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The Prehistoric Agricultural Landscape of the Central Maya Lowlands: An Examination of Local Variability in a Regional Context
Abstract
Data on land resources and the locations of prehistoric residential sites are integrated to explain differential agricultural development and settlement pattern across the varied landscape of the central Maya lowlands. It is concluded that intensive dryfield cultivation within well‐drained uplands was the basis of food production at the regional scale. The significance of cultivation practices in other land resources varied according to the extent and availability of well‐drained uplands within local areas. Wetland cultivation, utilizing raised and drained fields, was significant in limited areas at the periphery of the region, where perennial swamps of karstic riverine floodplains and associated depressions were present and well‐drained uplands were scarce. Soil distributions provide a valuable instrument for predicting and explaining prehistoric Maya settlement pattern and land use.
... Some of these pioneering investigations of wetland use include (but are not limited to) those at Bajo Morocoy in southern Quintana Roo (Gliessman et al. 1983), Pulltrouser Swamp (Turner and Harrison 1983), and Albion Island and environs in northern Belize (Bloom et al. 1985;Pohl 1990). Some of the early claims for the ubiquity of wetland use in the southern Maya Lowlands (e.g., Adams 1980Adams , 1982Adams et al. 1981) were met with critiques based on limitations and potential misinterpretation of remote sensing data, consideration of limited agricultural potential of some wetland soils, and the relative abundance of wetlands versus other land resources in different areas of the southern lowlands (Fedick and Ford 1990;Dahlin 1989, 1993). While debates about ancient use of wetlands from before the 1990s continue, they are now informed by numerous field investigations in a variety of settings that apply methods of geoarchaeology, pedology, chemistry, hydrology, and paleoethnobotany. ...
... Earlier classification of wetlands in the Maya Lowlands, posed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, first sought to recognize the diversity of wetlands across the region and how this variability might have influenced ancient Maya use of wetlands for agriculture and other purposes (Fedick and Ford 1990;Pope and Dahlin 1989). Here we use a modified, though still simplified, classification based on geographic setting that holds relevance even as local studies increasingly reveal local diversity and temporal change (see Beach et al. 2009;Dunning et al. 2006;Fedick and Ford 1990;Pope and Dahlin 1989). ...
... Earlier classification of wetlands in the Maya Lowlands, posed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, first sought to recognize the diversity of wetlands across the region and how this variability might have influenced ancient Maya use of wetlands for agriculture and other purposes (Fedick and Ford 1990;Pope and Dahlin 1989). Here we use a modified, though still simplified, classification based on geographic setting that holds relevance even as local studies increasingly reveal local diversity and temporal change (see Beach et al. 2009;Dunning et al. 2006;Fedick and Ford 1990;Pope and Dahlin 1989). Wetlands are found at elevations below 80-100 m in the periphery of the Maya Lowlands, where they formed on the margins of slow-moving karstic rivers linked to regional aquifers, as well as in karstic depressions linked to regional aquifers, e.g., the New and Hondo Rivers and Pulltrouser Swamp. ...
Pre-Columbian food production in the Maya Lowlands was long characterized as
reliant on extensive, slash-and-burn agriculture as the sole cultivation system possible
in the region, given environmental limitations, with maize as the dominant crop.
While aspects of this “swidden thesis” of Maya agriculture have been chipped away
in recent years, there has been an underappreciation of the many forms of long-term
capital investments in agriculture made by ancient Maya people. Here, we review
the last three decades of research that has overturned the swidden thesis, focusing on
long-term strategies. We demonstrate long-lasting agricultural investments by Maya
people, in social capital including multigenerational land tenure, in cultivated capital
including long-lived trees, and in landesque capital including soil amendments
and landscape engineering projects, such as terracing and wetland modification.
... The splendid ancient cities of Tikal and El Pilar are in the central area (see Figure 2.1), where rainfall ranges from 1,500 to 2,000 mm. Water drains from the rocky hills, ridges, and escarpments, where the densest ancient settlements and the famous hardwoods are located, to collect in scattered depressions and wetlands (Dunning et al. 2002(Dunning et al. , 2020Ford and Fedick 1990). This environment provides the resource base used by the ancient Maya and contemporary society. ...
