Dorothy Freidel - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Dorothy Freidel
Post-Mazama River Terraces and Human Occupation Along the North Umpqua River Oregon
Springer eBooks, Nov 5, 2013
A sequence of three post-Mazama terraces, found at intervals along the banks of the North Umpqua ... more A sequence of three post-Mazama terraces, found at intervals along the banks of the North Umpqua River, western Oregon, contains evidence of middle and late Holocene human occupation that has contributed to a construction of a geomorphic history of terrace formation. The evidence suggests that different geomorphic mechanisms were responsible for the development of the three terraces. It also verifies that people were living along the North Umpqua River before the climactic eruption of Mount Mazama and may have returned within a few hundred years after. The highest, Panther Terrace, formed from the glowing ash flow deposits from the Mount Mazama eruption, ca 7600 years B.P. The next lower Illahee Terrace developed through slow aggradation of the gravelly channel bed followed by an episode of rapid deposition of reworked Mazama ash by around 4500 cal. yrs B.P. The lowest Eagle Terrace formed on a possible pre-Mazama strath terrace within the last 2000 years, and was probably abandoned within the past few hundred years. Pollen records from the Cascades suggest a possible climatic stimulus for the development and abandonment of the lower two terraces.
Alluvial Stratigraphy and Human Prehistory of the Veneta Area, Long Tom River Valley, Oregon
Early Earthquakes of the Americas. Robert L. Kovach. 2004. Cambridge University Press, New York. 280 pp., appendices, bibliography, $100.00 (cloth)
Latin American Antiquity, Sep 1, 2006
(Atran et al. 2004:13 through 18) demonstrates that certain practices and perceptions of the Maya... more (Atran et al. 2004:13 through 18) demonstrates that certain practices and perceptions of the Maya have survived). This shift in agricultural practices reflects a change in the economy of the Maya with colonization, but it is fascinating to see the level to which the Maya retained some cultural traits in light of these changes. This volume is also of interest to ethnobiologists and scholars wishing to view anthropogenic changes to the natural landscape and the ways in which a landscape is utilized before and after cultural incursions. Finally, agronomists may be interested in the study for its discussion of sustainable agroforestry practices in the fragile soils of tropical forests. Atran, Lois, and Ucan Ek' pull together English, Spanish, and Maya texts and histories to develop an understanding of several hundred plants within Lowland Maya culture. The authors present the textual and tabular information first in English then in Spanish, allowing the information to reach a broader audience. In consulting both native and colonial histories and legends, the authors present a relatively balanced picture of the Itza' in the past, as well as those practices that may have caused or contributed to cultural changes. Atran et al. manage to present the histories without lecturing from a soap box, and in fact, their work not only demonstrates retention of traits through extreme circumstances that make cultures unique, the work itself is also contributing to the survival of Maya culture by documenting and disseminating such important, in depth, and multifaceted information.
Climate change and population history in the pacific lowlands of Southern Mesoamerica
Quaternary Research, 2006
Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting o... more Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting over the past 6500 yr. Chemical, pollen, and phytolith data, which indicate conditions of estuarine deposition and terrigenous inputs from adjacent dry land, document Holocene climate variability that parallels the Maya lowlands and other New World tropical locations. Human population history in this region may be driven partly by climate variation: sedentary human populations spread rapidly through the estuarine zone of the lower coast during a dry and variable 4th millennium B.P. Population growth and cultural florescence during a long, relatively moist period (2800–1200 B.P.) ended around 1200 B.P., a drying event that coincided with the Classic Maya collapse.
Human–environment interactions during the early mid-Holocene in coastal Ecuador as revealed by mangrove coring in Santa Elena Province
The Holocene, 2016
Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agricult... more Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agriculturalists living in the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador (Santa Elena Province, formerly southwestern Guayas Province). Cores extracted from swamps in three river outflows, namely, the Río Verde/Río Zapotal drainage (Chanduy estuary), the Río Grande (Punta Carnero locality), and the Río Valdivia, provided pollen, phytolith, sedimentary, and elemental sequences relevant to documenting vegetation and agriculture. The Chanduy record documented maize and other cultigens from 3200 to 500 cal. BC, providing evidence for intensive cultivation of alluvial lands. The Punta Carnero core provided the first evidence for occupation of the peninsula during the ‘hiatus’ between the Vegas and Valdivia periods, as maize was present in a stratum dating to 4857 cal. BC. Records documented mid-Holocene sea-level stabilization, development of low-energy depositional environments, and variation in rainfall attri...
