The Albion Island Settlement Pattern Project: Domination and Resistance in Early Classic Northern Belize

Pyburn, K. Anne; Dixon, Boyd; Cook, Patricia; McNair, Anna

doi:10.1179/jfa.1998.25.1.37

Cited by 37 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Several drivers could have caused these agroecological systems to collapse: (i) the political instability caused by the collapse elsewhere overlapped into these areas via trade disruptions and interelite dependencies (16,19); (ii) with the population decimated, there were no longer demands for intensive agroecological systems; and (iii) the systems may have succumbed to drought because these groundwater-quality limited systems were rainfall-dependent like other systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland fields as mirrors of drought and the Maya abandonment

Luzzadder–Beach

Beach

Dunning

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Getting at the Maya Collapse has both temporal and geographic dimensions, because it occurred over centuries and great distances. This requires a wide range of research sites and proxy records, ranging from lake cores to geomorphic evidence, such as stratigraphy and speleothems. This article synthesizes these lines of evidence, together with previously undescribed findings on Maya wetland formation and use in a key region near the heart of the central Maya Lowlands. Growing lines of evidence point to dryer periods in Maya history, which correlate to major periods of transition. The main line of evidence in this paper comes from wetland use and formation studies, which show evidence for both largescale environmental change and human adaptation or response. Based on multiproxy studies, Maya wetland fields had a long and varied history, but most evidence indicates the start of disuse during or shortly after the Maya Terminal Classic. Hence, the pervasiveness of collapse extended into a range of wetlands, including perennial wetlands, which should have been less responsive to drought as a driver of disuse. A synthesis of the lines of evidence for canal infilling shows no attempts to reclaim them after the Classic Period.Mesoamerica | proxies | wetland agriculture S cholars have explored many proxy lines of evidence to understand the environmental change and timing of societal transitions in the Maya Lowlands of Mesoamerica. These proxies include lake and ocean cores; speleothems; geomorphic evidence; architecture; modeling; and, recently for Mesoamerica, tree rings. One repository of evidence we examine here comes from ancient Maya wetland field systems and their canals. Over the past decade, we have studied more than 50 of these systems, which can provide unique insights into site abandonment because their canals started to fill with sediment and proxy evidence after the Maya ceased maintaining them. We can thus date the infill of sediment and use multiple proxies to study ecological change from near the time of abandonment forward. These canals also provide

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland fields as mirrors of drought and the Maya abandonment

Luzzadder–Beach

Beach

Dunning

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Further intensive survey and remote sensing has also uncovered intensive agricultural terracing within and beyond the urban centre (e.g. Killion et al, 1989;Pyburn, 1998;Dunning, 1996;Chase et al, 2011), whereas close attention to the soils and remains around individual Maya houses has identified likely garden areas, fruit trees, beehives and turkey stocks (Kintz, 1990: 12e14;Ball and Kelsay, 1992;Fedick, 1995). Others have proposed that medicinal herbs, garden vegetables, and even maize were planted in the area close to the house (Anderson, 1998: 291;Becker, 2001: 440;Trigger, 2003: 302;Lohse, 2004: 129).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Directional layouts in central lowland Maya settlement

Bevan

Jobbová

Helmke

et al. 2013

Journal of Archaeological Science

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a b s t r a c tThis paper suggests the existence of non-random, directional patterns in the location of housemounds across the Late Classic Maya settlement landscape at Baking Pot, Belize, and then explores the wider implications of this patterning in the central Maya lowlands. It introduces an anisotropic method e based on nearest neighbour bearings and successive grid offsets e in order to explore possible rectilinear organisation in settlement layouts despite the presence of uneven and irregular patterns of archaeological dating and recovery. The results suggest a grid-like distribution of houseplots and, by implication, also a set of routes running throughout the housemound landscape and local Maya neighbourhoods during the site's Late and Terminal Classic history. Furthermore, different possible alignments in different parts of the site are tentatively regarded as an indication of shifting orientations to localised grids, following the shift in alignment of monumental architecture, as the settlement landscape expanded over time. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings with respect to the broader interpretation of Maya settlement patterns.

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“…In over 800 off-mound test pits and about 500 off-mound shovel tests we failed to find more than a single buried structure. Thus, we believe that there were almost no "invisible structures" (Chase 1990;Johnston 2004;Pyburn et al 1998) hidden by soil. Finally, because of the low amount of vegetation and extremely intense mapping methods (see chapter 2) we feel that we found nearly all visible features.…”

Section: Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…A chich mound is different from similarly-shaped apsidal structures because chich mounds do not have larger (usually > 25-cm diameter) facing stones clearly delimiting the edges of the mound. Larger chich mounds could serve as platforms for permanent residences (Pyburn et al 1998) or temporary fieldhouses (Kunen and Hughbanks 2003). Because chich mounds allow tree roots to gain purchase and provide good drainage in clayey soils, they may also serve as planting surfaces for tree crops (Kepecs and Boucher 1996).…”

Section: Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, at Komchen, Ringle and Andrews (1990) found a chich mound with a burial; burials are most often found in residences. Having found chich mounds with plaster floors and caches, Pyburn et al (1998) consider chich mounds to be permanent residences as opposed to temporary field houses. If the large chich mounds we mapped in the residential core and residential periphery are residences, they are also unlikely to be temporary field houses, since they are located within the city.…”

Section: Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Ancient Maya Commerce : Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil

Hutson¹

2017

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The Albion Island Settlement Pattern Project: Domination and Resistance in Early Classic Northern Belize

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Wetland fields as mirrors of drought and the Maya abandonment

Wetland fields as mirrors of drought and the Maya abandonment

Directional layouts in central lowland Maya settlement

Ancient Maya Commerce : Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil

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