Hidden Structures, Ground Penetrating RADAR, and the Demography of El Mirador

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Preclassic El Mirador polity collapsed around 150 C.E. One focus of explanations of El Mirador’s collapse is anthropogenic changes to Basin ecology, centered on 1) population growth and agricultural overexploitation; and 2) conspicuous consumption of stucco for elite construction. Reliable estimates of population are essential for evaluating these hypotheses. LiDAR revolutionized our ability to identify and count surface structures, but questions concerning ‘hidden structures’ remain. A variety of hidden structures exists at El Mirador. They are a common feature of Late Classic patios, and have been encountered in several open contexts. Some include formal cut-stone foundations. Others are less regular concentrations of unworked stones. We tested the efficacy of Ground Penetrating RADAR for identifying hidden structures at El Mirador in 2018. The area covered by GPR, approximately 40x50m, was equivalent to 125 4x4m test units. Twelve anomalies were identified as possible hidden structures. Eight were ground truthed using 1x2m excavations. Three of eight yielded evidence of hidden structures. Additionally, two 4x4m control excavations as failed to yield evidence of hidden structures. Though remote techniques like GPR are imperfect, they represent our only practical means of estimating the prevalence of hidden structure at El Mirador and other Maya sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25720