Fred Valdez

• University of Texas at Austin

The land use of the ancient Maya strongly affected the environment of the previously forested Maya Lowlands. A forest grew back after the Maya “collapse”, some 1100 years ago. Two activities of the ancient Maya could have had widespread effects on the tree species composition of the regrown, modern forest. First, in areas with topographic relief Ma...

Population pressure and migration are often central features of many hypotheses related to ancient Maya population declines, abandonment episodes, settlement, and sociopolitical organization. The Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA) in northwest Belize shows archaeological evidence for several depopulation and resettlement events. Wor...

In addition to understanding humanity through material culture, the archaeological record also has the capacity to provide botanical data which provides insight to ancient environmental landscapes, climate patterns, and provides a baseline for agroeconomic systems and foodways. Studying archaeobotanical records is vital to a holistic interpretation...

The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP), in NW Belize, has recently benefitted from the application of several technologies not often available to archaeology research programs. The use of non-destructive geo-physical and related technologies at several sites has provided the PfBAP with data concerning community structure. These dat...

The northwest region of Belize, known as the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA), is a research set-aside of interest for investigating hinterland communities of the prehistoric Maya. The hinterland or rural communities of the RBCMA are as diverse and complex as any across the Maya lowlands. The Programme for Belize Archaeological Pr...

Investigations concerning the earliest Maya have been of archaeological interest for many decades. Northern Belize serves as a valuable region for researching and understanding early Maya developments. In particular, the ancient Maya site of Colha in northern Belize is a focal point of some early developments beginning in the Archaic period. Select...

Wetlands epitomize all forms of the proposed Anthropocene era because they record both past and recent human environmental interaction and because of their abundant resources. This is especially true for tropical wetlands, and a growing body of research demonstrates their important connections with past and Indigenous societies. Maya culture, for e...

Understanding civilizations of the past and how they emerge and eventually falter is a primary research focus of archaeological investigations because these provocative data sets offer critical insights into long-term human behavior patterns, especially in regard to land use practices and sustainable environmental interactions. The ancient Maya ser...

Significance Understanding agricultural subsistence is vital for understanding past complex societies. Lidar data are indicating widespread ancient Maya infrastructure. Wetland agriculture was crucial to ancient cultures, but no previous study coupled lidar with multiproxy evidence to demonstrate the extent and uses of Maya wetland fields. We condu...

We compare the geomorphology and soil of two ancient Maya wetland agricultural complexes in modern day Belize. This paper focuses on 3,000 years of soil geomorphology and paleoecological change to determine the chronology of wetland formation and human use in this region. We also characterize Maya manipulation of the environment over time, especial...

The prehistoric Maya site of Colha and a Terminal Classic event at the site (human decapitation) serve as a case study for significant social-political changes. The nature of the violent and dramatic event suggests changes that were quite intentional for removing the form of political organization that previously failed the society of Colha. Variou...

This chapter discusses sedimentology and human impacts on a large sediment trap associated with teh central precinct of teh Maya site of Blue Creek

Significance The rise of complex societies and sustainable land use associated with urban centers has been a major focus for anthropologists, geographers, and ecologists. Here we present a quantitative assessment of the agricultural, agroforestry, and water management strategies of the inhabitants of the prominent ancient Maya city of Tikal, and ho...

Archaeologists have begun to understand that many of the challenges facing our technologically sophisticated, resource dependent, urban systems were also destabilizing factors in ancient complex societies. The focus of IHOPE-Maya is to identify how humans living in the tropical Maya Lowlands in present-day Central America responded to and impacted...

The ancient eastern Maya Lowlands are characterized by both small, highly resilient communities and the growth of large regional centers. The smaller communities, separated by 2–5 kilometers and dispersed across the landscape, established a circle of interdependency between one another and a spatial separation from the largest centers. Degrees of s...

The access to water and the engineered landscapes accommodating its collection and allocation are pivotal issues for assessing sustainability. Recent mapping, sediment coring, and formal excavation at Tikal, Guatemala, have markedly expanded our understanding of ancient Maya water and land use. Among the landscape and engineering feats identified a...

In 1997, the Chan Chich Archaeological Project excavated a Terminal Preclassic/Early Classic period Maya tomb at Chan Chich, Belize. Tomb 2 represents the earliest royal tomb in the Three Rivers Region of the east-central Yucatan Peninsula and has striking similarities to Burial 85 at Tikal, the tomb of the dynastic founder Yax Ehb' Xook. This pape...

Harkening back to the debates associated with "dualistic economies" in addressing emerging nation states, we examine aspects of the ancient economy of the lowland Maya. Resource-specialized communities were knit together in a network of interdependencies that allowed high degrees of self-sustaining separation from the large monumental centers about...

Prehistoric potbelly (boulder) sculpture has been of great interest for many decades. Most such sculptures occur in the highlands and piedmont of the Pacific Coast in Guatemala and El Salvador. The specific function and dating of the monuments has been of particular concern to researchers. This paper presents a summary of data in an attempt to plac...

Studies of landscape (e.g., Brady and Ashmore 1999; Stanton and Freidel 2005) and social organization (e.g., Fowler and Hageman 2004; Gillespie 2000b; Joyce 2000; McAnany 1995) have recently become prominent in Maya archaeology. Thomas (2001) has suggested that the former is an embodiment of the latter, in that landscape can be considered the resul...

Evidence from preceramic Paleoindian and Archaic time periods in Belize has been recorded over the past quarter of a century by a number of projects. This paper summarizes previously published information and presents new archaeological data in bringing the hunting-and-gathering and itinerant horticultural millennia of this region into a more accur...

