Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Agricultural Consumption Patterns and Formative Period Sociopolitical Developments at the Maya Site of San Estevan

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Mary Pohl will supervise Daniel Seinfeld's dissertation project that examines the relationship between food consumption patterns and the origins of social and political complexity among the ancient Maya at the site of San Estevan, northern Belize. The transition from the Middle (900-300 B.C.) to the Late Formative period (300 B.C.-A.D. 300) witnessed the development of hierarchical rulership at sites throughout Northern Belize, including San Estevan. During this time villages developed into cities that were ruled by an elite class who built monumental architecture and espoused an ideology claiming privileges because of supernatural connections. Mr. Seinfeld's work will clarify how agricultural and dietary practices may have changed with these developments by tracking food consumption patterns during the Middle through Late Formative periods at San Estevan. This investigation will involve paleobotanical (ancient plant remains) and molecular analyses of materials excavated from domestic middens dating to the Middle and Late Formative periods at the site. The project will employ an innovative combination of paleobotanical and molecular techniques to study ancient food consumption. Analysis will integrate data from paleobotanical macroremains with two forms of molecular analysis (bulk stable carbon isotope analysis and compound-specific stable carbon isotope analysis) aimed at detecting maize residues absorbed in ceramics. These analyses work because maize has a distinct isotopic signature from most other terrestrial plants in the area. Changes in agricultural consumption patterns will be determined by comparing the results of paleobotanical and molecular analyses on materials from Middle and Late Formative period midden contexts. The project's intellectual merit is to improve understanding of how agricultural and dietary practices relate to wider changes in a culture's ideology and sociopolitical organization. The innovative combination of methods used to explore ancient food consumption patterns may be used in future studies. This project will have broader impacts beyond its immediate research goals by contributing to the wider academic community and by training graduate and undergraduate students. The current project is part of a wider research endeavor at San Estevan involving faculty and students from multiple universities studying political economy and subsistence at the site. Results will be presented in a dissertation that will be available online along with a database of the analytical results. Data from this dissertation project will also be disseminated to the wider academic community through publications and conference presentations in the United States and Belize. The availability of the data will benefit researchers conducting comparative studies of subsistence practices. To complete this project, Mr. Seinfeld will receive training in paleobotanical analysis and advanced molecular analysis techniques. The project will also provide training opportunities for undergraduate volunteers to assist in sorting paleobotanical macroremains and preparing samples for molecular analysis.