Public Ritual and Urbanization in Central Mexico: Temple and Plaza Offerings from La Laguna, Tlaxcala

Abstract

Urbanization of the world's first cities involved the social integration of greater scales of community membership as well as the social differentiation of individuals along the continua of wealth, power, and occupational specialization that define urban landscapes. This article considers the causal role of public ritual in these processes during the period of incipient urbanism in central Mexico (c. 600 BC–AD 100) by examining temple and plaza offerings at La Laguna, a town within an urbanizing cultural landscape whose inhabitants participated in the transformative exchanges that resulted in urban state capitals such as Teotihuacan.