Maya Lowlands (Other Keyword)
1-7 (7 Records)
Since 2009, investigative research for the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao (DH2GC) project has focused on an unsurveyed area in the immediate northeastern periphery of Dos Hombres and has expanded to include an area located two kilometers southeast from the La Milpa site core. The incorporation of a broad multiregional comparative dataset will facilitate a greater understanding of the sociopolitical dynamicity on multiple social and economic levels within the Three Rivers Region in Northwestern...
Irrigation Systems and Other Forms of Intensive Agriculture at the Ancient Maya City of Tikal (2016)
In addition to an extensive short fallow system and the intensive cultivation of dooryard gardens and orchards that probably produced a major portion of the food supply at Tikal, other forms of primary food production were being utilized, as well. Significantly, the Maya seem to have developed intensive hydraulic agriculture in the lands south of the Perdido Reservoir. Stratigraphic profiles, δ13C data, and other forms of archaeological evidence clearly indicate that maize was being cultivated...
Multiscale Diversity in Classic Decorated Pottery in the Hiix Witz kingdom of the Western Maya Lowlands (2017)
A political entity defined mainly on epigraphic evidence, the Hiix Witz kingdom includes at least three head centers, Zapote Bobal, El Pajaral and La Joyanca, all located south of the San Pedro Mártir river. The architecture, sculpture and ceramics of the three sites were subjected to extensive studies from 1999 to 2006, also in 2012, suggesting that this entity consisted of relatively heterogeneous components that must have entertained distinct relations with neighborring regions of the...
Population, Climate Change, and Agriculture in the Late First Millennium C.E. Maya Lowlands (2015)
Over the last 20 years, a number of studies have provided evidence for a "drought" in the Maya Lowlands between the 8th and 10th centuries. Researchers have argued that a higher water table in the northern lowlands allowed agricultural practices to continue in the north, while sites in the south suffered from the drought. This paper will examine the relationship between population changes and climatic changes in the Maya Lowlands. The nature of the water table and the agricultural practices of...
Preclassic Maya Territories and Boundaries (2015)
Many Classic period (ca. AD 250-900) polities owe the location of their royal courts to decisions made by settlers in the Preclassic period (ca. 1000 BC – AD 250). This presentation evaluates the basic question of whether there is evidence of territories or political boundaries in the Preclassic Maya Lowlands. In the past, I have argued that Middle Preclassic residents constructed monumental E-Group architecture at specific places on the landscape as a conscious creation of distance between...
Production and Intensification in Hinterland Communities (2017)
This study investigates the nature and intensity of ancient Maya household economies in northwestern Belize. The primary focus will be centered on investigative ways in which settlement pattern data offers insight to understanding production systems in hinterland communities. The preliminary patterned relationship that emerged among settlement features and land resources allowed for the interpretation of land management strategies and production systems implemented in different environment zones...
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...