Michael E. Smith @MichaelESmith Twitter profile

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Michael E. Smith

25 days

My book is now out in paperback! It is a comparative perspective on early cities, from a social-science perspective (population, economics, politics). I cover both top-down & bottom-up influences on urban life. 29 case studies, and many illustrations.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 months

My class, Aztecs, Mayas and Inkas starts tomorrow. I'm getting nostalgic, since this may be the last time I teach it before retiring. I've taught this since about 1990, and its one of my favorite classes. I'm going to try to do a tweet for each lecture; let's see if I can do this

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

#ASB223 , Today I will cover Aztec social classes and wealth inequality. My favorite kids punishment in the Codex Mendoza: Hold the bad kid over a fire of burning chili peppers (notice the blue tears). I used to threaten my kids with this. Their response, "Right, Dad."

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

This book won an award for "Best archaeology book, General audience category" from the Society for American Archaeology. It tells 3 stories: 1) about the Aztec peasants whose houses we excavated; 2) how we do archaeology in Mexico; 3) how we raised our daughters in Mexico.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

I am giving a public zoom lecture based on my book, At Home with the Aztecs, for the Chicago Archaeological Society, on Sunday Jan 29, at 3:30 Central Time. See their website for information:

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

# 2 in the series.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Archaeologists have been searching for decades to figure out how ancient irrigation systems were created without huge populations or modern technology. I think this provides the answer!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Christie's is selling a bunch of high-end Teotihuacan objects. This mask is expected to sell for $500,000. They call it Quetzalcoatl, probably because they think that makes it more valuable. This sale is unethical, illegal, and very sleazy.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

The cover of my book is now set! The book will be released in February:

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

5 years

What happens when archaeologists must work from home.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

@josephmullins This is great. In my first teaching job I once started teaching to the wrong class. I taught intro every semester in the same room. On the first day I went to the regular room and started in with anthropology. Students looked confused. “This is psych”. I ran out in a panic. So

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

Thread: “Early cities in the Dawn of Everything: Shoddy scholarship in support of pedestrian conclusions.” Paper to appear soon in a special issue of Cliodynamics. This is a paper, not a book review. I’ll mainly use a bunch of quotes from my paper. #DawnOfEverything 1/13

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

#Archaeology31 NEW. Here is my "new" book (with Frannie Berdan), although haven't seen a copy yet. We humanize the Aztecs by examining several categories of people in detail, then several events/setting in detail (where people meet and interact). Our focus is everyday folks.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

@jens2go I tell my intro class that I am about to reveal the secret of Inka stoneworking. How could they fit those stone together so tightly? The secret: They had thousands of laborers. They wanted to do it right, and they put in the time and effort to get it done the way they wanted.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

Where are these high school students getting the idea that religion drove the formation and expansion of the Mexica/Aztec empire? Mexica religion was not very different from the other Aztec peoples. The empire is explained by politics and economics, not religion!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

Ancient Apocalypse is the most dangerous show on Netflix

A show with a truly preposterous theory is one of the streaming giant’s biggest hits – and it seems to exist solely for conspiracy theorists. Why has this been allowed?

www.theguardian.com

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Our book was supposed to be released in October, and now CUP says "Online publication, November 2020." Frannie Berdan and I are excited about the book!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

Yautepec, Morelos, 16th century convent. An Aztec stone box is built into the wall of the cloister, and used to hold holy water.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

7 years

Just got the proofs of "Ten Thousand Years of Inequality: The Archaeology of Wealth Differences" ! The book is due to be released in March.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

@Calthalas Going along with journal publishers who steal our academic work and profit from them, while preventing us from distributing them widely.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

Today's random mystery artifact. We recovered thousands of these sherd disks in excavations at Calixtlahuaca. Measured them, assigned them to their vessel category, and came up empty. Lots of fun suggestions (my favorite: gambling tokens), but little firm evidence of their use.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

5 years

If anyone tells you that the Maya or Teotihuacan or Angkor were not successful because they "collapsed," show them this graph. They were a heck of a lot more successful and sustainable than European nation-states!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

This book is a comparative perspective on early cities, from a social-science perspective. It covers population, economics, & politics, and examines both top-down and bottom-up influences on urban life. There are 29 case studies, and many illustrations.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

Did Teotihuacan rule an empire? The answer is yes, but it was a small polity in central Mexico. It did not include Monte Alban, & certainly not the Maya area. But some archaeologists seem afraid to use the label empire in association with Teotihuacan 1/2