... Settlements expanded in all well-drained uplands (see Figure 2.1). There is a distinct concentration of occupation in these welldrained areas that dominate the central lowlands of the region (Bullard 1960;Fedick and Ford 1990). This growth and expansion are evidence of subsistence intensification (Ford and Nigh 2009). ...
... In the late twentieth century this maize-swidden agriculture paradigm was challenged by scholars exploring the importance of root crops (Bronson 1966) and the growing evidence for intensive agriculture strategies, including terracing and wetland field cultivation (Bloom et al. 1983;Healy et al. 1983;Siemens and Puleston 1972;Turner 1974;Turner and Harrison 1983;Wilken 1971). This shift broadened perspectives on food production systems of ancient Maya people and led scholars to reimagine the possibilities for sociopolitical, economic, and demographic models in the area (Fedick 1989(Fedick , 1996Fedick and Ford 1990;Flannery 1982;Gómez-Pompa 1987;Hather and Hammond 1994;Turner and Miksicek 1984). ...
Recent archaeological and remote sensing research in the Maya Lowlands has demonstrated evidence for extensive modification of the landscape in the forms of channeled fields and upland terraces. Scholars often assume these measures were taken primarily to intensify maize production; however, paleoethnobotany highlights a greater diversity of crops grown by the precolonial Maya. This study combines the growth requirements of 18 crops cultivated by ancient Maya farmers with lidar and other geospatial data in a suitability model that maps optimal areas for growth. These 18 crops cluster into five groups of crops with similar growth requirements. Across the study region, different groupings of crops had different suitability in and around different ancient Maya centers and agricultural features. This spatial variation in suitability reflects the heterogeneity of land resources and adaptations and contributes to existing conversations about economic and settlement organization in the study area. The results of this study serve as a foundation for future field studies and more complex spatial models.
... To address our guiding question and the hypothesis that the modern forest of the Maya Lowlands is anthropogenic, we review archaeology, ethnobotany, paleoecology, and forest ecology of the Lowlands. We focus on tree species composition in upland forests as opposed to low-lying, wetland forests, because most of the Maya Lowlands consist of upland area (in the sense of local topography) (Table 3.1 in Islebe et al., 2015), and most ancient Maya land use was in upland sites (Fedick & Ford, 1990). We begin by describing the modern forest and its environment. ...
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 Maya agriculture caused substantial soil erosion and accumulation, changing soil depth and character. Soil character is associated with differential distributions and abundances of many tree species in the Maya Lowlands. To the extent that soil character on the modern landscape differs from that on the pre‐Maya landscape, regrown forests on the modern landscape would differ from pre‐Maya forests. Second, the ancient Maya cleared much forest but likely also cultivated or favored certain tree species in home gardens, regenerating farm plots, and patches of older growth. A rigorous study suggests that descendants of favored tree species persist in elevated abundance in some areas of the modern forest but not in other areas. After c. 1100 years of regrowth in some places, the legacy of the ancient Maya in the modern forest likely ranges from strong to absent across the varied landscape of the Lowlands. An ancient mosaic of forest patches would have provided a species‐rich, multiple‐point source for forest regrowth. Such a mosaic is lacking in modern deforested tropical landscapes, likely inhibiting recovery of a species‐rich forest.
... Past research on Ocellated Turkey food habits has been limited to forested environments, which overlooks the growing presence of agricultural lands within the species' range. Small-scale slashand-burn agricultural practices have been used on the Yucatán Peninsula for thousands of years and the ancient Mayan civilization cultivated a variety of crops (Fedick andFord 1990, Pohl et al. 1996). Therefore, Ocellated Turkeys have had millennia to adapt to habitats containing agricultural fields. ...
... Regional survey by Anabel Ford and the Belize River Archaeological Settlement Survey (BRASS) led to the documentation of El Pilar in 1983-1984. Three BRASS survey transects, originating along the upper Belize River and traversing up to 10 km inland, recorded variable settlement distributions across different physiographic zones (Fedick and Ford 1990;Ford and Fedick 1992). Surveyors noted variability in the size and composition of residential groups across the landscape, which suggested that farming households differed in their abilities to secure extra-household labor when constructing their homes. ...
