Environmental Change and Prehistoric Agriculture in the Mirador Basin
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Research Year:  2002
Culture:  Maya
Chronology:  Pre-Classic to Post Classic
Location:  North Central Petén, Guatemala
Site:  Lago Puerto Arturo, Mirador Basin

Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Background
Methods
Results and Discussion
Middle Preclassic Recovery Phase (540–350 cal yr B.C.)
Late Preclassic Recovery Phase (cal yr A.D. 100–255)
Late Classic Recovery Phase (cal yr A.D. 915–present)
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Sources Cited

Abstract

Pollen, loss on ignition, magnetic susceptibility, and oxygen isotope analyses provide a high-resolution paleoenvironmental record from Lago Puerto Arturo, Petén, Guatemala. Chronologic control is based on eight AMS radiocarbon determinations. A long history of human activity in the Mirador Basin is indicated by 3600 years of watershed disturbance, from ~2700 B.C. to ~A.D. 900. This period coincides with a relatively dry climate in the southern Maya lowlands. Pollen shows an abrupt increase in anthropogenic disturbance in the Early Preclassic (~1450 B.C.), coincident with archaeological evidence of early settlement. The record indicates at least four phases of agricultural disturbance, with intervening periods of ecological recovery, during the following 2500 years. The last agricultural phase ended ~A.D. 900, coincident with the Late Classic abandonment of the southern Maya lowlands. There is no evidence for human activity in the region during the following 1000 years.

Submitted 08/19/2005 by:
David Wahl
dwahl@socrates.Berkeley.EDU

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