Human-climate-landscape interactions within the Rio Blanco Basin, Southern Belize

Summary

Excavations of alluvial terraces along the Rio Blanco, near the Maya site of Uxbenká in southern Belize, Toledo District, record Holocene human impacts and sediment aggradation from the pre-ceramic through the modern period. Assuming sediment aggradation rates on the terraces are inversely related to basin-wide hill slope erosion allows us to develop a landscape evolution model during the Holocene and investigate possible anthropogenic vs. climatic effects on the landscape. Radiocarbon dates and soil profiles from several units on the Holocene terraces adjacent to the Rio Blanco define periods of landscape stability followed by rapid aggradation. Our results suggest that sediment aggradation rates, and hence erosion of the landscape, was highest during the Middle Holocene and is coincident with the transition to sedentary communities and the adoption of agriculture. Erosion rates and the consequent sediment aggradation rates on the terraces were lower during the Classic Maya period until the present. Our study suggests anthropogenic influences, rather than climate alone, lead to widespread erosion of the landscape during the Middle Holocene.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage