Andrew K Balkansky
Biographic Data
| ID | 86445 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew K Balkansky |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew K |
| FAMILY NAME | Balkansky |
| SIGNATURE | BALKANSKY A K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 157 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Breaking Images: Damage and Mutilation of Ancient Figurines
Human figural representation dates, minimally, from the Upper Paleolithic period in being abundant, varied, and unambiguously present. It often takes the form of fired-clay figurines, among other media, in ever greater numbers and variety during the Neolithic. The developmental trajectory of fired-clay figurines (simply “figurines” hereafter unless otherwise indicated) in the New World is similar to the Old World in that these figurines are ubiqu…
Figurine Embodiment and Household Ritual in an Early Mixtec Village
An excavated collection of 3000-year-old fired-clay figurines from the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico, provides evidence for household practices of embodiment at a time of emerging social differences. A holistic interpretation of the figurines, including their unique archaeological associations, mortuary, faunal and ethnographic information illuminates key aspects of the life-cycle termination of both human and non-human subjects. The archaeologica…
Expansionary dynamics of the nascent Monte Albán state
Multicrafting in Prehispanic Oaxaca
Surveys and Mesoamerican Archaeology: The Emerging Macroregional Paradigm
On the Logic of Archaeological Inference: Early Formative Pottery and the Evolution of Mesoamerican Societies
The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups d…
Monte Negro and the Urban Revolution in Oaxaca, Mexico
This paper is about Monte Negro's origins, and how this site fits the emerging pattern in studies of Oaxacan urbanization including the Zapotec capital at Monte Albán. Our settlement data from a multivalley regional survey in the Mixteca Alta including Monte Negro allows comparison with other urban centers that we have surveyed. Monte Negro's origins are due to internal settlement shifts, but occurred in the external context of widespread militar…
Javier Urcid Serrano. Zapotec hieroglyphic writing. xviii+487 pages, 338 figures, 54 tables. 2001. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection; 0-88402-267-6 hardback $40
Javier Urcid Serrano. Zapotec hieroglyphic writing. xviii+487 pages, 338 figures, 54 tables. 2001. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection; 0-88402-267-6 hardback $40. - Volume 76 Issue 293
The Sola Valley and the Monte Albán State: A Study of Zapotec Imperial Expansion
On Emerging Patterns in Oaxaca Archaeology
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
Origin and Collapse of Complex Societies in Oaxaca (Mexico): Evaluating the Era from 1965 to the Present
Urbanism and Early State Formation in the Huamelulpan Valley of Southern Mexico
A long-running debate in archaeology is the analytical priority given to local vs. interregional-scale factors in the origins of complex societies. These alternate approaches have often pitted local-scale, environmentally determined models against the large-scale, sociopolitical demands of ancient cities and states. In the archaeology of Oaxaca, Mexico, these distinctions are apparent in efforts to model the impact of Monte Albán on the developme…
Pottery Kilns of Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico
In contemporary Mesoamerica, traditional methods of ceramic production are highly variable. Tracing this diversity to its prehispanic antecedents has been limited by a major empirical difficulty: the identification of production sites, especially kilns and other firing features, in archaeological contexts. As a consequence, Mesoamerican archaeologists have rarely recognized technological variation in firing methods, thereby limiting their capacit…
On the Logic of Archaeological Inference: Early Formative Pottery and the Evolution of Mesoamerican Societies
The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups d…
Origin and Collapse of Complex Societies in Oaxaca (Mexico): Evaluating the Era from 1965 to the Present
Urbanism and Early State Formation in the Huamelulpan Valley of Southern Mexico
A long-running debate in archaeology is the analytical priority given to local vs. interregional-scale factors in the origins of complex societies. These alternate approaches have often pitted local-scale, environmentally determined models against the large-scale, sociopolitical demands of ancient cities and states. In the archaeology of Oaxaca, Mexico, these distinctions are apparent in efforts to model the impact of Monte Albán on the developme…
Monte Negro and the Urban Revolution in Oaxaca, Mexico
