Ancient Maya Cultivation In A Dynamic Wetland Environment

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Ancient Maya Cultivation in a Dynamic Wetland Environment

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Author : Jennifer Andrea Chmilar
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781303291524
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (915 download)

Book Synopsis Ancient Maya Cultivation in a Dynamic Wetland Environment by : Jennifer Andrea Chmilar

Download or read book Ancient Maya Cultivation in a Dynamic Wetland Environment written by Jennifer Andrea Chmilar and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultivation has taken many forms throughout the Maya lowlands. In the Yalahau region of the northern Maya lowlands, a series of wetlands produce a dynamic environment of wet, dry, and intermediate areas depending on fluctuations of the annual hydrologic cycle. Within these wetlands, anthropogenic rock alignments suggest human use and manipulation of the environment dating to the late Preclassic period. The dissertation is based on research at a single wetland at El Edén Ecological Reserve, Quintana Roo and concerns the function of the rock alignments as well as their duration of use to the ancient Maya. In terms of function, hypotheses are that they modified soil and water movement within a system of cultivation, and/ or acted as boundary markers, and/ or provided bases for fish weirs. As for when the rock alignments were used, hypotheses follow that they were used for a single hydroperiod, that the same features were built as the hydroperiod changed, or that new functions emerged as the water table shifted. Data was collected through topographic mapping of four areas of the wetland containing a total of twelve rock alignments, high-resolution GPS of these mapped areas, recording of water table fluctuations for a period of two years, and analysis of a sediment core documenting pollen extending back nearly 2500 years. The computer program arcGIS was used to create a series of topographic maps, both with and without the rock alignments, that demonstrate the influence of the rock alignments on the movement of water on the landscape. The rock alignments impacted water movement on a small scale. Within El Edén wetland, the ancient Maya constructed lines of rock to cause water to pool in localized depressions, either by dividing existing basins or surrounding them to direct water back inward, where it was maintained into the dry season so that valuable plants were encouraged to thrive for a longer period of time. Sinuous lines of rock were constructed to provide the base for a fish weir. Rock alignments were built at various points along the topography to take advantage of varying annual hydroperiods.

The Lowland Maya Area

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Author : Scott Fedick
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 9781560229711
Total Pages : 700 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (297 download)

Book Synopsis The Lowland Maya Area by : Scott Fedick

Download or read book The Lowland Maya Area written by Scott Fedick and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2003-09-18 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can we learn from the people of the Maya Lowlands? Integrating history, biodiversity, ethnobotany, geology, ecology, archaeology, anthropology, and other disciplines, The Lowland Maya Area is a valuable guide to the fascinating relationship between man and his environment in the Yucatán peninsula. This book covers virtually every aspect of the biology and ecology of the Maya Lowlands and the many ways that human beings have interacted with their surroundings in that area for the last three thousand years. You'll learn about newly discovered archaeological evidence of wetland use; the domestication and use of cacao and henequen plants; a biodiversity assessment of a select group of plants, animals, and microorganisms; the area's forgotten cotton, indigo, and wax industries; the ecological history of the Yucatán Peninsula; and much more. This comprehensive book will open your eyes to all that we can learn from the Maya people, who continue to live on their native lands, integrating modern life with their old ways and teaching valuable lessons about human dependence on and management of environmental resources. The Lowland Maya Area explores: the impact of hurricanes and fire on local environments historic and modern Maya concepts of forests the geologic history of the Yucatán challenges to preserving Maya architecture newly-discovered evidence of fertilizer use among the ancient Maya cooperation between locals and researchers that fosters greater knowledge on both sides recommendations to help safeguard the future The Lowland Maya Area is an ideal single source for reliable information on the many ecological and social issues of this dynamic area. Providing you with the results of the most recent research into many diverse fields, including traditional ecological knowledge, the difficult transition to capitalism, agave production, and the diversity of insect species, this book will be a valuable addition to your collection. As the editors of The Lowland Maya Area say in their concluding chapter: “If we are to gain global perspective from the changing Maya world, it is that understanding space and time is absolutely critical to human persistence.” Understanding how the Maya have interacted with their environment for thousands of years while maintaining biodiversity will help us understand how we too can work for sustainable development in our own environments.