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 months

#AztecsInkasMayas OK, first class is today, intro stuff, not much serious content. Why are these cultures important? They show patterns of social & cultural organization and dynamics that are both independent of one another, and separate from the better known Old World societies

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Here is an elite residence I excavated at Cuexcomate, an Aztec town near Cuernavaca. The excavation report is now available as a free download at the Center for Comparative Archaeology at Univ, Pittsburgh: Short thread, 1/3

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

Another erasure of the Aztec-period provincial peoples of central Mexico (short thread). A new chapter on Aztec bioarchaeology leaves out the areas with the most burials! It thus replicates a long-standing bias in favor of the imperial capital, Tenochtitlan, 1/5

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

Just finished this excellent book. As someone who reads this literature at a distance, this is the clearest and most useful treatment of the historical context modern economic growth that I have seen. A few problems and biases, but overall its great. @jaredcrubin @MarkKoyama

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

@signalborder That's like the farmer who painted circles around the bullet holes in his barn, to show off what a good shot he is.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

I am looking for a better (updated, clearer) map like this: population density in the western hemisphere in 1500 CE. Any suggestions?

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

6 years

Tomb of the unknown archaeologist, excavating with one hand and measuring time with the other. Two of many neat inscribed gravestones set in the floor of the Aarhus catherdral.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

I am recording a lecture on the Maya collapse. Was there something "wrong" with the Maya that led them to collapse? But they were highly successful for many centuries, far longer than modern nation-states have been around! "Collapse" in archaeology is a terrible, messy topic.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

#FrescoFriday should include Mesoamerican examples! These are frescos from Teotihuacan. A big difference between these and Roman frescos (for example) is that these are from commoner residences. This was not an elite art; the method was very widely used.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Archaeologist Jeffrey R. Parsons passed last night. He did more fieldwork, over much of central Mexico, than any archaeologist. He did important and innovative work, he published his projects and data, and he was a mentor and inspiration to many of us . RIP

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

44 years ago, fieldwork honeymoon at Copan.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

#AztecSites Teopanzolco, one of my fav. Aztec cities. Its now in the middle of Cuernavaca. It was an Early Aztec capital (ca. 1100-1300 CE). Discovered by the Zapatistas, who put their canons on top to shell the feds in downtown Cuernavaca. Before and after excavation views. 1/3

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

The proofs of my book arrived this morning! I guess I know what I will be doing the next few weeks.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

“In Renaissance Europe fresco painting was mostly limited to churches and the residences of the wealthiest elites. At Teotihuacan, many or most residents enjoyed such fresco art in their home.” Chapter 7 of Urban Life in the Distant Past #pasturbanlife

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

@Suns Speaking as an archaeologist specializing in the Aztecs: The Aztecs never lived in Arizona, nor were they ancestors of groups that DID live in the valley. The Hohokam were Native Americans that did (and do) live here, so why not find some artwork from Hohokam pottery or baskets?

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

Aztec-period figurines from Yautepec. These are the cream of the crop, the best examples. We did not excavate ANY entire figurines. But you can see males and females here, different kinds of jewelry and hair treatments. 1/4

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Look what arrived in the mail this week! I really like our little fictional vignettes about each of the main characters and events. Each character gets into trouble , and they have to get out of it somehow. @ASUBeingHuman

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

I opened a bag of snacks, and out popped Pretzelcoatl, the revered Aztec god!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

10 months

My big academic event of 2023 was publication of Urban Life in the Distant Past - . The work was all done during 2018-2022. This is as close as I will get to a "magnum opus" for my work on early urbanism. I wish the price wasn't so high. @ASUBeingHuman

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

Como estudiante de arqueología en México, Ann Cyphers fue mi mentora. Ella me enseñó la clasificación de cerámica, me enseñó a dibujar tepalcates, y me enseñó cómo tener éxito como un joven arqueólogo estadounidense en México.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

27 days

🧵1/4 Archaeology in silos. I publish quite a bit of research these days that is transdisciplinary. For a while I was sending papers to archaeology journals, arguing that here is some interesting material from other disciplines that archaeologists may be interested in. But ..

