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Ancient Maya Landscapes in Northwestern Belize

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Ancient Maya Landscapes in Northwestern Belize 650 SPECIAL SECTION Temple mountains, sacred lakes, and fertile fields: ancient Maya landscapes in northwestern Belize NICHOLASDUNNING, VERNON SCARBOROUGH, FRED VALDEZ, JR, SHERYLLUZZADDER-BEACH, TIMOTHY BEACH & JOHN G. JONES* Key-words: Maya archaeology, cultural ecology, landscape analysis ‘Intimate knowledge of historical sources, archaeo- ment interactions in this region. However, in logical sites, biogeography and ecology, and the proc- studying human-environment relationships esses of geoniorphology must be fused in patient field ‘nature’cannot be taken only as a self-evident studies, so that we may read the changes in habit- object available for human management. Na- ability through human time for the lands in which ture as an object for human action is mediated civilization first took form’ SAUER1955: 61 by culture. In turn, culture cannot be seen as unitary, bounded and internally homogeneous. Introduction Both individual and group perceptions shaped Forty-three years later these words still ring true, human-environment actions and may be mani- but are too seldom followed (Fedick 1996). For fest in the landscape. How nature was rendered several years, we have been engaged in a multi- culturally intelligible by landscape manipula- disciplinary programme of research in north- tion had important consequences for whose western Belize and neighbouring areas of ‘voices’ are heard and whose claims are legiti- Guatemala, eliciting a comprehensive, integrated mated amid struggles over the control of vital picture of changing ancient Maya landscapes resources (Bender 1992; Thomas 1993). (Scarborough & Dunning 1996; Valdez et al. The ancient landscapes created by the Maya 1997). Our goals include a reconstructive cor- included both intentional and unintentional relation of environmental and cultural history, environmental changes. Intentional changes including the relationship between changes in included the centrally directed erection of water and land management and political eco- monumental architecture as well as the accre- nomic organization. This work is still in progress tionary engineering of the landscape by gen- and our understanding is far from complete erations of farmers. Unintentional effects (Dunning & Scarborough 1997). included sometimes devastating soil loss and This article centres on changing landscapes hydrological changes. Both the intentional and at the major centres of La Milpa and Dos unintentional must be read for the landscape Hombres and surrounding lands (FIGURE1). to provide a more comprensive picture of Maya These centres lie within the Three Rivers re- civilization. gion, where the Rio Azul, Rio Bravo and Booth’s Our research views landscape as a layered River converge to form the Rio Hondo on the artefact, reflecting cumulative processes of eastern periphery of the Central Maya Lowlands human action and environmental change. The (Adams 1995a). Recent work, partly covered later phases of modification will generally be here, focuses on the course of human-environ- the most readily discernable to investigators. * Dunning, Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221-0131, USA. Scarborough, Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221-0380, USA. Valdez, Jr, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712, USA. Luzzadder-Beach, Department of Geography & Earth Science, George Mason University, Fairfax VA 22030, USA. Beach, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington DC 20057, USA. Jones, Department of Anthropology, Texas A & M University, College Station TX 77843-4352, USA. ANTIQUITY73 (1999): 650-60 DYNAMIC LANDSCAPES AND SOCIO-POLITICAL PROCESS 651 0 5 10 20 kilometers The TheRivers Region - River - - - Three Rivers Region Boundary Bravo Conservation and ManagementKO Area FIGURE1. Map of the --- Modem Political Boundary Three Rivers region showing the locations A Major Archaeological Site of major ancient Maya centres [modi- fied from Houk 1996). I Thus, our discussion here gives particular and Booth’s River that encompass low, lime- emphasis to the landscape which took shape stone ridges and large, perennial wetlands. The between AD 700 and 900 (the later part of the La Milpa site centre is situated on a topo- Late Classic and first part of the Terminal Classic graphically prominent ridge of the upland pla- periods). teau; the Dos Hombres site centre occupies a low, but locally prominent rise amid the Rio The Three Rivers region Bravo lowlands. The Three Rivers region includes the eastern Soils on the limestone uplands are fertile, margins of the large Peten karst plateau, a but shallow clay mollisols or rendzinas, which hydrologically elevated