Palaces of the Ancient New World (review)
The archaeology of ancient New World civilizations began with a focus on the monumental cores that marked those societies’ past. For decades, projects excavated the massive hearts of past societies. Then, armed with more sophisticated theoretical bases and different questions about the past, attention turned away from the cores. Settlement pattern studies, non-urban work, and household and activity area analyses abounded. In the last ten years, archaeologists have returned to site centers, this time complementing scientific approaches with new and more humanistic approaches. Of particular interest are the palaces of the ancient kingdoms that housed the rulers and were the foci for their political endeavors. Archaeologists are now concentrating on identifying palaces (or corroborating previous interpretations) based on current understandings of the particular political systems in which they operated, and not driven by European examples. The current work is serving to elucidate the functions of a palace and to identify the people and activities once located within its doors.