The California Geographer
Alluvial Stratigraphy and Human Prehistory of the Veneta Area, Long Tom River Valley, Oregon
Early Maya Adaptive Patterns: Mid-Late Holocene Paleoenvironmental Evidence from Pacific Guatemala
Latin American Antiquity, 2006
We summarize what is known about Archaic period occupation of southeastern Mesoamerica and Centra... more We summarize what is known about Archaic period occupation of southeastern Mesoamerica and Central America as background for presenting new paleoenvironmental evidence of pre-Early Formative human impacts on the landscape of Pacific coastal Guatemala. Our evidence comes from sediment cores in three locations, all of which are in the mangrove-estuary zone of the lower coast. Pollen and phytoliths from the cores document increased burning, decreased forest cover, the appearance of domesticates, and increased disturbance indicators at various times during the Archaic period, the earliest being around 3500 cal B.C. The available evidence demonstrates that shifting horticulture was an early and widespread adaptation to the southeastern Mesoamerican deciduous tropical forest and constituted the base from which later adaptations, including that of early Maya farmers, differentiated. Early Formative adaptive innovations may have been favored by shifts in return rates from various estuarine ...
The Holocene, 2016
Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agricult... more Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agriculturalists living in the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador (Santa Elena Province, formerly southwestern Guayas Province). Cores extracted from swamps in three river outflows, namely, the Río Verde/Río Zapotal drainage (Chanduy estuary), the Río Grande (Punta Carnero locality), and the Río Valdivia, provided pollen, phytolith, sedimentary, and elemental sequences relevant to documenting vegetation and agriculture. The Chanduy record documented maize and other cultigens from 3200 to 500 cal. BC, providing evidence for intensive cultivation of alluvial lands. The Punta Carnero core provided the first evidence for occupation of the peninsula during the ‘hiatus’ between the Vegas and Valdivia periods, as maize was present in a stratum dating to 4857 cal. BC. Records documented mid-Holocene sea- level stabilization, development of low-energy depositional environments, and variation in rainfall attributable to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) by 5000 cal. BC. There was no evidence that the region was either markedly wetter or drier in the early mid-Holocene, suggesting that climate controls similar to those of today were in place.
Post-Mazama River Terraces and Human Occupation Along the North Umpqua River Oregon
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences, 2013
Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting o... more Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting over the past 6500 yr. Chemical, pollen, and phytolith data, which indicate conditions of estuarine deposition and terrigenous inputs from adjacent dry land, document Holocene climate variability that parallels the Maya lowlands and other New World tropical locations. Human population history in this region may be driven partly by climate variation: sedentary human populations spread rapidly through the estuarine zone of the lower coast during a dry and variable 4th millennium B.P. Population growth and cultural florescence during a long, relatively moist period (2800 -1200 B.P.) ended around 1200 B.P., a drying event that coincided with the Classic Maya collapse.
Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, and Drought: Environmental Challenges for the Ancient Maya People of the Antigua Valley, Guatemala
ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd ann... more ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd annual meeting, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, September 17, 2010 Before the APCG meeting last September, I was on Cape Cod with my sister, enjoying the last of the summer. With the development of Hurricane Earl, I became concerned that we would not be able to fly out on Friday morning, when the hurricane was projected to hit the Cape. It had been nearly twenty years since the last hurricane hit Massachusetts, and that last one pulled up and tossed the locust trees like jackstraws all over our property, fortunately not hitting the house. The change in the landscape was dramatic after that storm, but today only a few bare snags are left among the full young trees as evidence of the past event. However, the ocean beaches have been migrating landward, eroding rapidly back with every big storm. This process is being exacerbated by sea-level rise. It's predicted that within the next few decades, Provincetown, on the north end of the Cape, will be cut off from the lower section, making it an island. Eventually this Pleistocene moraine will disappear under the waves. By the end of this century, a hurricane as far north as Cape Cod—and even Newfoundland—may not be such an unusual event, as the increasingly warm Gulf Stream carries its heat up past the Cape. The Eastern U.S. experienced record-breaking heat last summer as well. As you heard in the Climate Change Plenary at Coeur d'Alene, global climate is rapidly changing the world around us. Catastrophic droughts and floods, as occurred last summer in Russia, Pakistan, and China, may be considered aberrations of weather, or they may be indicators of climate change. Either way, these events have tremendous impacts on millions of people, with food production such as wheat and rice crops affected around the world, and freshwater supplies scarce to the millions at the sites of devastation. Both of these types of events can be traced to variations in atmospheric circulation and ocean temperatures, in response to warming air temperatures. In many parts of the world, vegetation and animals are being impacted, in some cases migrating to cooler environments, in some cases becoming threatened with extinction. Vegetation is an excellent indicator of climate because it responds relatively quickly and directly to variations in mean temperature and precipitation. Geomorphic systems, such as erosional and depositional episodes caused by floods, storms, or drought, also leave evidence on the land. Traces of geomorphic and vegetation change are very helpful to researchers who are interested in learning about the landscape history—the paleoenvironment—of different parts of the world. We are interested in knowing what has happened in the past in order to understand the drivers and responses of natural systems. These also help project what might happen in the future, given certain changes in the systems. It is essential these days to be able to differentiate between natural climate cycles and human-induced changes. Therefore it is really useful to study evidence of past environments in association with human occupations. Moreover, understanding the environmental context in which humans have developed technologies, such as domestication of food crops and agricultural techniques, resulting in food security that allowed for settlements, and ultimately civilizations, also helps us to understand not only how humans responded to natural variations, but also how they changed their environments. The study of past environmental contexts of human occupations, which we call geoarchaeology, is a certain passion of mine. For more than ten years I have been collaborating with a team of physical geographers and archaeologists who have been working out the environmental and cultural changes that occurred during the period when the pre-Maya people were living in Guatemala. My main focus has been on the highland valley of Antigua, but I also worked on sites along the Pacific Coastal lowlands and spent some time at a Classic Maya site in the northern Yucatan. As you know, the Maya people developed a high level of civilization, with great cities and large-scale infrastructure, including modification of the land for agriculture and water resources to support those populations. The...
La evidencia arqueológica ha indicado que la cultura Maya evolucionó en las zonas del pie de mont... more La evidencia arqueológica ha indicado que la cultura Maya evolucionó en las zonas del pie de monte y en el Altiplano guatemalteco, un puente geográfico y cultural entre las culturas precoces de la Costa del Pacífico, del Preclásico Temprano (1550-1000 AC) al florecimiento Clásico (300-900 DC) de la civilización Maya en las Tierras Bajas (Figura 1; Arroyo 1994; Bove 1989; Coe y Flannery 1967).
Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, and Drought: Environmental Challenges for the Ancient Maya People of the Antigua Valley, Guatemala
Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 2011
ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd ann... more ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd annual meeting, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, September 17, 2010 Before the APCG meeting last September, I was on Cape Cod with my sister, enjoying the last of the summer. With the development of Hurricane Earl, I became concerned that we would not be able to fly out on Friday morning, when the hurricane was projected to hit the Cape. It had been nearly twenty years since the last hurricane hit Massachusetts, and that last one pulled up and tossed the locust trees like jackstraws all over our property, fortunately not hitting the house. The change in the landscape was dramatic after that storm, but today only a few bare snags are left among the full young trees as evidence of the past event. However, the ocean beaches have been migrating landward, eroding rapidly back with every big storm. This process is being exacerbated by sea-level rise. It's predicted that within the next few decades, Provincetown, on the north end of the Cape, will be cut off from the lower section, making it an island. Eventually this Pleistocene moraine will disappear under the waves. By the end of this century, a hurricane as far north as Cape Cod—and even Newfoundland—may not be such an unusual event, as the increasingly warm Gulf Stream carries its heat up past the Cape. The Eastern U.S. experienced