Comparing Ancient Human-Nature Reslationships at Tikal, Guatemala and Caracol, Belize

Summary

Gordon Willey wrote about the importance of settlement patterns, focusing on the ways that humans distributed themselves over the landscape. While his and other early researchers’ efforts incorporated built features, they did not really research or assess the impact of the human-nature relationship within a given landscape. Vern Scarborough’s work has helped to fill in this gap in the Maya area, particularly relating to Tikal, Guatemala and to northern Belize. This paper builds on Scarborough’s examination of water systems at Tikal by comparing and contrasting the human-nature relationships at Tikal with those at Caracol, Belize. These two sites had a tangled archaeological history, but each exhibits distinct adaptations to their particular landscapes. An examination of the landscape and archaeologically-recorded differences between the two cities helps to better contextualize their interactions during the Classic Period (A.D. 250-900) and importantly highlights the diverse ways in which the ancient Maya were shaped by – and shaped – their human-nature relationships.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Contributions of Vernon Scarborough in Water Management and Sustainability, Part 2: The Classic Maya

Keywords

Spatial Coverage