Agricultural and historical ecology of the lake region of Peten, Guatemala Item Type Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic); text Authors Wiseman, Frederick Matthew, 1948- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 06/10/2021 11:19:15 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/191049 AGRICULTURAL AND HISTORICAL ECOLOGY OF THE LAKE REGION OF PETEN, GUATEMALA by Frederick Matthew Wiseman A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1978 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Frederick Matthew Wiseman entitled AGRICULTURAL AND HISTORICAL ECOLOGY OF THE LAKE REGION OF PETEN, GUATEMALA be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 'brAit; Ix- Do-77 Dissertation Director Date As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read this dissertation and agree that it may be presented for final defense. Teti, 1 0 /97r( , Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense thereof at the final oral examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to bor- rowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or re- production of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the in- terests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: --;?2,„1„_0‹ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to those who have been most helpful during my research, the results of which are presented here. Partial support for my field work has come from the National Science Foundation through its grant (BMS 72-01859) to Dr. E. S. Deevey. Funds for laboratory analysis and computer time were kindly made available through the Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, and from Dr. Paul S. Martin (NSF grant DEB 75-13944). Dr. T. Patrick Culbert has continuously offered all possible aid in the archaeological and anthropological sections of this paper, as well as translating palynological jargon into comprehensible lan- guage. Drs. V. C. LaMarche, T. J. Blasing and Ms. Linda Drew of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research have made some order of the chaos of data through their aid in the realm of computers. Dr. A. M. Solomon has kindly assisted me in understanding the mechanics of modern pollen transport which is critical to a thorough analysis of pollen influx. Dr. Raymond R. Turner, U.S. Geological Survey, has aided this research in the areas of remote sensing and vegetation analysis. Dis- cussions with David P. Adam, Wayne Wendland, Emil Haury, Jack Ewel, Ken Petersen and others have aided in the formulation of many of the con- cepts described in this work. Betty Fink has edited and typed many sections of this and other papers. iv Finally, I wish to thank Martha Ames, whose aid in field and final preparation has allowed me to complete this work. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TLLUSTRATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES ix ABSTRACT xi 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. THE ABIOTIC BACKGROUND 4 Geological Considerations 4 Climatic Regime of the Maya Lowlands 6 Modern Climate 6 Climatic History 8 3. MODERN VEGETATION ANALYSIS 13 Field Methods 13 Numerical Classification of Sample Sites 18 Vegetation Mapping 19 Comparison of Habitat Variability -- Mayan Lowlands vs. the Sonoran Region 23 4. MODERN POLLEN ANALYSIS 28 Introduction 28 Pollen Collection and Extraction 29 5. RESULTS OF THE VEGETATION AND POLLEN ANALYSES 38 Vegetation Types 39 Type 1: Pachira apuatica-Terminalia Swamp . 39 Type 2: Mesic Forest 44 Type 3: Monsoon Forest 48 Type 4: Orbignya cohune Forest 53 Type 5: Aguada Forest Vegetation 56 Type 6: Encinal (Oak Woodland) 59 Type 7: Thorn Scrub 63 Type 8: Sahalal 64 Type 9: Nanzal 67 Type 10: Grasslands 69 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS - -Continued Page The Independent Data Set: Peten Sediment Network . 