Excavations on Agricultural Terraces: Results of the 2004 Field Season at Chan, Belize

Research Goals

Timothy Earle defines political economy as "the material flows of goods and labor through a society, channeled to create wealth and to finance institutions of rule (2002:1)." Accordingly, a complete analysis of political economy must consider both the consumers as well as the producers of a society's output. Many of the archaeological studies in the Maya area have analyzed the political economy from the perspective of the elites and their role as recipients of tribute (both goods and labor) and as the center of a system of redistribution (e.g. Chase and Chase 1992; Masson and Friedel 2002). However, recent archaeological research has begun to address the role of the producers of Maya society by focusing on rural sites and "minor centers" (Iannone et al. 2003; Iannone 2004; Yaeger and Robin 2004). This project seeks to understand the position of the Maya commoner, the farmer, within this system; specifically, how and to what extent their "goods and labor" are utilized and controlled by the elite to build and maintain their cities and institutions.

Archaeologists have long recognized that intensive agricultural strategies, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation works, are means through which people are able to extract more resources from the land (Boserup 1965). But debates still continue as to when and why farmers would turn to intensification. Was it a response to high populations? Extractive political economies? Or a development from the local knowledge bases of agrarian focused households and communities? As Fedick has argued, these questions can only be answered through detailed and chronologically focused excavations of agricultural areas (Fedick 1996b). Agricultural methods and technologies, therefore, provide an excellent means to address a broad range of issues relating to household, local, and regional economy.

Within the framework of these theoretical questions, the goals of the 2004 season of excavations were to: 1) excavate multiple terrace walls to determine construction techniques and chronologies; 2) excavate a large structure located on the terraced hillslope, also to determine a chronology of occupation; 3) expose large areas of terrace beds to look for hidden structures as well as take soil samples for flotation and soil chemistry analysis; and, 4) explore several small depressions and their possible role as water storage facilities. The analysis of these data will provide information on the techniques of intensive terrace agriculture as practiced by the ancient Maya in the tropical rainforest environment, as well as address the larger issues of political economy and the relationship of the farmer to this system. This research on the agricultural terraces will also complement the work being done by Dr. Cynthia Robin as the director of the overarching Chan Archaeological Project and its study of the 2000-year history of an ancient Maya farming community, as well as the work of Chelsea Blackmore of the University of California, Riverside and her study of mid-level settlements on the outskirts of the Chan site.

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