Archaeological evidence - i.e. presence of exogenous foreign material objects (pottery
obsidian and so on) - is used to make inferences on ancient trade while population movement
can only be assessed when the biological component of an ancient community is analyzed (i.e.
the human skeletal remains). But the exchange of goods or the presence of foreign architectural
patterns does not necessarily imply genetic admixture between groups while at the same time
humans can migrate for reasons that may not be related only to trading. The Prehispanic Maya
were a complex highly stratified society. During the Classic period city-states governed over
large regions establishing complex ties of alliance and commerce with the region's minor
centers and their allies against other city-states within and outside the Maya realm. The fall
of the political system during the Classic period (the Maya collapse) led to hypothetical
invasions of leading groups from the Gulf of Mexico into the northern Maya lowland at the onset
of the Postclassic. However it is still unclear whether this collapse was already underway
when this movement of people started. The whole picture of population dynamics in Maya
Prehispanic times during the Classic and the Postclassic can slowly emerge only when all the
pieces of the puzzle are put together in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion. The
contributions of this volume bring together contributions from archaeology archaeometry
paleodemography and bioarchaeology. They provide an initial account of the dynamic qualities
behind large-scale ancient population dynamics and at the same time represent novel
multidisciplinary points of departure towards an integrated reconstruction and understanding of
Prehispanic population dynamics in the Maya region.
