Maya Wetlands Ecology and Pre-Hispanic Utilization of Wetlands in Nortwestern Belize
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MAYA WETLANDS ECOLOGY AND PRE-HISPANIC UTILIZATION OF WETLANDS IN NORTHWESTERN BELIZE by Jeffrey Lee Baker _______________________ Copyright © Jeffrey Lee Baker 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Anthropology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College The University of Arizona 2 0 0 3 2 3 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This endeavor would not have been possible with the assistance and advice of a number of individuals. My committee members, Pat Culbert, John Olsen and Owen Davis, who took the time to read and comment on this work Vernon Scarborough and Tom Guderjan also commented on this dissertation and provided additional support during the work. Vernon Scarborough invited me to northwestern Belize to assist in his work examining water management practices at La Milpa. An offer that ultimately led to the current dissertation. Without Tom Guderjan’s offer to work at Blue Creek in 1996, it is unlikely that I would ever have completed my dissertation, and it is possible that I might no longer be in archaeology, a decision I would have deeply regretted. In Belize, this fieldwork was facilitated by permits from the Department of Archaeology in Belmopan to the Programme-for-Belize Archaeological Project in 1995 and 1997, and to the Blue Creek Archaeological Project in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Project directors, Fred Valdez, Nicholas Dunning and Laura Levi of the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project. Both Nicholas Dunning and Tim Beach provided valuable insight during their visit to Sierra de Agua in 1997. Financial support for this dissertation came from several sources. The bulk of the support for this project came from the National Science Foundation via a dissertation improvement grant (grant # 9631024) and grant # 9631024 awarded to Nicholas P. Dunning and Vernon L. Scarborough. The Sigma Xi small grants program also provided support for this project. Additional support came from both the Anthropology Department and the Graduate College at the University of Arizona. Volunteers and financial backers of the Maya Research Program also provided support to this research. Villagers of Blue Creek and San Felipe are owed thanks for both their hospitality and their labors. The staff, student and volunteers on the Blue Creek Project also deserve thanks for their labor, financial assistance and companionship in the field. Thanks to John Jones for analyzing the pollen core from the Sierra de Agua agauda and to Steven Bozarth for analyzing phytoliths from a soil samples from the bottom of one of the ditches at Blue Creek. Lauren Sullivan was responsible for the ceramic analysis at both Blue Creek and Sierra de Agua. Julie Kunen, Glenn Stuart and Mark deserve credit for the time they spent assisting in the field research. The questions they asked kept me thinking about ways to improve field work and raised new questions and answers in my own mind as far was what the data indicated. Chris Burton deserves thanks for volunteering to do editing the dissertation before I passed it on to my committee members. A final thanks goes to Dr. Allison Clough for taking my illness seriously, and doing her best to diagnose and cure it. 5 This dissertation is dedicated to the modern farmers of Belize. Without their labors, this work would not have been possible. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................16 CHAPTER 2 AGRICULTURAL TERMINOLOGY .........................................20 GENERAL AGRICULTURAL TERMINOLOGY .........................................20 WETLAND AGRICULTURAL TYPOLOGIES.............................................24 TYPOLOGY FOR THE PRESENT STUDY...................................................29 CHAPTER 3 HISTORY OF RESEARCH INTO MAYA AGRICULTURE ....35 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH PROBLEM AND RESEARCH DESIGN...............71 RESEARCH PROBLEM..................................................................................71 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES...........................................................................78 SEA LEVEL RISE................................................................................79 WATER TABLE RISE.........................................................................80 MISCELLANEOUS GEOLOGICAL PROCESSES ...........................81 PRESERVATION OF ORGANIC MATTER......................................82 SALINIZATION...................................................................................83 RESEARCH DESIGN......................................................................................83 CHAPTER 5 TROPICAL ECOLOGY AND WETLAND ECOLOGY.............86 TROPICAL ECOLOGY...................................................................................87 THE ECOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN BELIZE ........................................90 ECOLOGY OF THE BLUE CREEK REGION...................................97 ECOLOGY OF THE SIERRA DE AGUA REGION ..........................103 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued CLIMATE .......................................................................................................104 WETLAND ECOLOGY...................................................................................107 WETLAND HYDROLOGY............................................................................114 CHAPTER 6 PALAEOECOLOGY OF THE MAYA LOWLANDS ................121 MODERN VEGETATION AND PREHISPANIC FORESTRY.....................121 DEFORESTATION AND EROSION..............................................................123 EROSION AND INTERMITTENT WETLANDS ..........................................132 CLIMATE CHANGE.......................................................................................136 SEA LEVEL TRANSGRESSIONS .................................................................157 CHAPTER 7 ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALOGY AND THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MAYA WETLANDS ........................................................................................167 CONSTRUCTION............................................................................................168 MAINTENANCE .............................................................................................172 ABANDONMENT ...........................................................................................178 CULTIVATION OF SALT MARSHES ..........................................................180 CONCLUSIONS...............................................................................................182 CHAPTER 8 EXCAVATIONS AT SIERRA DE AGUA AND BLUE CREEK .......................................................................................................183 WETLAND AGRICULTURE AT SIERRA DE AGUA .................................184 EXCAVATIONS ..................................................................................191 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued BLUE CREEK EXCAVATIONS.....................................................................208 COMPARISON BETWEEN BLUE CREEK AND SIERRA DE AGUA.......228 CHAPTER 9 RE-EVALUATING ANCIENT MAYA WETLAND AGRICULTURE.............................................................................................233 EVALUATING THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESES .......................................234 SEA LEVEL RISE................................................................................234 WATER TABLE RISE.........................................................................237 MISCELLANEOUS GEOLOGICAL PROCESSES ...........................247 PRESERVATION OF ORGANIC MATTER......................................253 SALINIZATION...................................................................................256 EVIDENCE FOR THE CULTIVATION OF WETLANDS............................258 EVALUATING THE POHL-BLOOM MODEL .............................................261 RE-EXAMINING WETLAND AGRICULTURE...........................................261 CHAPTER 10 CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................271 APPENDIX I MAYA EPIGRAPHY AND MAYA SOCIETY ..........................276 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................285 9 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1, Shapes of ditched fields ..........................................................................33 Figure 2-2, Patterns of ditched fields.........................................................................34 Figure 3-1, Map of the Maya Lowlands showing sites discussed in the text ............42 Figure 3-2, Sites in northern Belize discussed in the text..........................................48 Figure 3-3, Profile of purported canals from the El Pedernal wetland compared with natural occurring patterns found in vertisols in Australia.................................67 Figure 5-1, Map of Lundell’s Vegetation Zones .......................................................89 Figure 5-2, Turner’s map of ecological zones within the central Maya Lowlands ...90 Figure 5-3, Dunning and Beach’s geomorphological zones within the Maya Lowlands.................................................................................................91 Figure 5-4, Photo of the Bravo Hills several kilometers west of Blue Creek............92 Figure 5-5, Aerial photo of a sinkhole within the Rio Bravo Depression .................93 Figure 5-6, Aerial photo of the Belizean Coastal Plain .............................................93 Figure 5-7, Brokaw and Mallory’s physiographic regions in northwestern