medicinal herbs. Th e infl uence of Teotihuacán at Tikal was
secure by 360 c.e. thanks to a ruler referred to as Curl-Nose
in hieroglyphic inscriptions found at the site. Curl-Nose was
apparently a collaborationist ruler who accepted military and
political advisors from Teotihuacán, which gave Tikal an edge
over rival Mayan centers and allowed for further expansion.
Architecture and urban planning at Tikal featured mas-
sive stone temples, funerary monuments, acropolis struc-
tures, great plazas, a residential or administrative complex
consisting of small courtyards, the Great Plaza, a possible
market area, a sweat bath, a ball court, stone sculpture that
includes great chronographic (timekeeping) markers, me-
morials to ancestors, and bureaucratic structures. All Maya
architecture was composed of elevated platforms and corbel-
vaulted chambers organized in a variety of confi gurations.
Th e similarity of all the building structures has made it diffi -
cult to diff erentiate between their functions. At its height Ti-
kal was home to 40,000 inhabitants and its nuclear area alone
included more than 3,000 separate structures and some 200
stone monuments.
Sometime in the fi ft h century c.e. the people of Teoti-
huacán began to pull back from their frontier positions. Th eir
sudden departure seems to have upset development at a num-
ber of Mayan sites, with some areas plunging into open revolt
suggesting civil war. Not until around 650 c.e. was Mayan
civilization able to reorganize and function once again. Tikal
continued for a couple hundred more years before its even-
tual collapse.
SOUTH AMERICAN CITIES
In South America all areas show vast numbers of archaeo-
logical sites, indicating widespread population since 8000
b.c.e., though relatively few have been fully excavated. Only
the Peruvian cultures seem to have attained a complex level
of civilization. Of the ancient Peruvian cultures, the cities
of Pukará, Moche, and Tiwanaku (also spelled Tiahuanaco)
stand apart.
Th e north coast Peruvian settlement of Moche (100–600
c.e.), evidently the capital of the Mochica state, comprised
two huge adobe structures called the Huaca del Sol and the
Huaca de la Luna, an immense plaza, and an extensive resi-
dential zone. Th e Huaca del Sol was a terraced platform that
measured 1,100 by 500 feet at its base and rose to 130 feet.
Trash heaps at its summit suggest that it may have served as
elite living quarters. More than 143 million adobe bricks were
used in the construction, many with identifi able markings in-
dicating the individual mason’s hand. Th e Huaca de la Luna
consisted of a massive, terraced multiroom complex. Moche
was traditionally regarded as an immense ceremonial center
and thought to lack a substantial population. Recent excava-
tions, however, revealed a residential zone able to accommo-
date a sizable population density.
Th e site of Pukará, which lies 75 miles northwest of the
northern shore of Lake Titicaca, high on the altiplano (a high
plateau), had a brief but important fl orescence between 200
b.c.e. and 300 c.e. Pukará’s buildings were adobe on stone
foundations. Its main structure was a temple, built on an ar-
tifi cial terrace and consisting of a rectangular sunken court.
An extensive residential area lay in the plain below the acrop-
olis. Beyond the southern end of the lake, at an altitude of
12,600 feet above sea level, Tiwanaku was a major settlement
with a central core of monumental structures occupying an
area of 125 acres surrounded by an extensive residential zone;
the whole site covered 1½ square miles. Population estimates
range from 30,000 to 70,000 people.
True urbanism happened at Tiwanaku because of bal-
ances in herding and agriculture that gave rise to surpluses.
Extensive irrigation projects reclaimed fi elds for planting; as
much as 200,000 acres were irrigated. By 100 c.e. monumen-
tal stone architecture was being built. Th ere was no mistak-
ing the power in the stone city the Tiwanakans built as their
center. Th e principal buildings are a giant stepped mound
called the Akapana and a semisubterranean temple called
the Kalasasaya surrounded by a moat that limited entrance
and public use and separated the sacred from the profane.
Excavations of the Akapana revealed numerous burials, one
of which has been called the High Priest-Puma Shaman be-
cause it showed a seated man holding a puma effi gy. For this
reason it is believed the Akapana was a monument to sha-
manic transformation. (Shamans were believed to mediate
between the world of spirits and the world of the living and to
take on various forms.) Th ese structures stood adjacent to an-
other low fl at temple called the Puma Punku. Reconstructing
the exact look of Tiwanaku is an impossible task because it
has been constructed, reconstructed, plundered, and rebuilt
numerous times over 2,000 years. Tiwanakan dominance
spread considerable distances as they tried to export religion
and import foreign products. Like Teotihuacán, Tiwanaku
infl uenced societies far outside its own boundaries.See also agriculture; architecture; art; astronomy;
borders and frontiers; building techniques and ma-
terials; climate and geography; crafts; death and
burial practices; economy; education; empires and dy-
nasties; family; foreigners and barbarians; govern-
ment organization; household goods; illumination;
inventions; metallurgy; migration and population
movements; military; money and coinage; occupa-
tions; religion and cosmology; roads and bridges; sa-
cred sites; science; settlement patterns; slaves and
slavery; social collapse and abandonment; social or-
ganization; sports and recreation; storage and pres-
ervation; towns and villages; trade and exchange;
transportation; war and conquest; writing.FURTHER READING
David M. Anderson and Richard Rathbone, eds., Africa’s Urban
Past (Oxford, U.K.: James Currey, 2000).
Françoise Audouze and Olivier Buchsenschutz, Town, Villages, and
Countryside of Celtic Europe (London: Batsford, 1991).cities: further reading 233