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walls. Furthermore, the likelihood of betrayal seriously reduced the value of such protection, particularly considering the expense involved. But third, and most important, the use of fortifications in Mesoamerica could not be divorced from the city's wider social networks. The city itself might be safe, but its fields and stores beyond the walls were still vulnerable. So were its smaller unfortified dependencies, and without these the city was lost anyway. In consequence, a static defense was a losing one. Only an active defense that defeated the enemy would enable the city to continue as the hub of a social network. |
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