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

Any Teotihuacan mural experts out there? I want to know if any of the Teotihuacan murals paintings date to earlier than the Tlamimilolpa period. Also, are there murals clearly dated to the Metepec period? I am tracking a number of material measures through time at the site.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

@diffendale You can console yourselves with some salsa made in a nice Mexican pig mortar (molcajete, from the Nahuatl, molli (sauce) and caxitl (bowl). I make no claims for antiquity, though; these are modern items.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

@ThomasKoleTA @dpentecost Wow, this is great. We finally have images that show what Tenochtitlan looked like as a city. The Covarrubias painting is great (but the scale is off), but only of limited use. I'll definitely incorporate this into my lectures on Tenochtitlan this fall. #ASB223

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

10 months

Celebrating the end of the year at the @MIMphx . I almost died this year, had brain surgery, and made a full recovery, all in 2023.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

Our PNAS Perspective is out: The persistence of ancient settlements and urban sustainability

The persistence of ancient settlements and urban sustainability | PNAS

We propose a dedicated research effort on the determinants of settlement persistence in the ancient world, with the potential to significantly adva...

www.pnas.org

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

I'm into displacement activity now, trying to avoid several things I really need to be working on. Gozilla at Teotihuacan, anyone? @asuteolab

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 months

I'm giving a talk in the series Teotihuacan en Casa: "Una perspectiva comparative sobre Teotihuacan". Tuesday Aug 27, at 19:00, Mexico City time. It will be on zoom and facebook live. @asuteolab @ASUBeingHuman Can I get all my English text translated to Spanish before then?

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

I removed Gary Urton from my Inca lecture, and used that as a teaching moment to talk about sexual harassment in archaeology and how scholars should deal with the scholarship of people like Urton.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

I get tired of all the photos of beautiful, decontextualized, ancient works of art (mostly looted and traded illegally). Here are some UGLY things I have excavated. No museum would exhibit these. But I learned quite a bit about trade and peasant quality of life from these 1/2.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

These aren't temple steps - they are palace steps. From the royal palace of Yautepec.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

#PastUrbanLife . My book moves forward, gradually. Got this today: "I am excited to let you know that all the stages of your book’s production stand complete and I have sent the final files to CUP for their approval."

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

Teotihuacán, the ancient city where even commoners lived in palaces: (I'm at a workshop on writing for a general audience, and they flagged my Slate article as a good example!). via @slate

In This Ancient City, Even Commoners Lived in Palaces

Archaeologists once assumed Teotihuacán was the work of a powerful despotic king. Now, most see something more extraordinary.

slate.com

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

An old idea that Maya kings were shamans (Blood of Kings, 1986) was strongly critiqued by Cecelia Klein et al, Current Anthropology (2002). How did the shaman-boosters respond? They waited 20 years and published in a predatory journal .

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Big relief, our paper on low-density Maya urbanism, from a settlement scaling perspective, has now been submitted. Great group of co-authors, @c_ebert1 and a bunch of non-twitter folks (Prufer, Thompson, Rosenswig, Liendo, Ortman, Lobo). We have a new view of Maya urbanism!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

Archaeology/complexity query. Harvey Weiss asked if I knew when archaeologists starting using the phrase "complex societies" to refer to state-level societies. He wondered if Kent Flannery was the first. I don't know that history very well. Any suggestions?

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

15 days

#aztecsinkasmayas . OK, I missed a class or two. Today we begin the Aztecs! Yay! I bring in a bunch of codices and books and talk about different types of historical source on the Aztecs. - Native accounts - Conquerors accounts - The Chroniclers - Administrative documents

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

11 months

#StandingStoneSunday Here is a honeymoon photo of us next to a standing stone (well, normally called a stela) at the Maya city of Copan.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

7 years

Some of our findings on inequality in the past confirm long-standing models (e.g., inequality varies with subsistence type & political form). Others are novel (Old World / New World differences). And some confirm recent advances (e.g., hunter-gatherers do have wealth inequality)

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

Today's quiz: What is this place? It is one of the weirdest built environments I've ever experienced.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

5 years

@JadeArchaeobot Tell this person not to eat during the field season.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

One more........

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

#PastUrbanLife CUP says that my book has been printed! Its official publication date is March 30 in the UK and Europe, and some time in June in the U.S. I'm waiting to see my authors copies.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

I've also recommended these book recently.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

History Channel guy wants to know if I'll do an interview on Zulu warriors. No. Then he got back to me, oh, I meant Aztec warriors. The answer is still, no.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

5 years

Here is an ancient Mixtec deity from the indigenous book, the Codex Nuttall: "PRETZELCOATL" #MondayMotivation (and check out her headdress!).

