New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
The Bajo el Laberinto region of the Maya lowlands was an important locus of cultural development, continuities, and transformations for over two millennia. Beginning around the time of the earliest sedentary communities and extending through to the Postclassic period, the Maya of this region established and developed communities along the margins of bajos (karst seasonal wetlands), transforming and managing complex and diverse landscapes to meet the demands of urban populations. During the Preclassic (900 BCE–200 CE), autonomous cities such as Yaxnohcah and Calakmul flourished in this sociospatial landscape. However, by 450 CE, Calakmul emerged as the center of a network of economically integrated urban settlements, ultimately becoming one of the largest cities in Mesoamerica and the most politically significant and influential Maya city from 650 to 850 CE. Interdisciplinary investigations in this region have generated robust data relevant to understanding the distribution of settlement, land use and water management strategies, and livelihood practices. More recently, new avenues of research have focused on continuities and disruptions in urban landscapes and social, political, and economic dynamics. This two-part symposium explores these themes, with contributors presenting findings and interpretations from new, ongoing, and recently completed work in the Bajo el Laberinto region.
Other Keywords
Maya: Classic •
Maya: Preclassic •
Paleoethnobotany •
LiDAR •
Water Management and Irrigation •
Geoarchaeology •
Landscape Archaeology •
Remote Sensing/Geophysics •
Subsistence and Foodways •
Survey
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
Peten (State / Territory) •
Yucatan (State / Territory) •
Belize (Country) •
Orange Walk (State / Territory) •
Cayo (State / Territory) •
Corozal (State / Territory) •
Belize (State / Territory) •
Stann Creek (State / Territory) •
Quintana Roo (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
-
Aguadas of the Bajo el Laberinto Region: Form, Distribution, and Biocultural Importance (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Aguadas are permanent or temporary water reservoirs distributed throughout the Elevated Interior Region (EIR). These wetlands have formed complex ecosystems that are essential for the survival of many species and are sometimes the only source of fresh water for animal and human communities in the...
-
Behemoths of the Bajo el Laberinto: The Development of Urban Reservoirs at Yaxnocah and Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Elevated Interior Region of the Maya Lowlands, including the area surrounding the sprawling Bajo el Laberinto, faced acute water availability issues that necessitated the annual capture and storage of rain water to support urbanization. Two large urban areas dominate ancient Maya settlement...
-
Big, Bigger, Biggest: Investigating Aguadas 1–3 at Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Calakmul is known to be one of the largest ancient Maya urban centers in the Elevated Interior Region of the Maya Lowlands. Thus, it is not surprising that in this water-challenged environment, the population of Calakmul invested in some of the region’s grandest reservoirs. While limited...
-
Contextualizing the Ancient Cultivated Landscape of the Bajo el Laberinto Region, Campeche, Mexico (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ongoing archaeological investigations in the Bajo el Laberinto region, bolstered by advances in aerial laser scanning technology, have begun to offer a clearer indication of how the ancient Maya manipulated their environment to manage food, water, and soil insecurities. Multiple lidar campaigns...
-
Exploring the Function and Evolution of Intensive Stream Modifications in the Southern Escarpment of Calakmul (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Investigations over the past decades have shown that the Classic Maya conducted monumental landscape modifications in order to both avoid inundations of settlement areas and to capture and store rainfall. In the initial stages, these modifications involved the sealing of reservoirs, which...
-
Forest Resources at Calakmul based on Modern Forest Surveys and Lidar Assessment (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Forest resources supported a sizeable population at the Maya city of Calakmul for centuries. This study addresses questions about maximum potential carrying capacity based on aboveground biomass (AGB) production and the diversity of ethnobotanically significant forest species. AGB of the modern...
-
Lidar-Based aboveground Biomass Estimations for the Maya Archaeological Site of Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study introduces a method for estimating aboveground biomass (AGB) in contemporary tropical forests near archaeological sites using lidar technology. Accurate AGB estimates are crucial for assessing wood resources available to the ancient Maya for city development. We propose a lidar...
-
Paleoenvironmental Research at Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When the Proyecto Arqueológico Yaxnohcah began 13 years ago in 2011, some of our driving questions centered on the Bajo el Laberinto and the role that this enormous wetland played in the rise and development of what was to become the great city of Yaxnohcah: Why were the early inhabitants of the...
-
Paleoenvironmental Studies at the Ancient Maya Center of Yaxnohcah based on Analyses of eDNA, Pollen, and Plant Macroremains (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Yaxnohcah was a major civic-ceremonial center of the ancient Maya world, especially during the Preclassic period (1000 BCE–200 CE). Environmental data from excavations provided important insights into the interaction between the ancient inhabitants of the polity and the surrounding Neotropical...