record-breaking heat last summer as well. As you heard in the Climate Change Plenary at Coeur d'Alene, global climate is rapidly changing the world around us. Catastrophic droughts and floods, as occurred last summer in Russia, Pakistan, and China, may be considered aberrations of weather, or they may be indicators of climate change. Either way, these events have tremendous impacts on millions of people, with food production such as wheat and rice crops affected around the world, and freshwater supplies scarce to the millions at the sites of devastation. Both of these types of events can be traced to variations in atmospheric circulation and ocean temperatures, in response to warming air temperatures. In many parts of the world, vegetation and animals are being impacted, in some cases migrating to cooler environments, in some cases becoming threatened with extinction. Vegetation is an excellent indicator of climate because it responds relatively quickly and directly to variations in mean temperature and precipitation. Geomorphic systems, such as erosional and depositional episodes caused by floods, storms, or drought, also leave evidence on the land. Traces of geomorphic and vegetation change are very helpful to researchers who are interested in learning about the landscape history—the paleoenvironment—of different parts of the world. We are interested in knowing what has happened in the past in order to understand the drivers and responses of natural systems. These also help project what might happen in the future, given certain changes in the systems. It is essential these days to be able to differentiate between natural climate cycles and human-induced changes. Therefore it is really useful to study evidence of past environments in association with human occupations. Moreover, understanding the environmental context in which humans have developed technologies, such as domestication of food crops and agricultural techniques, resulting in food security that allowed for settlements, and ultimately civilizations, also helps us to understand not only how humans responded to natural variations, but also how they changed their environments. The study of past environmental contexts of human occupations, which we call geoarchaeology, is a certain passion of mine. For more than ten years I have been collaborating with a team of physical geographers and archaeologists who have been working out the environmental and cultural changes that occurred during the period when the pre-Maya people were living in Guatemala. My main focus has been on the highland valley of Antigua, but I also worked on sites along the Pacific Coastal lowlands and spent some time at a Classic Maya site in the northern Yucatan. As you know, the Maya people developed a high level of civilization, with great cities and large-scale infrastructure, including modification of the land for agriculture and water resources to support those populations. The...
Climate change and population history in the Pacific Lowlands of Southern Mesoamerica
Quaternary Research, 2006
Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting o... more Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting over the past 6500 yr. Chemical, pollen, and phytolith data, which indicate conditions of estuarine deposition and terrigenous inputs from adjacent dry land, document ...
Post-Mazama River Terraces and Human Occupation Along the North Umpqua River Oregon
Springer eBooks, Nov 5, 2013
A sequence of three post-Mazama terraces, found at intervals along the banks of the North Umpqua ... more A sequence of three post-Mazama terraces, found at intervals along the banks of the North Umpqua River, western Oregon, contains evidence of middle and late Holocene human occupation that has contributed to a construction of a geomorphic history of terrace formation. The evidence suggests that different geomorphic mechanisms were responsible for the development of the three terraces. It also verifies that people were living along the North Umpqua River before the climactic eruption of Mount Mazama and may have returned within a few hundred years after. The highest, Panther Terrace, formed from the glowing ash flow deposits from the Mount Mazama eruption, ca 7600 years B.P. The next lower Illahee Terrace developed through slow aggradation of the gravelly channel bed followed by an episode of rapid deposition of reworked Mazama ash by around 4500 cal. yrs B.P. The lowest Eagle Terrace formed on a possible pre-Mazama strath terrace within the last 2000 years, and was probably abandoned within the past few hundred years. Pollen records from the Cascades suggest a possible climatic stimulus for the development and abandonment of the lower two terraces.
Alluvial Stratigraphy and Human Prehistory of the Veneta Area, Long Tom River Valley, Oregon
Early Earthquakes of the Americas. Robert L. Kovach. 2004. Cambridge University Press, New York. 280 pp., appendices, bibliography, $100.00 (cloth)
Latin American Antiquity, Sep 1, 2006
(Atran et al. 2004:13 through 18) demonstrates that certain practices and perceptions of the Maya... more (Atran et al. 2004:13 through 18) demonstrates that certain practices and perceptions of the Maya have survived). This shift in agricultural practices reflects a change in the economy of the Maya with colonization, but it is fascinating to see the level to which the Maya retained some cultural traits in light of these changes. This volume is also of interest to ethnobiologists and scholars wishing to view anthropogenic changes to the natural landscape and the ways in which a landscape is utilized before and after cultural incursions. Finally, agronomists may be interested in the study for its discussion of sustainable agroforestry practices in the fragile soils of tropical forests. Atran, Lois, and Ucan Ek' pull together English, Spanish, and Maya texts and histories to develop an understanding of several hundred plants within Lowland Maya culture. The authors present the textual and tabular information first in English then in Spanish, allowing the information to reach a broader audience. In consulting both native and colonial histories and legends, the authors present a relatively balanced picture of the Itza' in the past, as well as those practices that may have caused or contributed to cultural changes. Atran et al. manage to present the histories without lecturing from a soap box, and in fact, their work not only demonstrates retention of traits through extreme circumstances that make cultures unique, the work itself is also contributing to the survival of Maya culture by documenting and disseminating such important, in depth, and multifaceted information.
