Risk and Resilience in the Dynamic Lower Lacantun River Landscape

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Maya have inhabited diverse environments in southern Mesoamerica, typified by marked seasonal contrasts between wet and dry periods. Access to water as a resource for agriculture and transportation varied spatially and seasonally for Maya communities, with scholarly and public attention often focusing on the challenges posed by extended periods of drought. In the Lower Lacantun River landscape of lowland Chiapas at the confluence with the Upper Usumacinta River, waterways presented unique opportunities and challenges to riverine communities who managed these resources. In this region, seasonal inundation of floodplains poses greater risk than periodic droughts. This paper presents recent research in the Lower Lacantun River Basin that shares a Classic to colonial period toponym of Lakamtuun, known from Classic period inscriptions at sites like Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Ceibal, and El Palma, among others. The Proyecto Arqueologico Bajo Lacantun has completed two seasons of fieldwork at the primary centers of Benemerito Primera Seccion and El Palma, alongside smaller communities and agrarian landscapes, where the influence of the riverine environment has been recorded in the anthropogenic modification of the environment through settlements and drained field systems, revealed through excavation, survey, and remote sensing datasets.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36236.0