Confluences: Canals, Wetlands, and Agroecosystems of the Ancient Maya in Northwestern Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Wetlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Wetlands played a crucial role in the subsistence methods of early complex polities, including the ancient Maya. The scale of canal development in the Birds of Paradise wetland field complex reflect the status, technological power, and agronomic wealth that wetlands provided to the ancient Maya in this region during the Maya Late Preclassic to the Postclassic. These elaborate systems persisted through the Terminal Classic droughts well into the Postclassic. New findings from our field excavation at a specific canal confluence in summer of 2023 have revealed significant changes in the built environment that further support evidence for extensive and persistent water management practices. This site in Northwest Belize is a complex system of canals and fields within the Programme for Belize Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, roughly 5 km2 wetland forest (with an additional 7 km2 nearby) within the coastal plain of the Rio Bravo watershed. Further remote sensing and multiproxy geochemical analysis will provide greater understanding of wetland ecosystems and indigenous water management strategies at this site and may indicate adaptive strategies across extensive periods of climate variability against the changing tapestry of shifting polities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Wetlands   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40425.0