Early Mesoamerican Cities

"Ancient Mesoamerica was a land of cities (Fig 1.1.). Above all, it was the number and the density of cities that distinguished Mesoamerica from the complex societies in neighboring areas of North America and lower Central America. Further, although ancient Mesoamerican cities interacted to varying degrees with those cultures to the north and south, they interacted most intensively with one another. It was the shared cultural practices produced by those relationships that define Mesoamerica (Kirchoff 1943; R. Joyce 2004a)"--