Climate change and population history in the pacific lowlands of Southern Mesoamerica
Quaternary Research, 2006
Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting o... more Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting over the past 6500 yr. Chemical, pollen, and phytolith data, which indicate conditions of estuarine deposition and terrigenous inputs from adjacent dry land, document Holocene climate variability that parallels the Maya lowlands and other New World tropical locations. Human population history in this region may be driven partly by climate variation: sedentary human populations spread rapidly through the estuarine zone of the lower coast during a dry and variable 4th millennium B.P. Population growth and cultural florescence during a long, relatively moist period (2800–1200 B.P.) ended around 1200 B.P., a drying event that coincided with the Classic Maya collapse.
Human–environment interactions during the early mid-Holocene in coastal Ecuador as revealed by mangrove coring in Santa Elena Province
The Holocene, 2016
Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agricult... more Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agriculturalists living in the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador (Santa Elena Province, formerly southwestern Guayas Province). Cores extracted from swamps in three river outflows, namely, the Río Verde/Río Zapotal drainage (Chanduy estuary), the Río Grande (Punta Carnero locality), and the Río Valdivia, provided pollen, phytolith, sedimentary, and elemental sequences relevant to documenting vegetation and agriculture. The Chanduy record documented maize and other cultigens from 3200 to 500 cal. BC, providing evidence for intensive cultivation of alluvial lands. The Punta Carnero core provided the first evidence for occupation of the peninsula during the ‘hiatus’ between the Vegas and Valdivia periods, as maize was present in a stratum dating to 4857 cal. BC. Records documented mid-Holocene sea-level stabilization, development of low-energy depositional environments, and variation in rainfall attri...
The California Geographer
Alluvial Stratigraphy and Human Prehistory of the Veneta Area, Long Tom River Valley, Oregon
Early Maya Adaptive Patterns: Mid-Late Holocene Paleoenvironmental Evidence from Pacific Guatemala
Latin American Antiquity, 2006
We summarize what is known about Archaic period occupation of southeastern Mesoamerica and Centra... more We summarize what is known about Archaic period occupation of southeastern Mesoamerica and Central America as background for presenting new paleoenvironmental evidence of pre-Early Formative human impacts on the landscape of Pacific coastal Guatemala. Our evidence comes from sediment cores in three locations, all of which are in the mangrove-estuary zone of the lower coast. Pollen and phytoliths from the cores document increased burning, decreased forest cover, the appearance of domesticates, and increased disturbance indicators at various times during the Archaic period, the earliest being around 3500 cal B.C. The available evidence demonstrates that shifting horticulture was an early and widespread adaptation to the southeastern Mesoamerican deciduous tropical forest and constituted the base from which later adaptations, including that of early Maya farmers, differentiated. Early Formative adaptive innovations may have been favored by shifts in return rates from various estuarine ...
The Holocene, 2016
Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agricult... more Coastal environments of the early mid-Holocene provided challenges and opportunities for agriculturalists living in the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador (Santa Elena Province, formerly southwestern Guayas Province). Cores extracted from swamps in three river outflows, namely, the Río Verde/Río Zapotal drainage (Chanduy estuary), the Río Grande (Punta Carnero locality), and the Río Valdivia, provided pollen, phytolith, sedimentary, and elemental sequences relevant to documenting vegetation and agriculture. The Chanduy record documented maize and other cultigens from 3200 to 500 cal. BC, providing evidence for intensive cultivation of alluvial lands. The Punta Carnero core provided the first evidence for occupation of the peninsula during the ‘hiatus’ between the Vegas and Valdivia periods, as maize was present in a stratum dating to 4857 cal. BC. Records documented mid-Holocene sea- level stabilization, development of low-energy depositional environments, and variation in rainfall attributable to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) by 5000 cal. BC. There was no evidence that the region was either markedly wetter or drier in the early mid-Holocene, suggesting that climate controls similar to those of today were in place.
