Arising from theBajos: The Evolution of a Neotropical Landscape and the Rise of Maya Civilization

Abstract

The conjunctive use of paleoecological and archaeological data to document past human-environment relationships has become a theoretical imperative in the study of ancient cultures. Geographers are playing leading roles in this scholarly effort. Synthesizing both types of data, we argue that large karst depressions known as bajos in the Maya Lowlands region were anthropogenically transformed from perennial wetlands and shallow lakes to seasonal swamps between 400 bc and ad 250. This environmental transformation helps answer several questions that have long puzzled scholars of Maya civilization: (1) why many of the earliest Maya cities were built on the margins of bajos, (2) why some of these early centers were abandoned between 100 bc and ad 250, and (3) why other centers constructed elaborate water storage systems and survived into the Classic period ( ad 250-900). The transformation of the bajos represents one of the most significant and long-lasting anthropogenic environmental changes documented in the pre-Columbian New World.

A reexamination of human-induced environmental change within the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico

“…First, population centers, not agriculture, initiated land degradation within the study region. This is similar to other prehistoric societies (1,(60)(61)(62) and further falsifies the ''pristine myth'' of prehistoric indigenous American landscapes (22,24,27), but with the following caveat: early degradation was settlement-wide, not landscape-wide, a pattern that persisted throughout the Prehispanic period. This suggests human, rather than climatic (or other), causation.…”

“…There are three central issues: (i) Although environmental degradation in Preclassic Mesoamerica (including the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin) is not in dispute (1,13,31,32), its cause is largely unknown. Did it result from agricultural practices, settlement construction, or some other human activity?…”

Kax and kol: Collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization

“…Removal of forest cover also left sloping land vulnerable to soil loss by erosion (29). Associated sedimentation within karst depressions and stream channels had profound effects on local hydrology, reducing recharge and eutrophication of shallow water bodies (30). Reductions in tree canopy would also reduce the capture of airborne volcanic ash (a principal component of the inorganic fraction of regional soils) (31), soot, and other forms of airborne phosphorus, a nutrient already in critically low supply in regional soils (32).…”

Agrarian Features, Farmsteads, and Homesteads in the Río Bec Nuclear Zone, Mexico

“…The ancient use of wetlands for agriculture is well documented for different parts of the Maya lowlands and for all periods (including modern times: see Culbert et al 1990Culbert et al , 1997Dunning et al 2002;Fedick et al 2000;Kunen 2004;Pohl 1990;Wilk 1985). At the very least, the Río Bec swamps probably provided water during part of the year and continuous moisture on edges during the dry season.…”