Dissertation: Water Resource Management by the Ancient Maya of Yucatan, Mexico

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Heather McKillop, Mr. Terance Winemiller will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological survey, mapping, excavation, and surface collections at 22 Maya sites located throughout northern Yucatan, Mexico. From the earliest ancient Maya occupation of the Yucatan Peninsula to the development of cities, the scarcity of surface water was a fundamental consideration in locational decisions. Environmental conditions commonly cited as factors that limit dispersal of human populations and stimulate centralization, such as extreme aridity, are not characteristic of the region. Several scholars have related the seasonality and scarcity of water with centralization and the rise of Maya civilization on the peninsula. Mr. Winemiller constructs a spatial predictive tool using existing site reports, maps, satellite imagery, air photos, the latest geographical information systems technology, and locational statistics to test whether Wittfogel's hydraulic society model and Carneiro's circumscription model account for the appearance of centralized elite administrative centers in an environment where other models predict widely dispersed small-scale settlements. By design, the study takes advantage of a large body of published data pertaining to this research. The project, a regional settlement pattern study, includes five operational goals: collection of existing data housed in INAH regional offices; verification of spatial data recorded on existing site maps, and collecting GPS coordinates for principal architecture and water management features at 12 upper-ranked sites; intensive surveys of nine upper-ranked sites one from each of nine physiographic districts in the region including interpretation of air photos, satellite imagery, and geological, topographical, and hydrological maps, and GPS site mapping, and develop intrasite resource access and usage models; survey and GPS mapping of nine third or fourth-ranked sites by physiographic district; test by ground survey whether parts of northern Yucatan having no documented settlements but evidence of potential water catchment areas contain cultural features such as the mounded remains of structures, structures, or water-management features. If population growth precipitated the establishment of organizational hierarchies based on control, development, and distribution of water, this research should document recurrent patterns of clustered elite administrative hierarchies around natural sources of water and evidence of public works to divert or store water within the spatial core of cities. Mr. Winemiller's study will ultimately provide academics with a substantive appraisal of water-resource management systems employed by the ancient Maya of northern Yucatan, Mexico. It will also assist in training a promising young scientist.