Survey teams at the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna have mapped 70 percent of its 20 km ² area and revealed the extent of settlement around the city center. Large-scale civic architecture, and the distribution of smaller ceremonial groups and minor centers, reflect the wealth and power of Maya rulers presiding over the largest Classic period city in the upper Belize River area. Previous analyses suggest disparities in wealth at El Pilar were more nuanced than the elite/commoner dichotomy commonly invoked for Classic Maya society. This article works to understand wealth inequality at ancient El Pilar by computing Gini coefficients from areal and volumetric calculations of primary residential units—the class of settlement remains most likely to represent ancient households. Presentation of Gini coefficients and their potential interpretations follows a discussion of settlement classification and residential group labor investment. We conclude by contextualizing these results within prior settlement pattern analyses to explore how disparities in wealth may have been distributed across the physical and social landscape.
The central part of Jharkhand, India, harbours a complex history shaped by ancient civilisations, notably Buddhism, Jainism, and Brahmanism, necessitating a meticulous identification of potential archaeological sites. This study employs a cutting-edge machine learning approach to predict the suitability of archaeological sites in the region, marking a significant evolution in the documentation of such sites. Machine learning-based integration of 12 geoenvironmental datasets using a random forest model reveals a nuanced spatial distribution of potential archaeological sites, categorised into four suitability zones: high, moderately high, moderately low, and low. The region with the best-anticipated suitability comprises around 20.33% of the research area, whereas the area with the lowest expected suitability comprises nearly 41.81%. High suitability zones, characterised by gentle terrain, open vegetation, fertile soils, and water proximity, suggest conditions conducive to human habitation and archaeological preservation. Conversely, low suitability zones exhibit rugged terrain, dense vegetation, poor soil quality, limited water availability, and remoteness from natural resources, indicating potential hindrances to human occupation and archaeological preservation. The model exhibited high predictive accuracy, as evidenced by the ROC–AUC score of 88.3%, enhancing its reliability. Specific locations within the study area demonstrate varying degrees of suitability, providing valuable insights for archaeological site management, cultural heritage preservation, and land-use planning, which will support the restoration and conservation plan of the heritage sites. Furthermore, this machine learning-based archaeological site prediction study underscores its potential applicability in historically rich regions globally, showcasing its significance in uncovering and preserving our shared human history.
The scale and extent of monumental construction at El Pilar – over 150 hectares spread across two kilometers – attest to its position as a dominant Classic-period center in the upper Belize River area. Like several nearby sites in the Belize Valley, El Pilar was founded in the early Middle Preclassic as the focus of a burgeoning agricultural community. Major architectural expansion at El Pilar accompanied population growth across the area during the transition from Middle to Late Preclassic times. This paper explores the transformation of El Pilar from village ceremonial center to political capital at the onset of the Late Preclassic. New radiocarbon dates, stratigraphic reconstructions, and ceramic analyses reveal the massive scale of architectural investment in the ceremonial core of El Pilar – Plaza Copal – during this important transitional phase. We discuss these new data and their implications for understanding the increasingly complex sociopolitical landscape of the Late Preclassic upper Belize River area. The scale of this construction boom at El Pilar demonstrates the deep roots of power its ruling elites continued to wield until the close of the Classic period.
Despite claims that ancient Maya canals are found throughout the central Maya Lowlands, our study of satellite and aircraft imagery indicates that canals are concentrated in three regions: northern Belize, southern Quintana Roo, Mexico, and along the upper Candelaria River and its tributaries in Campeche, Mexico. Earlier reports of lattices of small canals in the karstic depressions, or bajos, ofPeten, Guatemala, based on the analysis of airborne radar imagery, have not been verified with other remote sensing data or by field research. Our analyses of this same airborne imagery and Seasat satellite radar imagery demonstrate that the spatial resolution of, and speckle noise in, existing radar imagery make it inadequate for mapping lattice patterns of small canals. Radar imagery andLandsat Thematic Mapper imagery were, however, useful in mapping large canals, which in most cases are connected to lattices of smaller canals. Furthermore, our analyses of wetland soils, vegetation, and hydrology confirm that canals are confined mostly to perennially moist wetlands where the water table lies near the surface in the dry season. The seasonal swamps typical of the karstic depressions in the vast interior portion of the Maya Lowlands do not contain canals; here, frequent inundation plus severe desiccation during dry periods would have made cultivation difficult and unreliable. We conclude that the majority of densely-populated Classic Maya sites were not dependent on wetland agriculture.
