Cultural Footprints Unearthed: Exploring Settlement Patterns and the Constructed Landscape of Yalahau, Yucatan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The discourse surrounding the environmental impact of humans on Earth underscores the imperative to comprehensively grasp the temporal and geographical dimensions, as well as the transformative intensity of anthropogenic changes. The Parque Estatal de Yalahau Project, a multidisciplinary endeavor encompassing archaeology, paleoecology, and historical ecology, seeks to do this in Yucatan, Mexico. Its focus is to correlate historical occupation periods with landscape transformations in Yalahau’s pre-Hispanic settlement. Our objective is to elucidate the extent of impact, environmental change, and the evolving palimpsest of landscape transformations over the longue durée. In this paper, we report on our results which have revealed that the Yalahau site showcases a rational relationship with the environment. Its special design reflects a deliberate decision rooted in considerations involving the sustainable utilization and conservation of the natural surroundings. These decisions are underpinned by a profound understanding of the local terrain, soil characteristics, and the dynamics of wetland processes. Additionally, the paleoecological analyses on unconsolidated sediments samples, extracted from cores recovered in cenotes within the settlement and its periphery, have shed light on substantial shifts in land use practices and climate over time. These findings suggest a dynamic adjustment response by the pre-Hispanic population to fluctuating environmental conditions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40255.0