Post-Mazama River Terraces and Human Occupation Along the North Umpqua River Oregon
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences, 2013
Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting o... more Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting over the past 6500 yr. Chemical, pollen, and phytolith data, which indicate conditions of estuarine deposition and terrigenous inputs from adjacent dry land, document Holocene climate variability that parallels the Maya lowlands and other New World tropical locations. Human population history in this region may be driven partly by climate variation: sedentary human populations spread rapidly through the estuarine zone of the lower coast during a dry and variable 4th millennium B.P. Population growth and cultural florescence during a long, relatively moist period (2800 -1200 B.P.) ended around 1200 B.P., a drying event that coincided with the Classic Maya collapse.
Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, and Drought: Environmental Challenges for the Ancient Maya People of the Antigua Valley, Guatemala
ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd ann... more ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd annual meeting, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, September 17, 2010 Before the APCG meeting last September, I was on Cape Cod with my sister, enjoying the last of the summer. With the development of Hurricane Earl, I became concerned that we would not be able to fly out on Friday morning, when the hurricane was projected to hit the Cape. It had been nearly twenty years since the last hurricane hit Massachusetts, and that last one pulled up and tossed the locust trees like jackstraws all over our property, fortunately not hitting the house. The change in the landscape was dramatic after that storm, but today only a few bare snags are left among the full young trees as evidence of the past event. However, the ocean beaches have been migrating landward, eroding rapidly back with every big storm. This process is being exacerbated by sea-level rise. It's predicted that within the next few decades, Provincetown, on the north end of the Cape, will be cut off from the lower section, making it an island. Eventually this Pleistocene moraine will disappear under the waves. By the end of this century, a hurricane as far north as Cape Cod—and even Newfoundland—may not be such an unusual event, as the increasingly warm Gulf Stream carries its heat up past the Cape. The Eastern U.S. experienced record-breaking heat last summer as well. As you heard in the Climate Change Plenary at Coeur d'Alene, global climate is rapidly changing the world around us. Catastrophic droughts and floods, as occurred last summer in Russia, Pakistan, and China, may be considered aberrations of weather, or they may be indicators of climate change. Either way, these events have tremendous impacts on millions of people, with food production such as wheat and rice crops affected around the world, and freshwater supplies scarce to the millions at the sites of devastation. Both of these types of events can be traced to variations in atmospheric circulation and ocean temperatures, in response to warming air temperatures. In many parts of the world, vegetation and animals are being impacted, in some cases migrating to cooler environments, in some cases becoming threatened with extinction. Vegetation is an excellent indicator of climate because it responds relatively quickly and directly to variations in mean temperature and precipitation. Geomorphic systems, such as erosional and depositional episodes caused by floods, storms, or drought, also leave evidence on the land. Traces of geomorphic and vegetation change are very helpful to researchers who are interested in learning about the landscape history—the paleoenvironment—of different parts of the world. We are interested in knowing what has happened in the past in order to understand the drivers and responses of natural systems. These also help project what might happen in the future, given certain changes in the systems. It is essential these days to be able to differentiate between natural climate cycles and human-induced changes. Therefore it is really useful to study evidence of past environments in association with human occupations. Moreover, understanding the environmental context in which humans have developed technologies, such as domestication of food crops and agricultural techniques, resulting in food security that allowed for settlements, and ultimately civilizations, also helps us to understand not only how humans responded to natural variations, but also how they changed their environments. The study of past environmental contexts of human occupations, which we call geoarchaeology, is a certain passion of mine. For more than ten years I have been collaborating with a team of physical geographers and archaeologists who have been working out the environmental and cultural changes that occurred during the period when the pre-Maya people were living in Guatemala. My main focus has been on the highland valley of Antigua, but I also worked on sites along the Pacific Coastal lowlands and spent some time at a Classic Maya site in the northern Yucatan. As you know, the Maya people developed a high level of civilization, with great cities and large-scale infrastructure, including modification of the land for agriculture and water resources to support those populations. The...
