An Archaeogeochemical Perspective on Ancient Maya Land Use and Climate Change: The Case of Lagunas de Yalahau, Yucatan, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent theoretical advances emerging from Historical Ecology have reoriented thinking regarding human-environment relations in many ancient contexts. Consistent with this research program, the concept of the Maya Forest-Garden introduced by Ford and Nigh and Rivera-Núñez and Fargher’s work on Kanan Ka’ax, among others, have provided a more integrated socioecological and indigenous perspective on Maya landscapes. Following on these perspectives, we present the case of Lagunas de Yalahau, located in the central portion of the state of Yucatan. Using archaeological survey and geochemical data (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, macro/micronutrients, etc.) from sediment cores recovered from two cenotes within the site, we evaluate how population growth, environmental management, and climate change shaped Lagunas de Yalahau’s landscape during the Late Classic period (especially between ≈ AD 500 and ≈ AD 850). This period saw massive population growth across the Maya area coupled with sociopolitical florescent, processes that Lagunas de Yalahau’s inhabitants were caught up in. Specifically, these data are used to evaluate various hypothetical scenarios that postulate alternatively that landscape modification, recorded archaeologically, resulted in ecological degradation vs. enrichment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35904.0