The concepts of disaster, vulnerability and societal vulnerability as well as natural threats that are relevant to the Maya area are discussed. Ancient Maya societies were vulnerable to natural threats, such as droughts, diseases and volcanic eruptions. Some of the factors that may be considered as having influenced Maya vulnerability are discussed...

A simple demographic model is developed here that fits the observed data of population loss and recovery following a disaster. The model includes a constant annual growth factor and an immigration wave that is superimposed on it. The constant annual growth factor (∼0.3%) is modified by introducing the concept of Relative Attractiveness of the place...

Because the values of most of the parameters controlling the occurrence and severity of a drought in a given location are unknown, and no periodicity has been observed, droughts can be considered random events. Running a random number generator within the limits of the annual rainfall variability relevant to the Maya lowlands, and defining a “Lean...

The Maya archaeological site at Colha in northern Belize, Central America, has yielded several spouted ceramic vessels that contain residues from the preparation of food and beverages. Here we analyse dry residue samples by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric-pressure chemical-ionization mass spectrometry, and show t...

Spouted vessels are diagnostic forms of Middle Preclassic (1000-400 B.C.) and Late Preclassic (400 B.C.-A.D. 250) Maya ceramic assemblages. Mayanists have traditionally called these vessels "chocolate pots," but until recently there has been little direct evidence to support this interpretation. In fact, few studies have focused on the role these s...

The Maya archaeological site at Colha in northern Belize, Central America, has yielded several spouted ceramic vessels that contain residues from the preparation of food and beverages. Here we analyse dry residue samples by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric-pressure chemical-ionization mass spectrometry, and show t...

This article centres on changing landscapes at the major centres of La Milpa and Dos Hombres and surrounding lands. These centres lie within the Three Rivers region, where the Rio Azul, Rio Bravo and Booth's River converge to form the Rio Hondo on the eastern periphery of the Central Maya Lowlands. Recent work, partly covered here, focuses on the c...

[English] The Late Preclassic to Classic period (400 B. C.-A. D. 900) Maya community of La Milpa, Belize, has recently revealed an ancient water and land-use system. As demonstrated at other southern Maya Lowland sites, the Maya created a microwatershed to store and convey water during the four months of seasonal drought. In addition to water conse...

A recently described set of ceramic artifacts have been functionally assigned to saltmaking by MacKinnon and Kepecs (1989), who concluded that saltmaking activity was focused on producing salt for commoners. While we are in agreement about saltmaking activities along the Belizean coast, we propose that saltmaking there perhaps was oriented toward m...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1987. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-295). Microfiche. s

Archaeological, historical and geological investigations were conducted at the Texas Big Sandy Project, Wood and Upshur Counties, Texas, by Prewitt and Associates, Inc. in September through November 1985. The project is funded by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, Southwest Region, and cosponsored by the Sabine River Authority of Texas and the Texas...

Archaeological, historical and geological investigations were conducted at the Texas Big Sandy Project, Wood and Upshur Counties, Texas, by Prewitt and Associates, Inc. in September through November 1985. The project is funded by the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, Southwest Region, and cosponsored by the Sabine River Authority of Texas and the Texas...

In a recent paper, Marcus (1983) provides a timely synthesis of the rapidly accumulating body of data from various projects in the Maya Lowlands. One of the specific problems discussed by Marcus is that of temporal and cultural definition of the Swasey phase at the sites of Cuello and Colha, and its relationship to other early components. Our comme...

In April 1979, Mr. R. W. Miller, Director of Construction Management, General Services Administration (GSA), contacted the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, to request archaeological investigations of GSA property located south of the Old U.S. Arsenal, between South Flores Street and South Main Avenue in do...

Pursuant to requirements of the E.D.A. as outlined in a letter from the City Menard, Texas dated April 16, 1979, the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) submitted a proposal for an archaeological survey of the route of a new natural gas pipeline. This proposal was accepted by the City of Menard in a let...

During March and April 1978, a preliminary archaeological investigation was conducted at the historic "Dolores Aldrete House," lots 7, 8 and 9 of block 155, fronting on East Nueva Street in downtown San Antonio, Texas. Under contract with the property owners, Carol Lee Klose, Gary Mark Klose and Randall Mark Klose, and the Center for Archaeological...

During late April and May of 1977, individuals from the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), conducted a preliminary archaeological survey and assessment of the proposed 2500-acre Encino Park Development in northern Bexar County. The work was conducted in two phases by two different teams working during...

A preliminary archaeological survey and assessment of the Tobins Oakwell Farm project area was conducted during August 22-24, 1977, by archaeologists from the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The work was conducted within two nearby but separate areas adjacent to Salado Creek within the city limits...

In January, 1977, the City of San Antonio Department of Parks and Recreation (Ronald L. Darner, Director) and the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio (Thomas R. Hester, Director), entered into a contract for the archaeological assessment of John James Park. The park property (Fig. 1), is located just north of...

During the summer of 1977, personnel from the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), conducted archaeological test excavations at three sites along Frederick Creek in Kendall County, Texas. These sites were located in areas proposed for modification by the construction of Floodwater Retarding Structure #3...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. Supervisor: Fred Valdez, Jr. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Requires PDF file reader.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. Supervisors: Thomas Hester and Fred Valdez. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-233). Photocopy.

This paper examines the archaeological data collected during the 2008 and 2009 seasons at the Maya settlement, Hun Tun, in northwestern Belize. Hun Tun was initially identified in 2008 where preliminary investigations have focused on survey, mapping and testing courtyard spaces. Architectural evidence and material culture will be discussed generall...