The Maya Forest Garden

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Author : Anabel Ford
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131541791X
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

Book Synopsis The Maya Forest Garden by : Anabel Ford

Download or read book The Maya Forest Garden written by Anabel Ford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The conventional wisdom says that the devolution of Classic Maya civilization occurred because its population grew too large and dense to be supported by primitive neotropical farming methods, resulting in debilitating famines and internecine struggles. Using research on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, Ford and Nigh refute this Malthusian explanation of events in ancient Central America and posit a radical alternative theory. The authors-show that ancient Maya farmers developed ingenious, sustainable woodland techniques to cultivate numerous food plants (including the staple maize);-examine both contemporary tropical farming techniques and the archaeological record (particularly regarding climate) to reach their conclusions;-make the argument that these ancient techniques, still in use today, can support significant populations over long periods of time.

Sustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond

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Author : Jean T. Larmon
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1646422325
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (464 download)

Book Synopsis Sustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond by : Jean T. Larmon

Download or read book Sustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond written by Jean T. Larmon and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2022-07-15 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond investigates climate change and sustainability through time, exploring how political control of water sources, maintenance of sustainable systems, ideological relationships with water, and fluctuations in water availability have affected and been affected by social change. Contributors focus on and build upon earlier investigations of the global diversity of water management systems and the successes and failures of their employment, while applying a multitude of perspectives on sustainability. The volume focuses primarily on the Precolumbian Maya but offers several analogous case studies outside the ancient Maya world that illustrate the pervasiveness of water’s role in sustainability, including an ethnographic study of the sustainability of small-scale, farmer-managed irrigation systems in contemporary New Mexico and the environmental consequences of Angkor’s growth into the world’s most extensive preindustrial settlement. The archaeological record offers rich data on past politics of climate change, while epigraphic and ethnographic data show how integrated the ideological, political, and environmental worlds of the Maya were. While Sustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond stresses how lessons from the past offer invaluable insight into current approaches of adaptation, it also advances our understanding of those adaptations by making the inevitable discrepancies between past and present climate change less daunting and emphasizing the sustainable negotiations between humans and their surroundings that have been mediated by the changing climate for millennia. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in climate change, sustainability, and water management in the archaeological record. Contributors: Mary Jane Acuña, Wendy Ashmore, Timothy Beach, Jeffrey Brewer, Christopher Carr, Adrian S. Z. Chase, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Carlos R. Chiriboga, Jennifer Chmilar, Nicholas Dunning, Maurits W. Ertsen, Roland Fletcher, David Friedel, Robert Griffin, Joel D. Gunn, Armando Anaya Hernández, Christian Isendahl, David Lentz, Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Dan Penny, Kathryn Reese-Taylor, Michelle Rich, Cynthia Robin, Sylvia Rodríguez, William Saturno, Vernon Scarborough, Payson Sheets, Liwy Grazioso Sierra, Michael Smyth, Sander van der Leeuw, Andrew Wyatt

The Maya of the Cochuah Region

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Author : Justine M. Shaw
Publisher : UNM Press
ISBN 13 : 0826350909
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (263 download)

Book Synopsis The Maya of the Cochuah Region by : Justine M. Shaw

Download or read book The Maya of the Cochuah Region written by Justine M. Shaw and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years the Cochuah region, the ancient breadbasket of the north-central Yucatecan lowlands, has been documented and analyzed by a number of archaeologists and cultural anthropologists. This book, the first major collection of data from those investigations, presents and analyzes findings on more than eighty sites and puts them in the context of the findings of other investigations from outside the area. It begins with archaeological investigations and continues with research on living peoples. Within the archaeological sections, historic and colonial chapters build upon those concerned with the Classic Maya, revealing the ebb and flow of settlement through time in the region as peoples entered, left, and modified their ways of life based upon external and internal events and forces. In addition to discussing the history of anthropological research in the area, the contributors address such issues as modern women’s reproductive choices, site boundary definition, caves as holy places, settlement shifts, and the reuse of spaces through time.

