Using Animal Remains to Reconstruct Landscapes and Climate of the Ancient Maya World (original) (raw)
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Animal remains from Maya archaeological deposits provide a valuable proxy for reconstructing landscape history and the potential role of human activities and climate. Both human-induced habitat destruction and climate change have been proposed as causal to several Maya cultural transitions including the Classic Maya "collapse". Current environmental reconstructions rely on paleoenvironmental data from lakebed and other non-archaeological sedimentary cores. These are difficult to correlate with archaeological chronologies and generally record conditions at considerable distances from ancient Maya settlements. We use animal remains from Preclassic through Postclassic archaeological sites as proxy data for changing terrestrial and aquatic habitats in the central and southern Maya lowlands. We find that terrestrial fauna record highly site-specific landscape conditions while aquatic fauna from small water systems (swamps, creeks, and reservoirs) may reveal correlations with regional climate conditions. Animal remains provide a local record that can add site-level detail to regional paleoenvironmental reconstructions and can be directly linked to the cultural deposits that are used to define cultural events at each site.
Zooarchaeological Habitat Analysis of Ancient Maya Landscape Changes (co-authored with Kitty Emery)
Consensus has not yet been reached regarding the role of humancaused environmental change in the history of Classic Maya civilization. On one side of the debate, researchers argue that growing populations and agricultural expansion resulted in environmental over-exploitation that contributed to societal collapse. Researchers on the other side of the debate propose more gradual environmental change resulting from intentional and sustainable landscape management practices. In this study, we use zooarchaeological data from 23 archaeological sites in 11 inland drainage systems to evaluate the hypothesis of reduction of forest cover due to anthropogenic activities across the temporal and spatial span of the ancient Maya world. Habitat fidelity statistics derived from zooarchaeological data are presented as a proxy for the abundance of various habitat types across the landscape. The results of this analysis do not support a model of extensive land clearance and instead suggest considerable chronological and regional stability in the presence of animals from both mature and secondary forest habitats. Despite relative stability, some chronological variation in land cover was observed, but the variation does not fit expected patterns of increased forest disturbance during periods of greatest population expansion. These findings indicate a complex relationship between the ancient Maya and the forested landscape.
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2002
Since the late 1950s, scientists have used sediment cores from lakes on the Yucatan Peninsula to explore the complex interactions among climate, environment, and ancient Maya culture. Early paleolimnological studies generally assumed that late Holocene climate was invariable. Consequently, paleolimnologically inferred environmental changes that occurred during the past 3,000 years or so-for example, forest decline and soil erosion-were attributed wholly to anthropogenic activities such as land clearance for agriculture and construction. Recent high-resolution, proxy-based paleoclimate records from continental and insular sites around the Caribbean Sea contradict the assumption of late Holocene climate stability. Instead, these core data suggest that regional drying began about 3,000 years ago and that the past three millennia were characterized by variable moisture availability. Paleoclimate inferences from Lakes Chichancanab and Punta Laguna, northern Yucatan Peninsula, indicate that drought events over the past 2,600 years were cyclical. These dry events, thought to have been driven by solar forcing, appear to have occurred approximately every two centuries (about 208 years). The driest period of the late Holocene occurred between a.d. 800 and 1000, coincident with the Classic Maya Collapse. We review the history of paleolimnological studies in the Maya Lowlands, discuss the difficulty of differentiating climatic signals from anthropogenic signals in late Holocene lake sediment profiles, and assess current understanding of past climate changes in the region based on regional lacustrine sediment studies.
Zooarchaeological Habitat Analysis of Ancient Maya Landscape Changes
Journal of Ethnobiology, 2008
Consensus has not yet been reached regarding the role of humancaused environmental change in the history of Classic Maya civilization. On one side of the debate, researchers argue that growing populations and agricultural expansion resulted in environmental over-exploitation that contributed to societal collapse. Researchers on the other side of the debate propose more gradual environmental change resulting from intentional and sustainable landscape management practices. In this study, we use zooarchaeological data from 23 archaeological sites in 11 inland drainage systems to evaluate the hypothesis of reduction of forest cover due to anthropogenic activities across the temporal and spatial span of the ancient Maya world. Habitat fidelity statistics derived from zooarchaeological data are presented as a proxy for the abundance of various habitat types across the landscape. The results of this analysis do not support a model of extensive land clearance and instead suggest considerable chronological and regional stability in the presence of animals from both mature and secondary forest habitats. Despite relative stability, some chronological variation in land cover was observed, but the variation does not fit expected patterns of increased forest disturbance during periods of greatest population expansion. These findings indicate a complex relationship between the ancient Maya and the forested landscape.
Methods and future directions for paleoclimatology in the Maya Lowlands
A growing body of paleoclimate data indicates that periods of severe drought affected the Maya Lowlands of southeastern Mexico and northern Central America, especially during the Terminal Classic period (ca. 800–950 CE), raising the possibility that climate change contributed to the widespread collapse of many Maya polities at that time. A broad range of paleoclimate proxy methods have been applied in the Maya Lowlands and the data derived from these methods are sometimes challenging for archeologists and other non-specialists to interpret. This paper reviews the principal methods used for paleoclimate inference in the region and the rationale for climate proxy interpretation to help researchers working in the Maya Lowlands make sense of paleoclimate datasets. In particular, we focus on analyses of speleothems and lake sediment cores. These two paleoclimate archives have been most widely applied in the Maya Lowlands and have the greatest potential to provide insights into climate change impacts on the ancient Maya. We discuss the development of chronologies for these climate archives, the proxies for past climate change found within them, and how these proxy variables are interpreted. Finally, we present strategies for improving our understanding of proxy paleoclimate data from the Maya Lowlands, including multi-proxy analyses, assessment of spatial variability in past climate change, combined analysis of climate models and proxy data, and the integration of paleoclimatology and archeology.
