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Control of the Landscape by the Ancient Maya in Northwestern Belize

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Control of the Landscape by the Ancient Maya in Northwestern Belize 9 EARLY ONSET ANTHROPOCENE: CONTROL OF THE LANDSCAPE BY THE ANCIENT MAYA IN NORTHWESTERN BELIZE Thomas Guderjan, Joshua Kwoka, Colleen Hanratty, Timothy Beach, Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Samantha Krause, Sara Eshleman, Thomas Ruhl and Colin Doyle By the Early Classic, Maya peoples had developed near-absolute control over their landscape. They had modified wetlands into large-scale ditched agricultural systems. Uplands had been reconfigured into high population residential groups with local public nodes that connected the residents with the kingly power centers of plaza-pyramid complexes. We will show how ground truthing and other investigations confirm the results of the 2016 survey by the Northwest Belize LiDAR Consortium. Introduction In this paper, we summarize data from the Xnoha Survey Block of 2016 LiDAR survey (Figure 1) conducted by the Northwestern Belize LiDAR Consortium1. The Xnoha Survey Block includes approximately 40 sq. kms and is centered on the Central Precinct on the Maya site of Xnoha (Guderjan et al., 2016). Evidence from the LiDAR survey and subsequent ground truthing indicate that the entire or nearly the entire Xnoha block had become a highly human modified and managed landscape, probably by the Early Classic period, though our temporal information is still rudimentary. Our evidence suggests that the areas around the Xnoha site center were inhabited by a much larger population than previously thought. These people constructed residences that were bounded by linear stone boundary markers (LSBMs) enclosing as much as a hectare of space surrounding each residence. These residences were organized into neighborhoods and the residents constructed terraces and ownership Figure 1. The Xnoha Survey Block superimposed on markers across the slopes that bounded their Google Earth imagery, showing its location in northwestern neighborhoods. Where appropriate, they also Belize. constructed ditched, intensive agricultural fields at the bases of slopes and especially in the human construction. Both are clearly present in eastern margin of the Alacranes Bajo which the Xnoha block. covers more than 500 kms2 of northwestern Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. Xnoha and the Landscapes of the Xnoha Given these data, we argue that the Block Classic Maya represent a case of an early phase Xnoha is located in northwestern Belize, of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is near the Mexican border where Xnoha Creek defined broadly as the geological period when joins the Rio Hondo drainage. It is on the humans became the most impactful force of highest point in Belize north of La Milpa and the change of landscapes of our planet. Markers of highest point and mid-way between the the Anthropocene include reduction of Alacranes Bajo and the Rio Bravo Escarpement. biodiversity and lasting landscapes changes by The bedrock of the area is limestone and its Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology, Vol. 17, 2020, pp. 105-117. Copyright © 2020 by the Institute of Archaeology, NICH, Belize. Control of the Landscape in Northwestern Belize present form evolved through a series of uplift (aka, Blue Creek Archaeological Project) which and erosional processes. Consequently, the culminated in a summary volume (Lohse 2013) topography consists of mixed upland hills that and Jason Gonzalez’s doctoral dissertation on are rugged and rocky and flat lowlands (bajos) Xnoha (2013). which have deep and highly fertile, calcareous More recent excavations have been soils. While it has no direct access to undertaken by the Blue Creek Archaeological waterways, in the rainy season, the Rio Hondo Project from 2012 through 2018 and it is likely flows 4 kms. north of the site. The public that the project will undertake additional precinct occupies most of a large hilltop fieldwork at Xnoha in the future. A brief separated from four others by heavy summary of the work through 2015 was downcutting into the Alacranes Bajo and the Rio published in the BAAS volume for that year Hondo drainage system. West of Xnoha and the (Guderjan, et al., 2016). Xnoha Survey Block, we have documented The central precinct of Xnoha consists of intensive and consistent settlement (Hammond a large, irregularly shaped plaza approximately 2019) terminating in clusters of public 150 meters, SW-NE, and 100 meters, SE-NW. architecture such as Tulix Mul (Hammond 2019, The east side of the plaza is well defined by a 70 Helmke, et al. 2019). Both of these are located m long range building, Structure 1, with on the edge of the Alacranes Bajo. South of the uncarved stelae on both its east and west sides. Xnoha Survey Block, we have seen, but not The south and west sides of the plaza are defined formally documented similar density of by the pyramidal Structures 2 and 3. North of settlement until