Environmental Change and Prehistoric Agriculture in the Mirador Basin

Introduction

During the past 40 years, several paleoecological and geochemical studies have been carried out in the Maya Lowlands. They show that climate in this important archaeological area has changed on a variety of time scales during the late Pleistocene and Holocene (Binford, et al. 1987; Curtis, et al. 1998; Hodell, et al. 2001; Hodell, et al. 1995; Leyden, et al. 1993, 1994; Leyden, et al. 1996). Some records also indicate that human impacts associated with agricultural activity and urbanization have caused significant forest clearance and soil erosion (Beach, et al. 2003; Binford, et al. 1987; Deevey, et al. 1979; Hansen, et al. 2002; Vaughan, et al. 1985). However, it is not always possible to distinguish between natural and of human induced environmental change (Curtis, et al. 1998; Islebe, et al. 1996; Leyden 1987; Vaughan, et al. 1985). This uncertainty has led to difficulty assessing the role of environmental change in the Late Classic Maya decline.

Most of the paleoenvironmental research in the Maya Lowlands has been conducted in the more accessible lakes of the southern Petén (Binford, et al. 1987; Dunning, et al. 1998; Islebe, et al. 1996; Wiseman 1974), Belizean swamplands (B.C.S. Hansen 1990; Jacob 1995; Jacob and Hallmark 1996; Jones 1991), and the few lakes in the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula (Curtis, et al. 1996; Leyden, et al. 1998; Leyden, et al. 1996; Whitmore, et al. 1996). A problem with many of these sites is that the Late Classic population decline was not as abrupt as it was elsewhere on the peninsula and, at some sites, population actually increased in the Postclassic (Jones 1998; Rice 1986; Willey 1986). This has complicated the interpretation of some insecurely dated sediment sequences (Tsukada 1966; Vaughan, et al. 1985). This project has avoided these complications because it was carried out in the Mirador Basin, which was abandoned in the Late Classic and is still virtually unpopulated.

Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page