The Archaeology of Political Organization: Urbanism in Classic Period Veracruz, Mexico. BARBARA L. STARK. 2022. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles. xxiii + 384 pp., 246 figures, 19 tables. $89.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781950446148; $72.00 (ebook), ISBN 9781950446193

The study of earlier Olmec developments immediately to the south of this region has often overshadowed analysis of thriving Classic period cultures in the WLPB and nearby, an oversight that Stark addresses. The book's 13 chapters may be divided into three groups: (1) those that present general settlement data and method (Chapters 1–4), (2) those that focus more on monumental complexes and their role in regional studies of urbanism (Chapters 5–11), and (3) synthetic chapters (Chapters 12 and especially 13). The initial data-rich chapters firmly establish the parameters of low-density urbanism operative throughout the Classic period: dispersed settlements blanketed the region punctuated by monumental complexes that defined political centers.