limestone area charac- are vulnerable to erosion where they occur on terized by rugged free-draining uplands and sloping terrain (Dunning 1992a). Bajo and low- seasonally-inundated, clay-filled depressions land soils are deep clay vertisols, mollisols and (bajos) (Dunning et al. in press). It also includes organic mucks (histosols). These soils are also the generally low-lying valleys of the Rio Bravo often fertile, but subject to significant drain- 652 SPECIAL SECTION FIGURE2. Map of the La Milpa site centre and major drainages [modified from Scarborough et al. 1992; 1995). age limitations or shrink-swell (argilloturbation) groups of farmers, who may already have be- problems. gun significantly altering the local environment Regional native vegetation ranges from per- by clearing large areas of forest using swidden ennial Swamp Forest and grasslands in the low- cultivation. lands to Tropical Wet/Dry Deciduous Forest Urbanization and associated landscape modi- across the uplands (Brokaw & Mallory 1993). fications came to the region during the Late The latter reflects the powerful influence of a Preclassic-Protoclassic (400 BC-m 250) (Adams regional climate that includes a prominent June- 1995a). At La Milpa, a significant investment December wet season which typically sees about in monumental architecture took shape around 90% of the average annual rainfall of 1500 mm, Plaza A (the Great Plaza), including multiple and a January-May dry season. The severity of construction phases on Structure 1, a large this dry season poses a significant obstacle to pyramid-temple (FIGURE2; Guderjan 1991; human occupation of the karstic uplands, where Hammond et al. 1996).At Dos Hombres, monu- perennial water sources are few and far between. mental architecture appeared, similarly clus- tered in the northern site core or Group A (FIGURE Pre-classic developments 3; Houk 1996). These large northern plazas The earliest cultural remains uncovered in the continued to be the foci of funerary monument Three Rivers region are ephemeral, non-struc- construction throughout the subsequent occu- tural artefact deposits dating to the Middle pation of these sites. A primary impetus to- Preclassic period (900-400 BC). Based on com- wards settlement concentration at this time may parative data from other parts of the Maya Low- be described as a desired proximity to the sa- lands, this period was characterized by small cred (Wheatley 1967: 25). However, more mun- DYNAMIC LANDSCAPES AND SOCIO-POLITICAL PROCESS 653 I I .%. I i I ,* i FIGURE3. Map of Dos Hombres site centre (modified from Houk 1996). 654 SPECIAL SECTION kbarwl -__7 , ferny ,/--AquQ'~cs / //7i-- 2 FIGURE4. Summarypollen diagram for 1998 Core 1 from Laguna Juan Piojo near Dos Hombres (prepared by John G. Jones, Texas A b M University). dane factors undoubtedly were involved in this BC-AD 90 (Beta-120942) was obtained from or- process, including the concentration of popu- ganic sediment at a depth of 10 cm. We inter- lation in areas where the environment had been pret the 25-cm pollen record shown in FIGURE 'tamed'. It was during the Late Preclassic that 4 to represent the period from approximately the institution of Maya divine kingship first 500 BC to AD 1000. All strata show disturbance emerged (Schele & Freidel1990). The relation- indicators typical of the Maya Lowlands: e.g. ship of Maya rulers with gods and the celestial Poaceae (grasses) and Asteraceae (asters), as- realm was highly complex, including impersona- sociated with Zea (maize) cultivation. Maize tion rituals and the exclusive possession by rul- pollen levels are as high as anywhere in the ers of special imagery believed to be receptacles Maya Lowlands, possibly indicating nearby of divine forces. The settlement cores of both La intensive cultivation. Arboreal pollen levels in- Milpa and Dos Hombres appear to have remained dicate that deforestation was widespread quite small during the Late Preclassic, apparently throughout the period, but with patches of tree clustering around the small concentration of cover remaining, including some economic monumental architecture, accompanied by light, species such as Sapotaceae (Zapote and related dispersed rural population. species). Our understanding of environmental change Greater understanding of local environmental in the Three Rivers region is limited because change derives from geoaracheological inves- our most comprehensive pollen record is from tigations (Dunning et a]. 1996; Dunning & a highly compressed sediment core (FIGURE4). Scarborough 1997; Dunning & Beach 1996; in The core was taken from Laguna de Juan Piojo, press). Our investigations in bajos at the mouths an apparent oxbow lake situated in the Rio Bravo of Drainage 1 and 3 at La Milpa revealed sig- floodplain west of Dos Hombres. The upper nificant episodes of
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