Ancient Maya Life in the Far West Bajo

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Author : Julie L. Kunen
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816549400
Total Pages : 187 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (165 download)

Book Synopsis Ancient Maya Life in the Far West Bajo by : Julie L. Kunen

Download or read book Ancient Maya Life in the Far West Bajo written by Julie L. Kunen and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human activity during centuries of occupation significantly altered the landscape inhabited by the ancient Maya of northwestern Belize. In response, the Maya developed new techniques to harvest the natural resources of their surroundings, investing increased labor and raw materials into maintaining and even improving their ways of life. In this lively story of life in the wetlands on the outskirts of the major site of La Milpa, Julie Kunen documents a hitherto unrecognized form of intensive agriculture in the Maya lowlands—one that relied on the construction of terraces and berms to trap soil and moisture around the margins of low-lying depressions called bajos. She traces the intertwined histories of residential settlements on nearby hills and ridges and agricultural terraces and other farming-related features around the margins of the bajo as they developed from the Late Preclassic perios (400 BC-AD 250) until the area's abandonment in the Terminal Classic period (about AD 850). Kunen examines the organization of three bajo communities with respect to the use and management of resources critical to agricultural production. She argues that differences in access to spatially variable natural resources resulted in highly patterned settlement remains and that community founders and their descendents who had acquired the best quality and most diverse set of resources maintained an elevated status in the society. The thorough integration of three lines of evidence—the settlement system, the agricultural system, and the ancient environment—breaks new ground in landscape research and in the study of Maya non-elite domestic organization. Kunen reports on the history of settlement and farming in a small corner of the Maya world but demonstrates that for any study of human-environment interactions, landscape history consists equally of ecological and cultural strands of influence.

The Yalahau Regional Wetland Survey

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Author : Daniel Ian Leonard
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781303507144
Total Pages : 668 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (71 download)

Book Synopsis The Yalahau Regional Wetland Survey by : Daniel Ian Leonard

Download or read book The Yalahau Regional Wetland Survey written by Daniel Ian Leonard and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation focuses on a little-explored system of freshwater wetlands in the northeastern Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Previous archaeological research at one wetland in the Yalahau region found evidence for manipulation in the form of constructed rock alignments, which likely functioned as dikes and dams to control soil and water for food production. There are 175 wetlands in the Yalahau region, therefore the goal of the regional survey was to assess the extent of wetland manipulation, and correlate this manipulation with wetland environmental variables such as vegetation, topography, soil type, and flood regime. A sample of 25 wetlands was selected for survey. Fieldwork involved vegetation mapping, rock alignment mapping, plant collections, topographic transects, installation of water loggers, and extraction of soil cores. Using these data, I evaluate hypotheses regarding patterns in the distribution of alignments, chronology of wetland use, and relationship between developed wetlands and nearby ancient sites. My research shows that wetland manipulation with rock alignments was widespread in the Yalahau region, and that the Maya tended to build rock alignments in very particular physiographic contexts. This project provides a basis for future investigations into rock alignment function and how the Maya adapted to changing environmental conditions in the wetlands.

The Managed Mosaic

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Author : Scott L. Fedick
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

Book Synopsis The Managed Mosaic by : Scott L. Fedick

Download or read book The Managed Mosaic written by Scott L. Fedick and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection draws on the most up-to-date investigations of Maya practices to show that the lowland Maya utilized a highly flexible regional and local approach in their management of agricultural, mineral, game, and water resources.

