Subsistence in the Peripheries: Modeling Ancient Maya Milpa Cycles in Western Honduras and Southern Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Provisioning Ancient Maya Cities: Modeling Food Production and Land Use in Tropical Urban Environments" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ancient Maya agricultural practices varied based on heterogenous landscapes across the Maya Lowlands. While such variations may cause hesitation in comparative models, we find utility in assessing such differences to understand dynamic past human behaviors. Following the methods presented by Horn and Tran, we contribute to the session by comparing milpa cycles and food production from three Classic Maya centers in two discrete peripheral regions of the southern Maya lowlands: western Honduras and southern Belize, which have high-resolution lidar-derived DEMs and robust settlement data. Copán is situated in the highlands of western Honduras and Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il are in the Toledo uplands of southern Belize. At Copán, we assess milpa cycles across 26 km2 and more than 600 household plazuelas. At Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il, we evaluate milpa cycles across 132 km2 and more than 300 plazuelas. Using remote sensing, GIS modeling, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), we quantify suitable land for food production and compare that to population estimates for each ancient community. Our study contributes to the diversity in subsistence practices such as milpa farming in varied landscapes as part of the larger session on food production and land use among the ancient Maya.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Provisioning Ancient Maya Cities: Modeling Food Production and Land Use in Tropical Urban Environments   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36928.0