Water Management (Other Keyword)
26-32 (32 Records)
Establishing causality between climate change and cultural history is often fraught by mismatched temporal scales and weak archaeological correlates. In the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico the abandonment of large villages on the Pajarito Plateau in the early 16th century has largely been attributed to drought, however the persistence of large communities on the adjacent Jemez Plateau, which shares similar climate histories, ecological settings, and prehistoric adaptations, has not been...
Tikal in Environmental Context: Peter Harrison and Ancient Maya Water Management and Subsistence (2015)
Through the lens of Tikal, Peter Harrison developed an interest in how the ancient Maya thrived in the seasonally arid central Maya Lowlands. Initially this interest stemmed from his investigations of Tikal’s Central Palace and its adjacent reservoir. However, soon his interest spread beyond the elite center to questions of basic subsistence and the potential use of wetlands (bajos) for intensive agriculture. Our work at Tikal, the Bajo de Santa Fe, and smaller bajos benefitted from some of...
Tracks through Time: The Archaeology of the METRO Light Rail Corridor, Volume II: Investigations at Pueblo Grande and La Plaza, and Water Management (2011)
This book presents the results of the archaeological investigations that were conducted along then Light Rail route before and during its construction. As with any project that receives federal funding, METRO was legally required to undertake archaeological investigations along the project corridor; but production of this volume reflects not only METRO's commitment to legal compliance with environmental laws, but also the commitment of the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa to preserve and...
Upstream, Downstream, Sacred Worlds (2016)
Archaeological study of ancient water management has grown tremendously in recent decades. Vern Scarborough has contributed centrally to advances in this domain, in the Maya area of Mesoamerica, as well as in cross-cultural examinations extending to the U.S. Southwest, and more distantly, South and Southeast Asia. Even his early concerns with ancient American ballcourts and ballgames link to water, with regard to the watery underworld to which the courts were entry portals. Scarborough’s...
Using Adaptive Capacity to Assess the Water Management System of Koh Ker, Cambodia (2016)
Further research to understand what makes agricultural and water management systems resilient is critical for the continued existence and growth of sustainable communities today, especially in urban contexts. Resiliency is a very useful concept for understanding how complex systems, but can be difficult to operationalize. In this paper, we argue that adaptive capacity can be used as a middle-range theory that allows archaeologists to engage in interdisciplinary discourses of system-level...
Water Management in the Ancient States of South India and Sri Lanka (2016)
Water management practices have been instrumental in the rise and collapse of many complex societies. Informed through case studies from South India and Sri Lanka this paper explores the importance of water management in their developmental trajectories during the Chola (848-1279 CE) and Sinhalese Empires (377 BCE-1310 CE). Initial conditions that led to the impetus for water management include environment and climate changes. Continued growth and prosperity relied on the development and use of...
Water Management, Ritual Ideology, and Environmental Change in Bronze Age Sardinia (2016)
The Nuragic culture of Bronze Age Sardinia (c. 1700-900 BCE) is known for building thousands of monumental stone towers called nuraghi throughout the island. However, toward the end of the Bronze Age, Nuragic leaders stopped building nuraghi and instead constructed underground temples over naturally occurring springs. Previous research assumes that this architectural shift took place rapidly in the Final Bronze Age (c. 1175-1020 BCE), representing a sudden rise in the importance of water ritual....