Archaeological evidence for ancient Maya water management: the case of Nakum, Petén, Guatemala

Źrałka, Jarosław; Koszkul, Wiesław

doi:10.15184/aqy.2014.9

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Evidence for drought is only relevant for understanding collapse if it can be demonstrated that limited water supplies would have posed major problems for ancient Maya polities. A growing body of archaeological and geoarchaeological research (e.g Lentz et al, 2014;Lucero, 2002;Luzzadder-Beach et al, 2012;Scarborough et al, 2012;Źrałka and Koszkul, 2015). has explored this topic, highlighting the importance of ancient Maya water conservation and water infrastructure for Classic Period agriculture and politics.…”

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confidence: 99%

Methods and future directions for paleoclimatology in the Maya Lowlands

Douglas

Brenner

Curtis

2016

Global and Planetary Change

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confidence: 99%

Methods and future directions for paleoclimatology in the Maya Lowlands

Douglas

Brenner

Curtis

2016

Global and Planetary Change

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“…The LiDAR survey in the MCKB system has provided new insights into the control of water. The MCKB has no perennial rivers or lakes, aside from mature marshes on a small scale ( civales ), requiring the ancient Maya to construct large reservoir systems for water collection and rainwater management (see Chase and Cesaretti 2018 for similar observations in Caracol and Tikal, as well as Nakum; Źrałka and Koszkul 2015). LiDAR data located 195 artificial water reservoirs (termed aguadas by locals, although naturally occurring aguadas are rarely found in the basin) and a series of monumental reservoir systems designed for large water capture and control in the southern half of the MCKB.…”

Section: Monumentality Of Ritual and Religious Architecture Ballcourt...mentioning

confidence: 99%

LiDAR analyses in the contiguous Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin, Guatemala: an introduction to new perspectives on regional early Maya socioeconomic and political organization

Hansen

Morales-Aguilar²,

Thompson³

et al. 2022

Ancient Mesoam

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LiDAR coverage of a large contiguous area within the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin (MCKB) of northern Guatemala has identified a concentration of Preclassic Maya sites (ca. 1000 b.c.–a.d. 150) connected by causeways, forming a web of implied social, political, and economic interactions. This article is an introduction to one of the largest, contiguous, regional LiDAR studies published to date in the Maya Lowlands. More than 775 ancient Maya settlements are identified within the MCKB, and 189 more in the surrounding karstic ridge, which we condensed into 417 ancient cities, towns, and villages of at least six preliminary tiers based on surface area, volumetrics, and architectural configurations. Many tiered sites date to the Middle and Late Preclassic periods, as determined by archaeological testing, and volumetrics of contemporaneously constructed and/or occupied architecture with similar morphological characteristics. Monumental architecture, consistent architectural formats, specific site boundaries, water management/collection facilities, and 177 km of elevated Preclassic causeways suggest labor investments that defy organizational capabilities of lesser polities and potentially portray the strategies of governance in the Preclassic period. Settlement distributions, architectural continuities, chronological contemporaneity, and volumetric considerations of sites provide evidence for early centralized administrative and socio-economic strategies within a defined geographical region.

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“…The first is the rim of a cylindrical vessel found in the core of Structure 14 that borders Patio 1 on the southeast (Figure 3a, Table 1). This structure played a prominent role in the religious and social life of Nakum, serving as one of the major temples, which for at least some part of its existence served as a provisional burial place where esteemed individuals might have been located before the final burial took place (Źrałka and Koszkul 2015). Many beautiful vessels, including the examples described in this paper, were deposited in its core in what must have been ceremonial activity related to the rebuilding and expansion of this construction.…”

Section: Middle Classic and Connections With Naranjomentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Alliances and Trade Connections Observed in the Ceramic Record of the Classic Period: The Perspective From the Maya Site of Nakum, Guatemala

Źrałka

Helmke

Hermes³

et al. 2020

Ancient Mesoam

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Recent research carried out at the Maya site of Nakum, located in northeastern Guatemala, has brought about the discovery of a large collection of ceramic artefacts. This substantial assemblage, apart from monochrome ceramics, includes fragments of polychrome vessels that are decorated with elaborate iconographic scenes and painted hieroglyphic texts. Most of them date to the Late Classic period (ca. a.d. 600–800), which represents the peak of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. The style of these ceramics, their iconography and accompanying glyphic texts, supplemented in many cases by mineralogical and physicochemical analyses of the ceramic samples, indicate that Nakum was part of a broad and complex network of political and economic interactions between various sites and polities of the southern Maya lowlands in the Classic period. During the first part of the Late Classic period, Nakum seems to maintain close relations with Naranjo, probably serving as its vassal at least from the reign of its renowned king Aj Wosal. After the victory of Tikal over Naranjo in the first part of the eighth century, Nakum shows closer cultural and political connections with Tikal. Nevertheless, towards the end of the Classic era, when we observe the profound collapse of lowland Maya civilization, Nakum elites gain political independence from their former overlords.

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Archaeological evidence for ancient Maya water management: the case of Nakum, Petén, Guatemala

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 5 publications

References 13 publications

Methods and future directions for paleoclimatology in the Maya Lowlands

Methods and future directions for paleoclimatology in the Maya Lowlands

LiDAR analyses in the contiguous Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin, Guatemala: an introduction to new perspectives on regional early Maya socioeconomic and political organization

Political Alliances and Trade Connections Observed in the Ceramic Record of the Classic Period: The Perspective From the Maya Site of Nakum, Guatemala

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