Rethinking the Great Earthwork of Tikal: A Hydraulic Hypothesis for the Classic Maya Polity

Abstract

The earthworks of Tikal have long been understood as the most extensive example of defensive architecture in the Maya Lowlands, with the ditch and embankment seen as part of a system of defense anchoring the north and south territorial limits of Tikal to impassable bajos on its flanks. New survey and excavation data suggest that the extent and course of the earthworks are not consistent with the demarcation of the north and south limits of the polity, and that the morphology of the feature is not consistent with a well-conceived or finished defensive construction. Here we present a hypothetical model of the earthworks as a limestone filtration trench that could have been used to collect subsurface water to mitigate the effects of canicular drought or to support off-season agriculture.

Watchful realms: integrating GIS analysis and political history in the southern Maya lowlands

“…Defensive features at many sites suggest a need or desire for protection from invasion by outsiders. Although the precise function of the Tikal 'wall' has been questioned in recent years (see Silverstein et al 2009), the suspicion is strong that it is in part defensive, in part a marking of patrolled or defended territory, to judge from the long history of recorded historical conflicts between Tikal and its neighbours. The segmented wall along the western border of the Tikal epicentre is odd in its discontinuity, but the breaks in the wall coincide with bajo areas that would have been seasonally flooded and impassable ( Figure 7).…”

Fortress Mayapan: Defensive Features and Secondary Functions of a Postclassic Maya Fortification

“…The Classic period saw sites such as Calakmul (Folan 2001; Folan et al 1995) adopting walled fortifications possibly motivated by the tensions now thought to have existed between it and neighbor Tikal (Martin and Grube 2000:24–52, 100–115). Recent work at Tikal (Silverstein et al 2009; Webster et al 2004, 2007, 2008), on the other hand, refutes earlier findings that the large earthworks there were defensive in nature (Puleston 1974, 1983; Puleston and Callender 1967), suggesting instead water control functions. Becan (Ruppert and Dennison 1943; Webster 1972, 1974) and Los Naranjos (Baudez and Becquelin 1973) continued to be occupied throughout the Classic period, presumably maintaining the Preclassic fortifications.…”

Testing the “tropical storm” hypothesis of Yucatan Peninsula climate variability during the Maya Terminal Classic Period

“…These precipitation pulses were thus too brief to have directly influenced agriculture in a beneficial sense. They may have been essential, however, to replenish freshwater reservoirs for domestic purposes (i.e., drinking and hygiene) on which the Classic Maya polities depended (Scarborough, 1996;Gunn et al, 2002) and even perhaps to replenish earthworks used to collect subsurface water to mitigate the effects of drought or to support off-season agriculture, as previously suggested (Silverstein et al, 2009). Favorable precipitation conditions would be particularly crucial when the Classic Maya civilization had reached its peak (Carmean et al, 2004;Demarest et al, 2004;Dunning et al, 2012) and the region was under a generally drier climate regime than over the preceding centuries (Hodell et al, 1995(Hodell et al, , 2005Curtis et al, 1996;Medina-Elizalde et al, 2010;Cook et al, 2012).…”