Agroforestry and ritual at the ancient Maya center of Lamanai

Lentz, David L.; Graham, Elizabeth; Vinaja, Xochitl; Slotten, Venicia; Jain, Rupal

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.06.030

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The continuous extraction of pine from savannahs in the post-Classic may reflect the sustained demand for pine as an important part of ceremonial practice across the Maya Lowlands, even as some settlements across the region faced 'collapse' through periods of Late Classic/Terminal Classic drought [10,11,[89][90][91][92]. The archaeological record corroborates the pattern of decline in ceremonial pine use during the Post-Classic [80].…”

Section: Exploitation Of Pine By the Maya Spanish And Britishmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…Archaeologists have demonstrated the ubiquity of Pinus found as pine needles and/or charcoal in assemblages from cave and surface sites across Northern Belize [80]. Such frequency, geographical, and contextual variety of Pinus present in the record demonstrates the importance of pine as a resource.…”

Section: Exploitation Of Pine By the Maya Spanish And Britishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The site at Lamanai had the advantage of a substantial and local source of pine, growing in the savannah, east of the NRL. Prevalent pine charcoal has been found [80] in the analysis of the contexts of caches (intentionally gathered and ritually buried objects) from three high status structures in the Central Precinct of Lamanai, dated until the early post-Classic period.…”

Section: Exploitation Of Pine By the Maya Spanish And Britishmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The environmental impact of the ancient Maya, and subsequent ecological recovery following the Terminal Classic decline, have been the key foci of research into socio-ecological interactions in the Yucatán peninsula. These foci, however, belie the complex pattern of resource exploitation and agriculture associated with post-Classic Maya societies and European colonisation. We present a high-resolution, 1200-year record of pollen and charcoal data from a 52-cm short core extracted from New River Lagoon, near to the European settlement of Indian Church, northern Belize. This study complements and extends a previous 3500-year reconstruction of past environmental change, located 1-km north of the new record and adjacent to the ancient Maya site of Lamanai. This current study shows a mixed crop production and palm agroforestry management strategy of the ancient Maya, which corroborates previous evidence at Lamanai. Comparison of the two records suggests that core agricultural and agroforestry activities shifted southwards, away from the centre of Lamanai, beginning at the post-Classic period. The new record also demonstrates that significant changes in land-use were not associated with drought at the Terminal Classic (ca. CE 1000) or the European Encounter (ca. CE 1500), but instead resulted from social and cultural change in the post-Classic period (CE 1200) and new economies associated with the British timber trade (CE 1680). The changes in land-use documented in two adjacent records from the New River Lagoon underline the need to reconstruct human–environment interactions using multiple, spatially, and temporally diverse records.

show abstract

Section: Exploitation Of Pine By the Maya Spanish And Britishmentioning

confidence: 54%

Section: Exploitation Of Pine By the Maya Spanish And Britishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exploitation Of Pine By the Maya Spanish And Britishmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If not cultivated in the site, ocote could be brought from the eastern side: Belizean coast, Quintana Roo coast, El Péten in Guatemala (from Usumacinta River to Tikal); where Pinus caribaea stands. Recently, Caribbean pine was identified at Lamanai in Belize (LENTZ et al 2016). Another scenario could be that, ocote pine came from the highlands of the South (Sierra Madre de Chiapas).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient and modern use of pine at the site of Chinikihá, Chiapas, México

Trabanino¹,

Pastrana²

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Archaeobotanical remains of ocote pine have been recovered from different Classic Period (AD 300 - 900) Maya sites indicating use in ritual ceremonies and in household refuse for the fertilization of agricultural fields. Our results in the Palenque region, at the archaeological site of Chinikihá dating to Cal AD 620, suggest that there was no difference in the use of ocote in the residential units compared to that in the palace units. Ocote wood charcoal remains were found in ceremonial contexts, burials, household refuse deposited in home gardens, and patio’s soils. We consider the ancient use of ocote pine alongside modern use of ocote in Guatemala and Chiapas, which has an economic importance with the cutting of pine sticks to sell in regional markets to use as torch for illumination and lighting daily cooking fires.

show abstract

“…2013; Lentz et al . 2016). Although the goals of their studies are different from the present study, we find their method applicable to high‐resolution chronology‐building.…”

Section: Methodological Issues Of Chronology‐building In Archaeologicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a high‐resolution chronology at the Maya archaeological site of El Palmar, Mexico

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper discusses how detailed analyses of archaeological contexts and macrobotanical remains are critical for building a high‐resolution chronology in archaeological research. While the application of Bayesian modelling has improved chronology‐building significantly, archaeologists have sometimes neglected different dates recovered from the same depositional layer without further scrutiny. Based on 78 radiocarbon samples, this problem is challenged by building a high‐resolution chronology of the Guzmán Group, a small plaza compound of the ancient Maya city of El Palmar, Mexico. The results permit a deeper understanding of relationships between dynastic interactions and the emergence of non‐royal elites in Classic Maya society.

show abstract

Agroforestry and ritual at the ancient Maya center of Lamanai

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize

A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize

Ancient and modern use of pine at the site of Chinikihá, Chiapas, México

Building a high‐resolution chronology at the Maya archaeological site of El Palmar, Mexico

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About