Pulltrouser Swamp

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Author : B. L. Turner
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477303286
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

Book Synopsis Pulltrouser Swamp by : B. L. Turner

Download or read book Pulltrouser Swamp written by B. L. Turner and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-09-10 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among Mesoamericanists, the agricultural basis of the ancient Maya civilization of the Yucatan Peninsula has been an important topic of research—and controversy. Interest in the agricultural system of the Maya greatly increased as new discoveries showed that the lowland Maya were not limited to slash-and-burn technology, as had been previously believed, but used a variety of more sophisticated agricultural techniques and practices, including terracing, raised fields, and, perhaps, irrigation. Because of the nature of the data and because this form of agricultural technology had been key to explanations of state formation elsewhere in Mesoamerica, raised-field agriculture became a particular focus of investigation. Pulltrouser Swamp conclusively demonstrates the existence of hydraulic, raised-field agriculture in the Maya lowlands between 150 B.C. and A.D. 850. It presents the findings of the University of Oklahoma's Pulltrouser SwampProject, an NSF-supported interdisciplinary study that combined the talents of archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, paleobotanists, biologists, and zoologists to investigate the remains of the Maya agricultural system in the swampy region of northern Belize. By examining soils, fossil pollen and other plant remains, gastropods, relic settlements, ceramics, lithics, and other important evidence, the Pulltrouser Swamp team has clearly demonstrated that the features under investigation are relics of Maya-made raised and channelized fields and associated canals. Other data suggest the nature of the swamps in which the fields were constructed, the tools used for construction and cultivation, the possible crops cultivated, and at least one type of settlement near the fields, with its chronology. This verification of raised fields provides dramatic evidence of a large and probably organized workforce engaged in sophisticated and complex agricultural technology. As record of this evidence, Pulltrouser Swamp is a work of seminal importance for all students and scholars of New World prehistory.

Rain Harvesting in the Rainforest

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Author : Helga Geovannini Acuña
Publisher : British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 168 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

Book Synopsis Rain Harvesting in the Rainforest by : Helga Geovannini Acuña

Download or read book Rain Harvesting in the Rainforest written by Helga Geovannini Acuña and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2008 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main subject discussed in this study is the way in which the ancient Maya of Calakmul (modern Mexico), who thrived between 900 B.C. to A.D. 1000, managed their landscape in order to survive in the tropical rainforest. Their lithic technology, the hot, humid climate with a prolonged dry season, the lack of permanent surface sources of fresh water, and thin soils, considered insufficient for sustained agricultural production, are factors that were addressed successfully by the Maya in developing their complex civilization. The author's research begins with landscape, archaeological, and edaphological analyses, after which she explores the areas most advantageous to permanent habitation, suitable agricultural zones, land potential of the region and the capability of the area for supporting population. In addition, a complex agricultural channel irrigation system is explored as a critical factor for managing productive terrain for agriculture in karstic depressions (bajos). Similarly, an impressive rain harvesting system is exposed as an option to optimize hydrological resources for canalizing excessive rain during the wet season and storing water during the dry period. Finally, a reconstruction of the agricultural landscape is proposed.

Maya Calendar Origins

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Author : Prudence M. Rice
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 0292774494
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (927 download)

Book Synopsis Maya Calendar Origins by : Prudence M. Rice

Download or read book Maya Calendar Origins written by Prudence M. Rice and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2009-02-17 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Maya Political Science: Time, Astronomy, and the Cosmos, Prudence M. Rice proposed a new model of Maya political organization in which geopolitical seats of power rotated according to a 256-year calendar cycle known as the May. This fundamental connection between timekeeping and Maya political organization sparked Rice's interest in the origins of the two major calendars used by the ancient lowland Maya, one 260 days long, and the other having 365 days. In Maya Calendar Origins, she presents a provocative new thesis about the origins and development of the calendrical system. Integrating data from anthropology, archaeology, art history, astronomy, ethnohistory, myth, and linguistics, Rice argues that the Maya calendars developed about a millennium earlier than commonly thought, around 1200 BC, as an outgrowth of observations of the natural phenomena that scheduled the movements of late Archaic hunter-gatherer-collectors throughout what became Mesoamerica. She asserts that an understanding of the cycles of weather and celestial movements became the basis of power for early rulers, who could thereby claim "control" over supernatural cosmic forces. Rice shows how time became materialized—transformed into status objects such as monuments that encoded calendrical or temporal concerns—as well as politicized, becoming the foundation for societal order, political legitimization, and wealth. Rice's research also sheds new light on the origins of the Popol Vuh, which, Rice believes, encodes the history of the development of the Mesoamerican calendars. She also explores the connections between the Maya and early Olmec and Izapan cultures in the Isthmian region, who shared with the Maya the cosmovision and ideology incorporated into the calendrical systems.

Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture

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Author : Peter D. Harrison
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

Book Synopsis Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture by : Peter D. Harrison

Download or read book Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture written by Peter D. Harrison and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Classic Maya Political Ecology

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Author : Jon C. Lohse
Publisher : Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
ISBN 13 : 1938770463
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (387 download)

Book Synopsis Classic Maya Political Ecology by : Jon C. Lohse

Download or read book Classic Maya Political Ecology written by Jon C. Lohse and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data spanning the Archaic to Early Postclassic are presented, with particular analytical focus given to the end of the Early Classic through the Late and Terminal Classic and the geopolitical tumult that defined this period. Cast in the framework of political ecology, together these studies not only shed light on specific class histories of the region. They also advance a theory for understanding the contributions of non-elites to political growth and change over time. Classic Maya Political Ecology opens a window into pre-Columbian political processes grounded in environmental productivity and a mutual interdependence that defined class relations in northwestern Belize. This volume also outlines a theoretical approach that defines commoners and elites alike as political actors, people who contributed to the long term success and adaptability of local and regional political communities and the networks that sustained them.

Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology

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Author : Charles Golden
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135946078
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (359 download)

Book Synopsis Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology by : Charles Golden

Download or read book Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology written by Charles Golden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-03 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the current state of Maya archaeology by focusing on the history of the field for the last 100 years, present day research, and forward looking prescription for the direction of the field.

Archaeology Matters

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Author : Jeremy A Sabloff
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315434040
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

Book Synopsis Archaeology Matters by : Jeremy A Sabloff

Download or read book Archaeology Matters written by Jeremy A Sabloff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Senior archaeologist Jeremy Sabloff points students to ways in which archaeology is can be relevant to the understanding and amelioration of modern problems.

Maya Subsistence

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Author : Kent V. Flannery
Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 410 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

Book Synopsis Maya Subsistence by : Kent V. Flannery

Download or read book Maya Subsistence written by Kent V. Flannery and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 1982-02-28 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston presents studies on the history and development of Maya subsistence in honor of Maya archaeologist Dennis E. Puleston (1940-1978). The discussions are organized around four themes: ecological models for early Maya adaptations; archaeological investigations of Pre-classic and classic Maya subsistence; contributions of geography and soil science to an understanding of ancient Maya subsistence; and Maya subsistence in the post-classic, colonial, and modern eras. Comprised of 15 chapters, this book begins with an analysis of Puleston's career and a review of the history of inquiry into Maya subsistence. Maya subsistence from the earliest Pre-classic period up to the present day is then examined, with emphasis on agriculture, hunting, wild plant collecting, animal husbandry, and trade. In particular, cultural development in the Valley of Guatemala from 1500 B.C. to the Spanish Conquest is discussed, along with the resources of the tropical lowlands and actual prehistoric cornfields miraculously preserved by volcanic ashfall in El Salvador. The book also presents evidence for Maya soil and water conservation over the entire area from Yucatan to Chiapas and central Guatemala, and looks at the traditional role of women and animals in lowland Maya economy. This monograph will be of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists.

Journal of Field Archaeology

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Author : Association for Field Archaeology
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 550 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (69 download)

Book Synopsis Journal of Field Archaeology by : Association for Field Archaeology

Download or read book Journal of Field Archaeology written by Association for Field Archaeology and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: