CLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY IN THE RISE OF MAYA CIVILIZATION: A preliminary perspective from northern Peten

Abstract

Archaeological and ecological investigations in the Mirador Basin of northern Guatemala have recovered archaeological, phytolith, palynological, and pedological data relevant to the early occupation and development of Maya civilization in a specific environmental matrix. Fluctuation in vegetation types as evident in cores and archaeological profiles suggest that the seasonally wet, forested bajo environment currently found in the northern Peten was anciently more of a perennially wet marsh system that may have been heavily used and influenced by large Preclassic occupations. Data suggest that climatic and environmental factors correspond with the cultural process in the Mirador Basin, and research in progress is oriented to further elucidating these issues.

Kax and kol: Collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization

“…Sediments within several bajos in the Mirador Basin and a nearby lake indicate that this area experienced widespread deforestation and soil erosion. These changes were associated with land clearing and quarrying (in significant part to generate plaster for the huge pyramids) for centuries preceding regional abandonment, suggesting that anthropogenic environmental degradation was at least as important as drought in bringing about the demise of El Mirador and allied centers (43,44). Nevertheless, forest recovery was relatively rapid after regional abandonment (45,46).…”

How to interpret an ancient landscape

“…Although from a nearby and ecologically dissimilar region of Mesoamerica, the ancient Maya appear to have degraded their shallow wetlands by the Late Preclassic period (400 B.C.-A.D. 100) in a manner not unlike that around Lake Pátzcuaro. We attribute that degradation or sedimentation to increased population growth, spurred by increased residential clearing and agricultural field use (22,25,26). However, rather than social collapse, the subsequent bearers of Maya tradition reinvented themselves by relocating to the summits of the many hills and ridges overlooking the sizable infilling wetlands, which remain as seasonally inundated swamps (27).…”

Climate Change and Classic Maya Water Management

“…The Maya abandoned some of the earliest and largest centers by ca. A.D. 150 (e.g., El Mirador and Nakbe), perhaps due to problems with water systems (e.g., the silting up of reservoirs) [12,34], not to mention a multi-year drought [35]. The Maya learned from their mistakes and did not have to abandon another center until 700 to 800 years later.…”

“…For example, in the Mirador Basin, Hansen and his colleagues note that, "As the water recedes during the dry periods, the concentration of coliform and Escherichia coli become significant" [34]. The karstic topography upon which the Maya survived apparently does not effectively purify water; "typhoid bacilli, for example, are not effectively filtered" [57].…”