This dissertation investigates the settlement, landscape, and adaptation of the Prehispanic populations in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico. Located in the highlands of Mexico, the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin (LPB) was the center of the Tarascan Empire, a Late Postclassic state that would become a major geopolitical core within Mesoamerica civilization. This dissertation proposes a spatially and temporally dynamic study of the Tarascan (or Purépecha) settlement system that ranges from the Late Preclassic, circa 100 B.C., to the Spanish conquest in A.D. 1525. The data derives from full-coverage, intensive surveys that cover the southwest portion of the lake basin, the southeastern portion of the lake basin, and the immediate area around the capital of Tzintzuntzan. Through a landscape reconstruction of the Prehispanic lake basin, a reconstruction and demographic analysis of the past communities, and intensive spatial modeling and analyses in a Geographic Information System, this research provides the overall trajectory of human settlement within the basin, ending at the Spanish Conquest. This includes identifying the major variables that influenced settlement location in the lake basin, including both economic, political and social variables. This dissertation provides new commentary on human-environment interaction in the LPB, community formation and settlement, and the emergence of the state. Ultimately, a testable model of settlement is introduced, a model which can be applied to future research in the highlands of Mexico, thus advancing research in this core area of Mesoamerican Prehistory.
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