La evidencia arqueológica ha indicado que la cultura Maya evolucionó en las zonas del pie de mont... more La evidencia arqueológica ha indicado que la cultura Maya evolucionó en las zonas del pie de monte y en el Altiplano guatemalteco, un puente geográfico y cultural entre las culturas precoces de la Costa del Pacífico, del Preclásico Temprano (1550-1000 AC) al florecimiento Clásico (300-900 DC) de la civilización Maya en las Tierras Bajas (Figura 1; Arroyo 1994; Bove 1989; Coe y Flannery 1967).
Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, and Drought: Environmental Challenges for the Ancient Maya People of the Antigua Valley, Guatemala
Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 2011
ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd ann... more ABSTRACT Presidential Address delivered to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 73rd annual meeting, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, September 17, 2010 Before the APCG meeting last September, I was on Cape Cod with my sister, enjoying the last of the summer. With the development of Hurricane Earl, I became concerned that we would not be able to fly out on Friday morning, when the hurricane was projected to hit the Cape. It had been nearly twenty years since the last hurricane hit Massachusetts, and that last one pulled up and tossed the locust trees like jackstraws all over our property, fortunately not hitting the house. The change in the landscape was dramatic after that storm, but today only a few bare snags are left among the full young trees as evidence of the past event. However, the ocean beaches have been migrating landward, eroding rapidly back with every big storm. This process is being exacerbated by sea-level rise. It's predicted that within the next few decades, Provincetown, on the north end of the Cape, will be cut off from the lower section, making it an island. Eventually this Pleistocene moraine will disappear under the waves. By the end of this century, a hurricane as far north as Cape Cod—and even Newfoundland—may not be such an unusual event, as the increasingly warm Gulf Stream carries its heat up past the Cape. The Eastern U.S. experienced record-breaking heat last summer as well. As you heard in the Climate Change Plenary at Coeur d'Alene, global climate is rapidly changing the world around us. Catastrophic droughts and floods, as occurred last summer in Russia, Pakistan, and China, may be considered aberrations of weather, or they may be indicators of climate change. Either way, these events have tremendous impacts on millions of people, with food production such as wheat and rice crops affected around the world, and freshwater supplies scarce to the millions at the sites of devastation. Both of these types of events can be traced to variations in atmospheric circulation and ocean temperatures, in response to warming air temperatures. In many parts of the world, vegetation and animals are being impacted, in some cases migrating to cooler environments, in some cases becoming threatened with extinction. Vegetation is an excellent indicator of climate because it responds relatively quickly and directly to variations in mean temperature and precipitation. Geomorphic systems, such as erosional and depositional episodes caused by floods, storms, or drought, also leave evidence on the land. Traces of geomorphic and vegetation change are very helpful to researchers who are interested in learning about the landscape history—the paleoenvironment—of different parts of the world. We are interested in knowing what has happened in the past in order to understand the drivers and responses of natural systems. These also help project what might happen in the future, given certain changes in the systems. It is essential these days to be able to differentiate between natural climate cycles and human-induced changes. Therefore it is really useful to study evidence of past environments in association with human occupations. Moreover, understanding the environmental context in which humans have developed technologies, such as domestication of food crops and agricultural techniques, resulting in food security that allowed for settlements, and ultimately civilizations, also helps us to understand not only how humans responded to natural variations, but also how they changed their environments. The study of past environmental contexts of human occupations, which we call geoarchaeology, is a certain passion of mine. For more than ten years I have been collaborating with a team of physical geographers and archaeologists who have been working out the environmental and cultural changes that occurred during the period when the pre-Maya people were living in Guatemala. My main focus has been on the highland valley of Antigua, but I also worked on sites along the Pacific Coastal lowlands and spent some time at a Classic Maya site in the northern Yucatan. As you know, the Maya people developed a high level of civilization, with great cities and large-scale infrastructure, including modification of the land for agriculture and water resources to support those populations. The...
Climate change and population history in the Pacific Lowlands of Southern Mesoamerica
Quaternary Research, 2006
Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting o... more Core MAN015 from Pacific coastal Guatemala contains sediments accumulated in a mangrove setting over the past 6500 yr. Chemical, pollen, and phytolith data, which indicate conditions of estuarine deposition and terrigenous inputs from adjacent dry land, document ...