Brown bag
On Friday, October 26, Anna Cohen, professor of anthropology at Utah State University, and Chris Fisher, professor of anthropology at Colorado State University, will speak on their discovery of the archaeological site of Angamuco, an urban center in western Mexico, using LiDAR as well as traditional survey and excavation. Noon to 1 p.m. in the Whitney Auditorium, Room 1315, School of Education.
Angamuco is a newly documented Purépecha (Tarascan) urban center within the Imperial heartland of the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico. Over the last decade they have conducted full coverage survey, urban mapping, LiDAR scanning and analysis, and excavation at this site, to better understand the growth and abandonment of Angamuco during the centuries prior to European contact. This work shows that (1) large urban centers with complex spatial organization and social stratification were present centuries prior to the formation of the Purépecha Empire, (2) the settlement incorporate gardens and other landscape features within and around the settlement demonstrating a high degree of human environmental modification, (3) current models for the evolution of social complexity in the region cannot account for the presence of Angamuco.