• Glenn M. Schwartz
  (co-editor)
• Smithsonian Institution Press
  ,
  1994
• Purchase Online

Working against the traditional focus of archaeology on the urban and elite, this volume presents a set of studies that focus on rural settlements and rural life during the formation and early history of urban societies in both the ancient Near East and Mesoamerica. The papers discuss the role that villages played in the development of urban societies, the emergence and character of social complexity in rural communities, and the changes in those communities during periods of urbanization.