From one World to another: a comparative view on the processes of urbanization and origin of the State in Hierakonpolis and Monte Albán

CAMPAGNO, MARCELO

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Conferencia; Conference "From one World to another: a comparative view on the processes of urbanization and origin of the State in Hierakonpolis and Monte Albán"; 2010

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan

The urbanization processes that took place in the Nile valley and in the Oaxaca valley during the epoch of the emergence of the state in both regions are decisive for the constitution of a type of socially heterogeneous environments which favor permanent social links of a character different from those that are possible in the pre-state communities organized through kinship links. As from the general hypothesis, two hypothesis associated to the specific objectives of the research are outlined. Regarding the urban nucleus of Hierakonpolis, the pre-existing nature of this nucleus regarding the process of emergence of the state leads to think that its vertiginous demographic growth during Naqada II phase (3600-3300 B.C.) is due to the concentration of population coming from different places as a result of the economic, political, military and symbolic advantages offered by that center. Within this framework, the permanent social articulation among groups of different origin may have given place to different types of tensions, which would lead to the introduction of subordination relations similar to the ones seen within a state society. Regarding the urban nucleus of Monte Albán, the ex-novo foundation of this center during Monte Albán I phase (500-300 B.C.) and the simultaneous decrease of the most important nucleus of the previous phase (San José Mogote) suggest a transfer of population decided from a compact political realm; in the next sub-phase (Late Monte Albán I, 300-150/100 B.C.), the rapid triplication of Monte Albán population suggests that afterwards the center also received inhabitants from other areas of the Valley. In these conditions, it is supposed that the new inhabitants were incorporated to the center in subordination conditions compatible to the constitution of social links of state type.