In this work, the authors interpret archaeological data on roughly 3000 years of human history in the Valley of Oaxaca, from roughly 1500 BC to AD 1500. They integrate information on settlement patterns, political and social organization, artifact distribution, and more.

This two-volume monograph is the final report and synthesis of the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project’s full-coverage surface survey and makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the investigation of social evolution, cultural ecology, and regional analysis.

The essays in this collection examine a variety of topics within Oaxacan archaeology, from settlement and land use to scale and complexity. They are based on papers presented at the 1987 meeting of the Northeast Mesoamericanists Society, held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.