Alexander Smith
Imperial Cities ARCH 2040
Prof. Sue Alcock
Article Critique
Houston, Stephen D., Hector Escobedo, Mark Child, Charles Golden, and Rene Munoz
2003 “The Moral Community: Maya Settlement Transformation at Piedras Negras,
Guatemala” in The Social Construction of Ancient Cities edited by Monica Smith,
pp. 212-253. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington D.C.
“The Moral Community: Maya Settlement Transformation at Piedras Negras,
Guatemala” by Houston et al. (2003), provides an enlightening glimpse into the study and
pitfalls therein of “cities” in archaeological literature. The chapter addresses the often
confusing nature of Maya urban settlement as part of Monica Smith’s The Social
Construction of Ancient Cities (2003). The article first lays out a series of questions as
they relate to paleodemography and its cultural significance. As Houston et al. state, the
population estimations for Late Classics Maya cities, the evident apex of urban growth in
the region, vary wildly based on the researcher (2003: 213). They go on to say even if
paleodemography could be accurately and reliably studied, what would that information
mean within the broader cultural context of the ancient Maya (2003: 213)?
Houston et al. attempt to approach this last question using data from recent
excavations at Piedras Negras, a Maya site located on the central northern MexicanGuatemalan border. After establishing Piedras Negras as their theoretical Petri dish, the
authors present almost an overwhelming assessment of the roots of polity creation and
the integral ingredient of “moral authority” in maintaining the Maya city (2003: 215).
This explanation continues with Houston et al.’s assertion that the Maya city is dependent
on the “moral authority” of the king, and only through them can urban size fluctuations
be understood or even parsed from the archaeological data due to the ruler’s epigraphical
dominance (2003: 215). This assertion questions the notion of a city’s name, as the Maya
urban center seems to be simply the ruler rather than the stable and often abstract names
that modern cities have acquired.
The chapter then turns to describing Piedras Negras as the primate center in the
region and the problems that present themselves with urbanization in the Maya world.
Why, for instance, do urban centers grow when the close proximity of humans produces
physical hardship and pestilence? Corroborating this notion with osteological remains
from Piedras Negras, Houston et al. portray the site and cities more generally as “greedy
consumers of human life” (2003: 219). This discussion gives way to a more detailed
treatment of the history of Piedras Negras from the Pre to Post-Classic periods in an
attempt to explain demographic fluctuations evident in the site’s archaeological remains.
One of the most striking observations of the article is the rapid, large-scale expansion of
the city center and monumental structures (2003: 224). Despite an Early Classic
expansion, rural settlements surrounding the city center only seem to have existed in
small numbers. It was not until the Late Classic that this ancillary expansion took place
(2003: 225). Along with this increase of urban then rural settlement, Piedras Negras
exhibits what Houston et al. describe as a a twenty year period of civil collapse during the
Terminal Classic (2003: 228). This rapidity of both ascension and disintegration of the
city is quite stark, highlighting a sense of fragility within ancient Maya urbanism.
After the discussion of Piedras Negras’ history and return to a small-scale
settlement cluster during the Post-Classic, Houston et al. shift their emphasis again
toward the idea of “moral authority.” This system requires an object of veneration or the
“moral object” which the authors describe as most probably a “holy lord” or ruler in the
Maya world (2003: 232). The authority of the ruler is thus codified with ritual, communal
practices. Nevertheless, when the “moral authority” of the ruler becomes questionable,
Houston et al. assert that the system collapses and with it the urban centers themselves,
potentially explaining the rapid decline of Piedras Negras (2003: 233). The authors then
go on to discuss what the archaeological evidence suggests in terms of regional
demography around the site. Instead of a tightly packed urban core, the chapter suggests
that the immediate rural areas were densely settled around a sparsely populated royal and
ceremonial center (2003: 235). In other words, what archaeologists would describe as the
city center or monumental area was actually the center of “moral authority” and not the
city’s population.
The article continues to expand this idea of “moral authority” and the changing
demography of Maya landscapes based on this system. Afterwards, the conclusion again
emphasizes the importance of the kings and dynasties in the case of Piedras Negras and
more generally in the Maya world. Although at times very complex, the article provides a
valuable glimpse into a somewhat idiosyncratic region and ancient culture, in many ways
assaulting the notion of urban development and the concept of the city. The preeminence
of the king or the “holy lord” serves to expand the reader’s knowledge of how cities and
citizens can coalesce and stay cohered based on a system of moral and ritual
communality and authority, all accompanied by detailed material records from
excavations at Piedras Negras.