"Down to Earth": The Primacy of the Terrestrial

Summary

This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The concept of the Critical Zone makes clear that our future depends on the layer between the atmosphere and bedrock: the earth—which tellingly also serves as the name for our planet. Our Earth’s soils record the past and structure the future. Tim and Sheryl have worked in many places in the world, but I know them through their research on soils and land use in the Maya area. It is no exaggeration to say that I and my team have been inspired not only by their work but by their ideas, the innovative context of their interpretations, and not least their path-breaking results. In this presentation I describe the path my team and I have taken in soils research. Precolumbian activities drive the research, but our interest goes beyond ancient land use to assessing the impact on modern soils of the built environments of the past: Maya, historic, and recent. How did the decomposition of the material culture of the past contribute to the makeup of modern soils? Can a methodology be designed for the study of this long-term trajectory, and how can such a methodology contribute to global soil and food security?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• 2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35895.0