Ancient Tollan: Tula and the Toltec Heartland
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Research Year:  1997
Culture:  Toltec
Chronology:  Classic, Epi-Classic to Early Post Classic
Location:  Tula, México
Site:  Tollan

The Authors
Book Reviews

Ancient Tollan: Tula and the Toltec Heartland

Table of Contents

    List of Illustrations
    Foreword by Davíd Carrasco and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction

  1.  Tula and the Tula Region Project
  2.  The Tula Region: Physical Environment and Land Use
  3.  Chronology and Periodification
  4.  Classic, Epiclassic Occupations and the Early City
  5.  The Early Postclassic: The Tollan Phase City
  6.  Habitation in the City
  7.  The Hinterland
  8.  The Tollan Complex in the Tula Area
  9.  Subsistence Activities
10.  Hinterland Settlement
11.  Conclusions

    Appendix: Site Descriptions and Clusters
    Bibliography
    Index

The Authors

Alba Guadalupe Mastache and Robert H. Cobean have directed a long-term interdisciplinary project in the Tula region. As Professor-Investigators at México’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, they have published previous monographs on the archaeology of Tula including Tepetitlán: A Rural Household in the Toltec Heartland.

Dan M. Healan is professor of anthropology at Tulane University and editor of Tula of the Toltecs: Excavations and Survey.

Book Reviews

A work of both consensus and innovation based upon extensive archaeological research, Ancient Tollan: Tula and the Toltec Heartland studies Mesoamerica’s problem city–Tula or Tollan, seat of the Toltec state. Along with Teotihuacán and Tenochtitlán, Tula was one of the most important prehispanic urban centers in Highland Central México, reaching the height of its influence during the early Postclassic period between A.D. 900–1200.

Chapters of the book are dedicated to topics ranging from the Teotihuacán occupation in the area, architectural and iconographic analysis of Tula’s Sacred Precinct, the urban domestic architecture, settlement patterns, and irrigation systems. Using a wealth of data and focusing on the developmental processes of the city’s functions on a regional level, Mastache, Cobean, and Healan offer a fresh view and a new understanding of this cultural center, its urban structure, and its rural environment.

"The most thorough and interesting regional view of Tollan to date."
—Davíd Carrasco, Harvard University

"A great piece of work, really a milestone publication."
—Jeffrey R. Parsons, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan

"Ancient Tollan contains new and important information on the Epiclassic and Tollan phases of Tula. To date this is the best and most comprehensive work on Tula, superceding previous scholars with the story of Tula in clear and beautiful language."
—Evelyn C. Rattray, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas

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Publication Information

University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303
Phone: 800-627-7377

Submitted 01/14/2003 by:

We at FAMSI were deeply saddened to hear of the loss of our grantee, Alba Guadalupe Mastache, who passed away in April, 2004. She is known as a pioneer in the investigations of the Tula region, and will be remembered for her many significant contributions.