Examining Environment, Ecology and Patterns of Maya Culture at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico

Summary

Our study examines the interplay of the environment, topography, conflict, and social change. Recent research stresses the role of environmental and ecological fluctuations in the Classic Maya collapse (AD 700-1000). Scholars have linked drought cycles and changing climate to increased warfare and culture change at the end of the Classic Period (AD 200-900). However, numerous studies highlight that not all places in the Maya area collapsed, some communities grew and continued to be places of human settlement for many centuries. More local high-resolution environmental data are necessary to understand the interplay of environment, ecology and Maya culture change. This paper examines data from the Selva Lacandona region to understand how climate and ecology may be linked to social transformation within the vicinity of Lake Mensabak. After the collapse, the Maya lowlands were massively de-populated, but during the Late Postclassic (AD 1200-1600) Lake Mensabak became a place of renewed settlement. As Maya migrated to the lake for its aquatic resources and defensible landscape, elites chose islands with elevated terrain to instantiate a cosmological/ideological scheme. People of lesser rank resided near the lake shore and at lower elevations, which were areas of lesser religious importance and more exposed to attacks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19917