Landscape Modification Seen from Above: Remote Sensing Analysis at Postclassic Mayapan

Summary

This paper examines shifting environmental paradigms in the Maya realm. Using Mayapán as a case study, a site long-considered to be located in a "marginal" environment for agricultural productivity, I will evaluate site resilience, sustainability, and self-sufficiency and use these concepts to create a more nuanced perspective of human-environment interactions. Data from Mayapán will be cross-referenced to other similar sites across the Maya region. I will show that assumptions about the environment in the Northern Yucatán Peninsula is rooted partly in culture historical interpretations of the previous century. Modern investigative techniques from the last twenty years have allowed for more robust scientific research that contrast the environmental perspectives of the past, challenging these long-held beliefs and opening up new avenues of research. These new investigations show that the environmental history of the Maya in the Northern Yucatán Peninsula is even more complex than previously understood. Occupation in this area is both highly adaptive and stable at different points in time.

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): 21835