This paper is about Monte Negro's origins, and how this site fits the emerging pattern in studies of Oaxacan urbanization including the Zapotec capital at Monte Albán. Our settlement data from a multivalley regional survey in the Mixteca Alta including Monte Negro allows comparison with other urban centers that we have surveyed. Monte Negro's origins are due to internal settlement shifts, but occurred in the external context of widespread militar…
Pottery Kilns of Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico
In contemporary Mesoamerica, traditional methods of ceramic production are highly variable. Tracing this diversity to its prehispanic antecedents has been limited by a major empirical difficulty: the identification of production sites, especially kilns and other firing features, in archaeological contexts. As a consequence, Mesoamerican archaeologists have rarely recognized technological variation in firing methods, thereby limiting their capacit…
Surveys and Mesoamerican Archaeology: The Emerging Macroregional Paradigm
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
On Emerging Patterns in Oaxaca Archaeology
Multicrafting in Prehispanic Oaxaca
Pottery Kilns of Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico
In contemporary Mesoamerica, traditional methods of ceramic production are highly variable. Tracing this diversity to its prehispanic antecedents has been limited by a major empirical difficulty: the identification of production sites, especially kilns and other firing features, in archaeological contexts. As a consequence, Mesoamerican archaeologists have rarely recognized technological variation in firing methods, thereby limiting their capacit…
Origin and Collapse of Complex Societies in Oaxaca (Mexico): Evaluating the Era from 1965 to the Present
Urbanism and Early State Formation in the Huamelulpan Valley of Southern Mexico
A long-running debate in archaeology is the analytical priority given to local vs. interregional-scale factors in the origins of complex societies. These alternate approaches have often pitted local-scale, environmentally determined models against the large-scale, sociopolitical demands of ancient cities and states. In the archaeology of Oaxaca, Mexico, these distinctions are apparent in efforts to model the impact of Monte Albán on the developme…
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
On Emerging Patterns in Oaxaca Archaeology
Javier Urcid Serrano. Zapotec hieroglyphic writing. xviii+487 pages, 338 figures, 54 tables. 2001. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection; 0-88402-267-6 hardback $40
Javier Urcid Serrano. Zapotec hieroglyphic writing. xviii+487 pages, 338 figures, 54 tables. 2001. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection; 0-88402-267-6 hardback $40. - Volume 76 Issue 293
The Sola Valley and the Monte Albán State: A Study of Zapotec Imperial Expansion
Monte Negro and the Urban Revolution in Oaxaca, Mexico
This paper is about Monte Negro's origins, and how this site fits the emerging pattern in studies of Oaxacan urbanization including the Zapotec capital at Monte Albán. Our settlement data from a multivalley regional survey in the Mixteca Alta including Monte Negro allows comparison with other urban centers that we have surveyed. Monte Negro's origins are due to internal settlement shifts, but occurred in the external context of widespread militar…
Surveys and Mesoamerican Archaeology: The Emerging Macroregional Paradigm
On the Logic of Archaeological Inference: Early Formative Pottery and the Evolution of Mesoamerican Societies
The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups d…
Multicrafting in Prehispanic Oaxaca
Expansionary dynamics of the nascent Monte Albán state
Figurine Embodiment and Household Ritual in an Early Mixtec Village
An excavated collection of 3000-year-old fired-clay figurines from the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico, provides evidence for household practices of embodiment at a time of emerging social differences. A holistic interpretation of the figurines, including their unique archaeological associations, mortuary, faunal and ethnographic information illuminates key aspects of the life-cycle termination of both human and non-human subjects. The archaeologica…
Breaking Images: Damage and Mutilation of Ancient Figurines
Human figural representation dates, minimally, from the Upper Paleolithic period in being abundant, varied, and unambiguously present. It often takes the form of fired-clay figurines, among other media, in ever greater numbers and variety during the Neolithic. The developmental trajectory of fired-clay figurines (simply “figurines” hereafter unless otherwise indicated) in the New World is similar to the Old World in that these figurines are ubiqu…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Archaeology (10 works) · Geography (9 works) · Latin American history and culture (8 works) · History (7 works) · Art (5 works) · History (5 works) · Ancient history (4 works) · CONQUEST (4 works) · Mesoamerica (4 works)