72 Sediment Network Peten-1, Aguada Tikal, Peten, Guatemala 75 Sediment Network Peten-2, Lake Petenxil, Peten, Guatemala 76 Sediment Network Peten-3, Lake Eckixil, Peten, Guatemala 81 Sediment Network Peten-3, Aguada "Libertad," Peten, Guatemala 84 Sediment Network Peten-4, Lake Oquevix, Peten, Guatemala 84 6. ETHNOECOLOGY 89 Introduction 89 The Limits to Agricultural Growth 90 The Agricultural Systems 97 System 1: Milpa Agriculture 97 System 2: Dooryard Gardens 106 System 3: Fuel Procurement 108 System 4: Hunting 110 Prehistoric Maya Subsistence 112 System 5: Intensive Milpa 115 System 6: Artificial Rain Forest 115 System 7: Arborculture 123 System 8: Terracing 124 System 9: Ridged Fields 124 Agricultural Simulation 126 Scene 1: Preclassic and Postclassic Agriculture 135 Scene 2: The Chicanel Expansion 135 Scene 3: Classic Period Intensive Agriculture • • 136 7. A DESCRIPTIVE MODEL FOR POLLEN/VEGETATION CHANGE IN THE MODERN MAYA LOWLANDS 139 Derivation of the Analog Model 141 Analog 1: The Edaphic Scale 143 Analog 2: The Successional Scale 146 Comparison of Analogs 1 and 2 148 Use of the Analog Model 149 8. FOSSIL POLLEN ANALYSIS 151 Results of the Fossil Pollen Core Analyses 152 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS--Continued Page Core P-17 Lake Petenxil, Peten, Guatemala . 152 Core P-20 Lake Petenxil, Peten, Guatemala . 153 Core E-5 Lake Eckixil, Peten, Guatemala 156 Core E-8 Lake Eckixil, Peten, Guatemala 159 The Pollen Sequence of the Lake Region of Peten • • • 159 Principal Components Analysis of Cores 162 Application of the Analogs to the Fossil Data . 166 9. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PREHISPANIC MAYA LANDSCAPE 169 A Preliminary Agricultural Sequence for the Central Peten 172 Middle and Late Preclassic, 500 B.C.-A.D. 250 (Base of Core) 172 Classic Period A.D. 250-A.D.850 174 The Terminal Classic Maize Episode 176 The Maya Collapse A.D. 800-A.D. 900 180 The Early Postclassic A.D. 900-A.D. 1300 181 The Itza Intrusion A.D. 1350-A.D. 1697 The Colonial Period 1697- 182 LIST OF REFERENCES 183 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Mean monthly precipitation, Flores, Peten 9 2. Site location map 15 3. Vegetation stand similarity index values; sites SL-1, VT-3, and VT-9 21 4. Vegetation of the central Peten 24 5. Pollen degradation rate 32 6. Pollen sample network, Lake Petenxil, Peten 78 7. Pollen sample network, Lake Oquevix, Peten 87 8. Labor input -- milpa system 99 9. Cover values for five plant classes, Site VT-5, Santa Elena, Peten 105 10. Artificial rain forest, a hypothetical reconstruction . 121 11. Program MAYAPOL flowchart 128 12. Simulation polygon used for calculating pollen influx values 129 13. Tropical agricultural systems arrayed along two edaphic gradients 134 14. The bidimensional model of modern vegetation of the Maya Lowlands 140 15. Eigenvector amplitudes of modern pollen sample sites . 145 16. Eigenvector amplitudes that describe disturbance pollen . 147 17. Agricultural indicators, Lakes Eckixil and Petenxil, Peten, Guatemala 173 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Site data, 22 LANDSAT-1 ground truth sites 16 2. Similarity index matrix for 22 LANDSAT ground-truth sites, Peten, Guatemala 20 3. Classification of sample stands derived from similarity indices 22 4. Post-collection pollen degradation in tropical soil samples 31 5. Pollen extraction method 35 6. Pollen and vegetation data, Site VT-2, Finca Eckixil, Peten 41 7. Pollen and vegetation data, Site VT-1, Petenxil, Peten • 45 8. Pollen and vegetation data, Site SL-7, La Libertad, Peten 51 9. Pollen and vegetation data, Site SL-2, Macanche, Peten . 54 10. Pollen and vegetation data, Site VT-8, Bosque el Caobal, Peten 57 11. Pollen and vegetation data, Site VT-4, Santa Marta, Peten 61 12. Pollen and vegetation data, Site SL-13, Sibun, Peten . 65 13. Pollen and vegetation data, Site VT-6, El Guanal, Peten . 68 14. Pollen and vegetation data, Site VT-7, Santa Ana Vieja, Peten 70 15. Pollen and vegetation data, Site VT-9, Pacay, Peten . 73 16. Pollen percentages of 17 statistically significant taxa, Aguada Tikal, Peten 77 17. Pollen percentages of 17 statistically significant taxa, Lake Petenxil, Peten 80 ix LIST OF TABLES--Continued Table Page 18. Pollen percentages of 17 statistically significant taxa, Lake Eckixil, Peten 83 19. Pollen percentages of 17 statistically significant taxa, Aguada Libertad, Peten 85 20. Pollen percentages of 17 statistically significant taxa, Lake Oquevix, Peten 88 21.' Important indigenous tropical cultigens, their produc- tivity, and ecological requirements 100 22. Pollen percentages of 17 statistically significant taxa, Site VT-5, Santa Elena, Peten 107 23. Mesofauna inhibiting the Maya Lowlands 111 24. Carrying capacity estimates for the Maya Lowlands . 114 25. Plants that may have been used in an "artificial rain forest" 118 26. Summary of treatments during a 100-year run of program MAYAPOL 131 27. Output of simulations: MAYAPOL program 132 28. Eigenvector weights (scalars) of 17 selected lowland pollen taxa 144 29. Pollen percentages of 17 statistically significant taxa, Core P-17, Lake Petenxil, Peten 30.