Paleolimnology of the Maya Lowlands
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2001
Since the late 1950s, scientists have used sediment cores from lakes on the Yucatan Peninsula to explore the complex interactions among climate, environment, and ancient Maya culture. Early paleolimnological studies generally assumed that late Holocene climate was invariable. Consequently, paleolimnologically inferred environmental changes that occurred during the past 3,000 years or so-for example, forest decline and soil erosion-were attributed wholly to anthropogenic activities such as land clearance for agriculture and construction. Recent high-resolution, proxy-based paleoclimate records from continental and insular sites around the Caribbean Sea contradict the assumption of late Holocene climate stability. Instead, these core data suggest that regional drying began about 3,000 years ago and that the past three millennia were characterized by variable moisture availability. Paleoclimate inferences from Lakes Chichancanab and Punta Laguna, northern Yucatan Peninsula, indicate that drought events over the past 2,600 years were cyclical. These dry events, thought to have been driven by solar forcing, appear to have occurred approximately every two centuries (about 208 years). The driest period of the late Holocene occurred between a.d. 800 and 1000, coincident with the Classic Maya Collapse. We review the history of paleolimnological studies in the Maya Lowlands, discuss the difficulty of differentiating climatic signals from anthropogenic signals in late Holocene lake sediment profiles, and assess current understanding of past climate changes in the region based on regional lacustrine sediment studies.
This paper uses stable isotopic research on faunal remains from archaeological sites in the Maya area to describe ancient environments through time in the region. Carbon isotope signatures of white-tailed deer remains recovered from the Petexbatún and Motul de San José polities in Guatemala are combined with other published data to provide a regional diachronic perspective on variations in availability of maize, a C4 plant, to herbivores. These data are used as a proxy for the extent of agricultural fields through time across the Maya world and the results indicate considerable temporal and spatial heterogeneity, likely linked to natural environmental heterogeneity and local land-use histories. The local nature of variations underscores the need for greater detail in paleoenvironmental studies at the drainage-basin or site level. Preliminary oxygen isotope research on white-tailed deer from the Motul de San José polity is also presented as the basis for discussion of the role of archaeologically linked oxygen isotope signatures in correlating large scale climate shifts with other site-specific evidence for environmental change over the period of Maya occupation. Together discussions of the two isotopic data sets emphasize the importance of paleoenvironmental and particularly isotopic research on materials from well-dated archaeological contexts.
Quaternary international, 2008
This paper uses stable isotopic research on faunal remains from archaeological sites in the Maya area to describe ancient environments through time in the region. Carbon isotope signatures of white-tailed deer remains recovered from the Petexbatu´n and Motul de San Joseṕ olities in Guatemala are combined with other published data to provide a regional diachronic perspective on variations in availability of maize, a C4 plant, to herbivores. These data are used as a proxy for the extent of agricultural fields through time across the Maya world and the results indicate considerable temporal and spatial heterogeneity, likely linked to natural environmental heterogeneity and local land-use histories. The local nature of variations underscores the need for greater detail in paleoenvironmental studies at the drainagebasin or site level. Preliminary oxygen isotope research on white-tailed deer from the Motul de San Jose´polity is also presented as the basis for discussion of the role of archaeologically linked oxygen isotope signatures in correlating large scale climate shifts with other sitespecific evidence for environmental change over the period of Maya occupation. Together discussions of the two isotopic data sets emphasize the importance of paleoenvironmental and particularly isotopic research on materials from well-dated archaeological contexts. r
Spatial and temporal distribution of palaeoclimatic records in the Maya Area
Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, 2024
Palaeoclimatic research has been performed in the Maya Area (MA), using mainly lake sediment cores and speleothems. Most of the studies have been performed in the lowlands, leaving the highlands unexplored. Lake sediments records contain a diversity of proxies (e.g. Mineralogy, isotopes, pollen, charcoal, diatoms, chemicals, magnetic susceptibility, among others) and temporal resolution, making them frequently not easy to compare and leaving numerous gaps of information. Practically all stalagmites are focused on using δ18O as a proxy of effective rainfall during the Maya periods, having only some explored the role of palaeostorms and hurricanes as well as the paleoclimatology of the pre-Maya and modern periods. In this review paper, the location and temporal frame of palaeoenvironmental records of the MA and their proxies are presented, showing the zones and periods that possess environmental information and assessing their resolution. The comparison shows that more high-resolution records with a multi-proxy approach covering most of the Holocene are needed to understand the climate change in different zones of the MA. Finally, the geographic distribution of the diverse recorded hydroclimate responses based on the records is presented for three critical moments in the Maya History that have been associated with dry periods in the Great Maya Droughts hypothesis. This geographic perspective shows that dry events were not presented in all the MA during these moments although they were vastly recorded in both high- and lowlands. The geographic perspective also shows a negligible drought effect in the central lowlands for the Maya Hiatus period, where this cultural phenomenon was identified first. But signals of droughts are presented in other zones of the MA for this period. The distribution of the drought signal also shows that sites that thrived during the Maya Collapse period were in the regions that suffered the strongest droughts, whilst many sites that were abandoned were in regions rich in hydric resources. Explanations are reviewed for these contradictions. Finally, the works towards the development of mathematical models of the environmental variables are briefly reviewed, pointing out the lack of a proper computational model that has been fed by the palaeoclimatic data developed by the records in the MA.