrival of other forms of Teotihuacan material culture and architecture, indicating that a push of Teotihuacan ideology into the rural hinterland may have been an intentional strategy in the initial phase of hegemonic expansion, which became less important over time as Teotihuacan switched to more coercive forms of expansion. Exploring the ideological system of the Basin of Mexico contributes to a better understanding of how communities related to each other throughout the region, and the ways in which social and political bonds were formed, strengthened, maintained, and ultimately abandoned.

The archaeological site of Fracción Mujular is composed of several small residential plaza groups and a monumental ballcourt located near the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Long known for the Central Mexican iconography found on its carved stelae (Navarrete 1976, 1986; García-Des Lauriers 2005, 2007, 2016; Taube 2000), the survey and excavations conducted during the course of this dissertation represent the first extensive and systematic investigations of the site. Situated on top of the mountain of Cerro Bernal between the Pacific Coast and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the residents of Fracción Mujular would have had close access to important trading routes used throughout Mesoamerica’s history. My analysis of the site’s ceramics, obsidian, and other excavated artifacts shows a long history of interaction with both local and distant polities from across Mesoamerica. We now know that Fracción Mujular was occupied from the Early Classic through Late Postclassic and that the site’s inhabitants maintained strong ties to Central Mexico throughout these periods, including during times of considerable political upheaval. Fracción Mujular outlasted its larger neighbor of Los Horcones, entering a period of florescence following that latter site’s decline at the end of the Early Classic. An analysis of the ceramics of Los Horcones emphasizes the site’s long chronology, as well as its history of regional interaction. Obsidian sourcing from Fracción Mujular indicates that the settlement had access through trade to at least 11 different sources from across Mexico and Guatemala; a very high level of diversity for such a modest site. Obsidian source distributions also display a strong spatial and temporal pattern throughout the settlement, which may correspond to regional political and economic shifts during the Early Classic to Late Classic transition. Work at Fracción Mujular shows how small-scale settlements can be active players in regional exchange systems while displaying considerable resiliency in the face changing political and economic landscapes.