Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World

The presence of ancient road networks in the New World is a puzzle because they predate the use of wheeled transport vehicles. But whatever their diverse functions may have been they remain the only tangible indication of how extinct American societies were regionally organised. Contributors to this volume originally published in 1991 describe past studies of prehispanic roads in the southwestern United States Mexico Central and South America paying special attention to their significance for economic and political organisation as well as regional communication.