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This chapter describes the cycles of aggregation and dissolution of the largest villages in the VEP study area. Because these villages were often central nodes among a number of smaller settlements and contained civic-ceremonial architecture used for large gatherings, these villages have been termed “community centers.” We assess how the location, types of civic-ceremonial architecture, and association with agricultural land changed over time for these villages. A detailed history of the development and abandonment of community centers provides important context for understanding the differences between the two periods of out-migration that occurred during the occupation of the study area.

Early modern diplomacy was never a princely and aristocratic province alone. Republics also sent and received diplomats or participated in peace conferences. Whereas this sort of republican diplomacy was basically accepted at the princely courts, Free Imperial Cities such as Bremen and Cologne faced significant difficulties when trying to gain recognition. Nonetheless, there were continuous efforts by the imperial cities to play their part in early modern diplomacy, not least because of the prestige that could be earned by participating in this sphere and its rituals. For them foreign relations were always a ritual process: ceremonial interaction was at its centre, since princely recognition of ceremonial receptions or urban emissaries conferred political and social acceptance of the imperial cities’ status. Ceremonial interaction between princes and cities often involved a reciprocal exchange of capital: of economic capital paid back as symbolic capital, as gestures of social recognition which were recorded in detail in the urban books of ceremony. Writing was therefore crucial for the symbolic dimensions of urban diplomacy. The imperial cities’ ceremony books were meant to be filled with reports about ceremony which were regarded as a gain of symbolic capital materialized in writing.

The topic of Mississippian origins in the North Carolina Piedmont has received very little attention from archaeologists since the 1950s. This chapter pulls together information from multiple sites, especially the extensively excavated Town Creek site, to present an overview of Early Mississippian in the North Carolina Piedmont. The presence of Mississippian lifeways in the region is indicated by the appearance of complicated-stamped ceramics by around A.D. 1150-1200. Associated social changes include the appearance of archaeologically visible households and the development of a civic-ceremonial center at the Town Creek site. Public and domestic architecture as well as evidence for ritual activities suggests that social groups interacted and were integrated at multiple scales within the Early Mississippian community at Town Creek.

Survey in the Puuc region, Yucatán, has revealed considerable evidence for small-scale quarrying and lime burning for construction purposes, as well as a high incidence of masonry architecture. In this chapter we discuss what must have been a substantial component of the Puuc Terminal Classic economy, especially if the construction of palaces and civic-ceremonial structures is included. This chapter addresses the stages involved in the procurement of building materials for housing and subsequent construction processes, especially of masonry structures. We then assess how construction may have been managed and its economic implications, suggesting that elite houses may have been tokens within a royal patronage network in which the size and elaboration of dwellings were subject to sumptuary considerations.