The Soils and Geoarchaeology of Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Three years of soil, water, and lidar analyses for the Middle Usumacinta Region indicate a diversity of soils, paleosols, and several areas of wetland rectilinear features that indicate a range of wetland farming and other uses. For the soils, we characterized soil profiles through excavations over more than three meters depth, mapping stratigraphy, horizons, and paleosols. Our field and lab research on the soils aims to show soil formation, fertility, sediment sourcing, and broader geoarchaeology through geochemistry and stratigraphy in association with archaeological information. We analyzed soil texture, pH, magnetic susceptibility, XRF and ICP AES for elements, particle size analysis, LOI, C, N, P, S, and stable carbon isotopes. These analyses allow us to differentiate sediment sources, though the soils and sediments also reflect in situ weathering especially near the surfaces that have been exposed to the atmosphere for millennia. We present evidence of topsoils and paleosol Rendolls, Vertisols, and Oxisols buried under the largescale Middle Preclassic construction. We also consider the evidence for wetland fields and canals that are probably Classic period, using lidar visualization analyses and pattern comparisons with wetland fields demonstrated elsewhere for both the well-known Laguna de Términos field complex and other regional rectilinear canals systems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39598.0