<i>Bajo</i>Communities: A Case Study from the Central Peten

Kunen, Julie L.; Culbert, T. Patrick; Fialko, Vilma; McKee, Brian R.; Grazioso, Liwy

doi:10.1525/cag.2000.22.3.15

Cited by 36 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In fact, population grew considerably during the Classic, both along the margins of the bajo and on a large, rocky "island" within it (Kunen 2000). These findings strongly suggest that these bajos continued to be an important resource, although we have no direct evidence of the nature of Classic land-use on the bajo floors themselves.…”

Section: Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 71%

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

Dunning

Luzzadder–Beach

Beach

et al. 2002

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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160

109

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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.

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Section: Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 71%

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

Dunning

Luzzadder–Beach

Beach

et al. 2002

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

Self Cite

160

109

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“…Imported food from regions with higher 87 Sr/ 86 Sr could also raise the mean 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. Although the import of food to Tikal has been suggested [10], the recent discovery of channelized fields in the nearby Bajo de La Justa [15,26] suggests a higher local carrying capacity than once assumed. While environmental heterogeneity within the Southern Maya lowlands may have constrained agricultural productivity and fostered the development of regionally specific agrotechnologies, most all Maya cultigens were grown across the lowlands, so there is little reason to suspect long distance trade of specific foodstuffs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying immigrants to Tikal, Guatemala: Defining local variability in strontium isotope ratios of human tooth enamel

Wright

2005

Journal of Archaeological Science

204

151

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“…Research that began in the mid-1990s indicates a great deal of variability in the hydrology, vegetation and edaphic conditions among bajos and even within individual depressions (Dunning et al, 1999Kunen et al, 2000;Beach et al, , 2008Beach et al, , 2009a. Furthermore, data show that the environmental histories of individual bajos have varied greatly, an important consideration for trying to correlate paleoenvironmental conditions with cultural history in the Maya Lowlands (Jacob, 1995;Dunning et al, 2006).…”

Section: Wetter Bajos and Maya-induced Desiccationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient Maya impacts on the Earth's surface: An Early Anthropocene analog?

Beach

Luzzadder–Beach

Cook

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

141

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a b s t r a c tThe measure of the "Mayacene," a microcosm of the Early Anthropocene that occurred from c. 3000 to 1000 BP, comes from multiple Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental records. We synthesized the evidence for Maya impacts on climate, vegetation, hydrology and the lithosphere, from studies of soils, lakes, floodplains, wetlands and other ecosystems. Maya civilization had likely altered local to regional ecosystems and hydrology by the Preclassic Period (3000-1700 BP), but these impacts waned by 1000 BP. They altered ecosystems with vast urban and rural infrastructure that included thousands of reservoirs, wetland fields and canals, terraces, field ridges, and temples. Although there is abundant evidence that indicates the Maya altered their forests, even at the large urban complex of Tikal as much as 40% of the forest remained intact through the Classic period. Existing forests are still influenced by ancient Maya forest gardening, particularly by the large expanses of ancient stone structures, terraces, and wetland fields that form their substrates. A few studies suggest deforestation and other land uses probably also warmed and dried regional climate by the Classic Period (1700-1100 BP). A much larger body of research documents the Maya impacts on hydrology, in the form of dams, reservoirs, canals, eroded soils and urban design for runoff. Another metric of the "Mayacene" are paleosols, which contain chemical evidence for human occupation, revealed by high phosphorus concentrations and carbon isotope ratios of C 4 species like maize in the C 3 edominated tropical forest ecosystem. Paleosol sequences exhibit "Maya Clays," a facies that reflects a glut of rapidly eroded sediments that overlie pre-Maya paleosols. This stratigraphy is conspicuous in many dated soil profiles and marks the large-scale Maya transformation of the landscape in the Preclassic and Classic periods. Some of these also have increased phosphorous and carbon isotope evidence of C 4 species. We synthesize and provide new evidence of Maya-period soil strata that show elevated carbon isotope ratios (d 13 C), indicating the presence of C 4 species in typical agricultural sites. This is often the case in ancient Maya wetland systems, which also have abundant evidence for the presence of several other economic plant species. The "Mayacene" of c. 3000 to 1000 BP was thus a patchwork of cities, villages, roads, urban heat islands, intensive and extensive farmsteads, forests and orchards. Today, forests and wetlands cover much of the Maya area but like so many places, these are now under the onslaught of the deforestation, draining, and plowing of the present Anthropocene.

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BajoCommunities: A Case Study from the Central Peten

Cited by 36 publications

References 26 publications

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

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

Identifying immigrants to Tikal, Guatemala: Defining local variability in strontium isotope ratios of human tooth enamel

Ancient Maya impacts on the Earth's surface: An Early Anthropocene analog?

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