La presencia de selvas altas dominadas por árboles útiles en la zona Maya se utiliza como punto de partida para reconstruir un sistema de silvicultura hipotético de los antiguos mayas. Este sistema posiblemente se utilizó para construir y manejar distintos tipos de ecosistemas. La reconstrucción está basada un una serie de técnicas agrícolas y silvícolas que utilizan los mayas actuales en distintas zonas del área Maya. La silvicultura antigua Maya cuestiona seriamente las tendencias actuales del uso del suelo y los recursos bióticos de las zonas tropicales, y sugiere un nuevo enfoque para la conservación y el desarrollo de estas zonas, que puede mejorar notablemente el manejo de los recursos de las selvas en algunas regiones tropicales para beneficio de sus habitantes. © 1987, Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
The house-lot boundary walls at Coba and the enclosed solares delineate ancient familial compounds, providing data to reconstruct the size and composition of Maya households during the Late Classic, and to allow preliminary calculations of the amount of land available to the residents for possible kitchen gardening activities. It is argued that the solar was the locus of kitchen gardens at Coba. In addition, the presence of house-lot boundary walls in Coba facilitates the testing of Bullard's (1954) hypothesis, based on his survey at Mayapan, that no relationship exists between the size of a house lot (solar) and the social status of the household group. The solar corresponds to the land immediately adjacent to, and surrounding, a household platform group. This space can be delineated by boundary markers, including both nonperishable and perishable walls.
Recent radar mapping of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands has provided new perspectives on classic Maya civilisation. Swamps were drained, modified and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones, with the largest sites located on the edges of the swamps. Radar data and topographic information may help to elucidate the reasons for the location of urban centres and, on the basis of the patterns derived from the rank-ordering of Maya cities, may provide a more accurate impression of the Classic period Maya polities. -J.Sheail
An objective methodology, based upon the rank-ordering and spatial patterning of Maya centers of the central Peten and central Yucatan zones, is used to infer developmental sequencing in the Maya Lowlands. If courtyard counts are employed as the basic measure of center importance, the Tikal and Calakmul regions each exhibit a size continuum of centers, consistent with the rank-size rule. The Rio Bec and Chenes regions exhibit a size distribution characterized by the existence of several large centers of nearly the same size, i.e., a situation of pluralism. These findings suggest that at the end of the Classic period, Tikal and Calakmul were dominant centers in economically mature regions, with a balance between external and internal growth forces. On the other hand, the later Rio Bec and Chenes centers appear to be in a state of growth redistribution or decline, their external ties truncated by the collapse to the south. Spatial patterning is less conclusive and suggests a relatively dispersed pattern of centers in all regions. The overall conclusion, especially from the frequency distributions of centers by size, is that the "periphery" (exemplified by Rio Bec-Chenes) developed first, reached a period of stasis, and developed further only on the collapse of the "core" centers (Tikal-Calakmul).
Prehistoric ridged fields and canals were recognized from the air in 1968 along the Candelaria River of Campeche, Mexico, in the vicinity of sites described by E. Willys Andrews in 1943. These remains were subsequently identified by Scholes and Roys as the settlements of Acalan, a native province along the route of the journey by Cortes to Honduras. Ground exploration in 1969 and 1970 has suggested that the fields were used over a considerable period of time under a system of diversified horticulture. The extensive canal system apparently provided access from the rivers to firm ground and allowed shortcuts and bypasses alongside the rivers themselves. The landscape suggests a considerable prehistoric population, vigorously engaged in major public works projects over a large area. It invites further integrated investigation of its past human ecology, particularly for information on variants of basic Lowland Maya subsistence patterns and the new perspectives this may give on the structure, success and demise of this civilization. An earlier version of this paper was read at the 39th International Congress of Americanists in Lima, 1970.