Timothy Wayne Pugh

TIMOTHY W. PUGH, City University of New York, Queens College, New York, New York, received funding in April 2016 to aid research on ‘Urbanization at Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Peten, Guatemala.’ Funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation supported a team of researchers from Guatemala and the United States to excavate portions of the urban grid at Nixtun-Ch’ich’. Urbanization is one of the key concerns in studies of the emergence of social complexity. Ancient cities sometimes developed gradually through moderate, periodic planning, while others were rapidly constructed according to well-planned layouts. Absence of the latter in the Maya lowlands contributed to characterizations of its cities as spatially dispersed with only moderate planning. Recent excavations, however, reveal that Middle Preclassic Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Pet’n, Guatemala was quickly established with a diagrammatic orthogonal grid. It may be the earliest such grid in Mesoamerica. The funded research examined the urban grid at Nixtun-Ch’ich’ though the excavation of a series of test units on the corridor edges and in gridded platforms. The units examined how the grid effected existing settlements when it was first constructed and if the grid was built all at once or over a long period of time. This research informs us of the complexities of urban planning that emerged along with the dawn of cities and will help us to understand the intricacies of governmentality that emerged along with social complexity.