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D.E. Cook
 

Records of Ancient Human-Environmental Interaction from Mayan Southern Petén, Guatemala
Part 1:  A 1300-year record of human activity and climate change from Cancuén

Results

Introduction

As the radiocarbon dating of the stratigraphy of the eastern edge of the gully failed, no timescale is available at present to date these sediments. Without sediment ages, very little reliable information on Cancuén's history can be gained. As such, they will not be considered any further in this report.

Radiocarbon dating

The results of radiocarbon dating from the port (n=3) and the palace (n=1) are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.  Results of radiocarbon (14C) dating of organic materials
recovered from the 'port' gully-fill sequence, Cancuén, Guatemala
Laboratory
Code		 Material Location Conventional
14C Age		 Calibrated
Calendar Age		 Calibrated
Calendar Age
Rangeb
  Animal Bone 3.0-3.2 m depth,
east pit in 'port'		 n/a n/a n/a
Beta-208186 Wood 0.46 m depth,
central excavation
in 'port'		 118.6±0.4 pMCa A.D. 1950 A.D. 1950
(modern)
Beta-208188 Charcoal 1.90 m depth,
central excavation
in 'port'		 1260±40 BP A.D. 770 A.D. 690-790
Beta-208189 Charcoal Palace,
termination event		 1240±50 BP A.D. 780 A.D. 700-870
a pMC = percent modern carbon. The plant that this wood came from expired sometime after A.D. 1950, so only a minimum age of A.D. 1950 can be allocated to this sample.
b 1 sigma calibrated results.

Detailed stratigraphy

The stratigraphies of the sediments in the 'port' are presented in Figure 6, shown below, while full detail descriptions of them are detailed in Appendix 1. Soil colours were determined using a Munsell soil colour chart on undried samples.

Figure 6. The physical and chemical stratigraphy and chronology of the 'port' gully-fill sequence from Cancuén, Guatemala. Stratigraphic unit numbers (I–VIII) refer to units which are described in full in Appendix 1.
Click on image to enlarge.

Chemical properties of the sediments

Analytical accuracy was typically better than 95%. Accuracy in determining sodium, magnesium and aluminium was better than 90%. As these elements are not considered in this report, the lower accuracy is not of great concern. Although a range of interesting patterns are exhibited in the 20 elements analysed for in the study, the concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, potassium and lead have provided the most useful inferences on Cancuén's environmental history (Figure 6). Due to space limitations, further discussion will focus on these elements alone.

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