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

5/ Their claim that population size doesn’t matter, that forms of organization that work in small groups can also work in big cities, is simply wrong. The causal force of population size and density is one of the most strongly supported empirical findings of urban research.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

Cindy and I just got vaccinated!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

6 years

Our paper, "Apartment compounds, households and population in the ancient city of Teothuacan" is now posted online (Ancient Mesoamerica). We present a new approach to fitting households into compounds, and a new pop estimate: @asuteolab @ASUBeingHuman

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

A few books I've recommended to people recently, for a variety of reasons. They are all good, and I have cited three of them (Koyama and Rubin, haven't cited yet). @stasavage @jaredcrubin @MarkKoyama

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

@Banjocatt Maybe this was R. Crumb's model for cities today.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 years

1/4 Short thread: Why don’t archaeologists analyze class? There are two major approaches to analyzing inequality in society: gradational variation and social class. The first is an active area of research in archaeology, using Gini scores, but not the second.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 month

#aztecsinkasmayas Today's class question: Were Maya settlements really cities? Or were they just ceremonial centers with big pyramids, served by peasants living in nearby villages? What is a city?

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

7 months

It would be nice to have a couple of reviews on Amazon..........

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

6 years

George Cowgill passed away today. He was my undergrad professor, my predecessor as an ASU faculty member, my predecessor as Director of the @asuteolab , and a professional and intellectual inspiration. He will be missed by many as a great colleague and friend.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

@signalborder This is my go-to example to explain post-hoc explanations. No testing, just making up stories after the research is done.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

My article for a special issue of Cliodynamics on The Dawn of Everything is going into production. "Early Cities in the Dawn of Everything: Shoddy Scholarship in Support of Pedestrian Conclusions." I'll do a thread when its published.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

My public lecture starts in half an hour:

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

8 months

Paper just accepted! Norwood, Alexandra, Anne S. Sherfield and Michael E. Smith (2023) Plazas, Social Class, and Spatial Inequality at Ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (in press). Its great publishing with former students!

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

1 year

#AztecSites I think I'll do a series of posts of Aztec sites that one rarely hears about. First is COATETELCO (Morelos), one of the best preserved Aztec city centers. Its layout was copied from Tula. For more info, see my book, Aztec City-State Capitals. .

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

9 months

CUP has just told me that they will issue a paperback edition of my book! The timeline is 2-3 months.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

5 years

The Aztec Empire got local towns along the Tarascan border to build fortresses and keep watch to the west. This site, "Trincheras de Pedro Ascenscio," is one example.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

5 years

Before mechanical mills were introduced to rural Mexican villages in the 1950s, women spent 5 hours a day grinding maize for a farming family (ethnography by Oscar Lewis). I extrapolate that back to Aztec times. Women worked HARD.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

6 years

Guess where I was today

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

3 years

OK, couldn't resist, "Types of Americanist archaeology paper." #Archaeology

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

@Western_Trad Are you implying that people living in cramped high-rise apartments have the economic and cultural resources to make the choice to live in an old house in a European village?

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

9 months

45 years ago today.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

4 years

1/

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

2 months

My books is now out in paperback! I haven't seen the paperback yet, but CUP tells me its on the way. @ASUBeingHuman @asuteolab

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

6 months

These small ceramic balls from Aztec provincial sites were likely blow-gun pellets. I had a student at Loyola years ago who tested this hypothesis. He replicated the objects, and used pvc pipe of varying length and diameter. They worked well! Of course it is not definitive proof.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

5 years

My current book: Urban Life in the Distant Past: A Comparative Archaeological Approach. Working on finishing touches. This is a theoretical and comparative study, organized thematically. See occasional tweets at: #PastUrbanLife . This image shows a pre-urban Neolithic settlement.

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

6 months

"What is the most important find you've excavated?" Well, this is it: Bronze sewing needles from the Aztec provincial sites, Cuexcomate and Capilco. Not very spectacular, but incredibly informative about domestic activities, bronze technology, trade, and networks @ASUBeingHuman

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Michael E. Smith

@MichaelESmith

10 months

These Aztecs, on the other hand, just go about their economic business & don't worry about imperial bureaucrats. Yes, they had to pay taxes, but they were not beholden to the state. This shows one of the differences between a commercial economy (Aztec) and a command economy (Inka

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