reaching the site of Bedrock, Structure 1 is Structure 10, where recent located at a strategic mid-point of the Dumbbell excavations have revealed evidence of a now Bajo. A few kilometers to the east of Xnoha lies destroyed set of masks adorning the façade of the Blue Creek polity. the building (Pastrana 2019). Also, on the main Xnoha, along with Bedrock, are the two plaza, at the base of the Acropolis Courtyard are largest site centers in this area and both are best a pair of buildings, Strs. 15 and 16, that have thought of as minor centers (Bullard 1954; doorways, rooms and benches. This being an Marken 2105). Xnoha incorporates outlying unlikely place for residences, they have been clusters of large masonry architecture that misidentified as a ballcourt. housed non-royal, elite lineages such at Tulix Above and west of Strs. 15 and 16, is the Mul, Nojol Nah, Mulaan and Krohntown Acropolis Courtyard on top of a hill about 7 (Guderjan, et al., 2016; see also Guderjan and meters above the plaza. This is centered on a Hanratty 2006 for a discussion of non-royal, single monumental building, Str. 22. On the elite lineages). frontal façade of this building, a pair of plaster Xnoha was shown to Thomas Guderjan masks were excavated in 2017 and 2018. As and Froyla Salam (now Tzalam) while they were this paper refers mostly to the region around conducting initial site identification and Xnoha, they will be reported in a more mapping in the Rio Bravo Conservation Area as appropriate setting. Ongoing excavations in well as locations north and south of the front of Str. 22 are revealing deeply buried conservation area in 1990 (Guderjan 1991). At earlier construction including a Late Preclassic that time, relocating the site was problematic round shrine (Leonard 2019). due to the circuitous route taken by the person Both to the east and to the west of the who guided them and as GPS technologies were main plaza are two elite residential groups not in existence. Their guide was a member of EERG-Eastern Elite Residential Group and the Quatro Leguas Mennonite community, a part WERG-Western Elite Residential Group), both of the larger Blue Creek Village community. interestingly anchored by the earliest buildings Over several years, attempts were taken to constructed at Xnoha’s Central Precinct, two relocate Xnoha without success, until the same Late Preclassic Shrines (Lincoln 2019). informant brought Jon Lohse to the site in 2002. Surrounding central Xnoha are four This began field work from 2002-2005 by the neighborhoods roughly at the cardinal directions Blue Creek Regional Political Ecology Project from the central precinct. These are the NEWS 106 Guderjan et al. Figure 2. Xnoha Survey Block surface model image based on LiDAR obtained in 2016. (North, East, West and South neighborhoods) residential settlement and is the primary focus of and the North and West Neighborhoods are this paper. The third are the slopes of these central parts of this discussion. upland area which appear to have been terraced in their entirety. The fourth use of space are the Upland Neighborhoods in the Xnoha Survey agricultural lands marked by ancient Maya Block ditches which have also been identified visually The Xnoha Survey Block covers 39.8 sq. and confirmed by LiDAR data. kms. (Figure 2). Our terrestrial surveys, Digital survey and digitization efforts are combined with visual aerial survey and the 2016 ongoing, but at present 2,167 structures have LiDAR data (see Beach, et al, 2019 for been identified within the 39.8 sq. kms. Xnoha methodology) indicate that there is a near Survey Block, for a structure density of at least complete absence of ancient vacant space. 54.4 per km2 (Kwoka, et al., in press). For There are four types of space usage to be comparison, this figure exceeds regional considered in this paper. The first is the kawik structure density figures for some of the major or Central Precinct of the site of Xnoha Classic period (AD 300-850) sites, including El- (Guderjan, et al., 2016) which was briefly Perú-Waka’, Tintal, Uaxactun, Xultun, and El discussed earlier. The second is the upland areas Zotz (Canuto, et al., 2018, Table 4). While these that are entirely covered by the remains of regions contain much larger sites and buildings, 107 Control of the Landscape in Northwestern Belize the data support the view of a densely settled features, there is much space that is seemingly landscape that would be classified as rural empty when LiDAR data are viewed casually. within a traditional settlement dichotomy. An However, we argue that the spaces bounded by unexpected result of the LiDAR survey was the LSDM’s and centered on residential structures detection of extensive networks of linear stone are solarés, the external space essential to each features, 84.9 linear km of which have been residence. There are both ethnographic and identified to date. Many of these features appear archaeological traditions focused on the study of to delineate residential space and are similar in solarés (Guderjan 2016).
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