I am an archaeologist specializing in the Aztecs of central Mexico. I have directed fieldwork projects at Aztec sites in the Mexican state of Morelos and in the Toluca Valley, and I have published several books and numerous scholarly articles on this work. My research focuses on Aztec social and economic organization, and on the comparative analysis of ancient urban societies. My theoretical and comparative interests derive from a materialist, political-economy approach to ancient state societies. I have published on topics of urbanism, imperialism, households, and economic organization. Current projects include assembly of the final publications on my Morelos excavations, fieldwork at Calixtlahuaca, and work on comparative urbanism. My use of this site is experimental, and it does not have all of my publications. I am uploading more papers gradually as I have time. A more complete set of my papers is posted on my personal web site (see link at bottom right).
Ancient economies
Sources of Imported Obsidian at Postclassic Sites in the Yautepec Valley, Morelos: A Characterization Study Using XRF and INAA (with Adrian Burke, Timothy S. Hare, and Michael D. Glascock), Latin American Antiquity (2007)
How do Archaeologists Compare Early States? Book Review Essay on Bruce Trigger and Adam T. Smith, Reviews in Anthropology (2006)
New World States and Empires: Economic and Social Organization (with Katharina J. Schreiber), Journal of Archaeological Research (2005)
Aztec society, general
El imperio de la triple alianza (Tenochtitlan, Texcoco y Tlacopan) en el siglo XXI (with José Luis de Rojas), Revista Española de Antropología Americana (2007)
Tula and Chichén Itzá: Are We Asking the Right Questions?, Twin Tollans: Chichén Itzá, Tula, and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World (2007)
Cities & urbanism: comparative
Editorial: Just How Comparative is Comparative Urban Geography?: A Perspective from Archaeology, Urban Geography (2009)
Review of The Ancient City, edited by Joyce Marcus and Jeremy Sabloff, American Anthropologist (2009)
V. Gordon Childe and the Urban Revolution: An Historical Perspective on a Revolution in Urban Studies, Town Planning Review (2009)
Form and Meaning in the Earliest Cities: A New Approach to Ancient Urban Planning, Journal of Planning History (2007)
This paper won the Catherine Bauer Wurster Prize for the “Best Scholarly Article on American...