Although some towns may be traced back over a thousand years, others barely endure a century or two. Most of the time, there are no clear records left to explain why.

Instead, archaeologists try to figure out why some places stayed important longer than others by putting together clues from the ruins of the cities.

In a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, researchers investigated 24 ancient towns in what is now Mexico and found that the longest-lasting settlements had signs of communal governance, infrastructure development, and family cooperation.

“For years, my colleagues and I,” says lead author Gary Feinman, “have investigated why and how certain cities maintain their importance or collapse.”

In earlier research, Feinman and his colleagues examined a broad variety of towns across Mesoamerica over many centuries.

They found that societies with good leaders who cared about their people’s well-being lasted longer than ones with dictators and big differences in wealth.

This new study focuses on cities that were built around the same time and in the same place. All 24 of the cities that were studied were in the western half of Mesoamerica and were built between 1000 BCE and 300 BCE.

Looking at ancient remains and attempting to infer what the government was like could seem like an impossible undertaking to someone who is not an archaeologist. Yet, ruins of the cities’ structures, floor layouts, plazas, and monuments provide hints.

Feiman adds they “looked at public architecture, the nature of the economy and what sustained the cities.” 

“We looked at the signs of rulership, whether they seem to be heavily personalized or not.” 

Although representations of leaders in groups, sometimes disguised, are more suggestive of shared power structures, art and architecture that glorifies larger-than-life rulers points to more autocratic or tyrannical regimes.

According to a study by Feinman and his colleagues, including David Carballo from Boston University, Linda Nicholas from the Field Museum, and Stephen Kowalewski from the University of Georgia, the analysis of 24 ancient cities showed that those with more collective forms of governance had a longer tenure in power compared to autocratically ruled cities. In fact, some cities remained in power for up to a thousand years. Nevertheless, it was noted that even among cities with good governance, some were able to outlast others.

The researchers also looked at their infrastructure and signs of household dependency to understand why these similarly administered communities performed differently.

“We looked for evidence of path dependence, which basically means the actions or investments that people make that later end up constraining or fostering how they respond to subsequent hazards or challenges,” adds Feinman.

The authors observed that early attempts to build dense, linked residential areas and the development of big, central, open plazas led to higher sustainability and relevance of the early cities.

Most historical studies of sustainability attempt to establish links between individual weather or environmental phenomena and the ways in which humans reacted to them.

While this strategy could make sense, its accuracy in terms of time is questionable.

Such studies often highlight a link between the environmental crisis and collapse without also taking into account how other cities effectively overcame the difficulties and persisted as important concentrations of the population.

In this work, the writers use a different approach. In light of the dangers that people faced, such as drought, earthquakes, recurrent storms and severe rains, and competition from other centers and organizations, they looked at the longevity of the 24 centers and what variables contributed to their sustainability.

Linda Nicholas, who is a co-author of the study and also an adjunct curator at the Field Museum, suggests that the discovery indicating the significance of governance in sustainability implies that political factors play a role in responding to crises and disasters.

Cities with the longest lifespans combined infrastructure development with group government. It’s a lesson that we still need to learn.

“You cannot evaluate responses to catastrophes like earthquakes, or threats like climatic change, without considering governance,” adds Feinman. “The past is an incredible resource to understand how to address contemporary issues.”

Source: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1076740

Image Credit: Linda M. Nicholas