Long-Term Human Land, Forest, and Water Management in a Tropical Environment

University Of Cincinnati Main Campus, Cincinnati OH

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this research is to understand the processes which led to the emergence of complex large scale social groups in tropical environments. The researchers wish to understand the land and water management strategies that support such occurrences in regions of potentially low carrying capacity. Archaeology provides a valuable way to gain insight because it has the potential to trace such processes over extend periods of time. A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati together with an international group of colleagues have identified a site, which through excavation and field research will permit them to achieve this goal. Investigation of the hydraulic, agricultural, and forest management strategies that allowed the persistent occupation in the face of changing environmental and political economic conditions will provide insights that will broaden understanding of the rise of social complexity, the expansion of political economy specifically and, in general terms, the trajectory of cultural evolution. The research will provide for training of graduate students and the results will be disseminated through institutional websites, popular media, undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as through scientific journals and conference presentations. The archaeological site of Yaxnohcah located in the Mayan lowlands provides a test case. It grew into a large urban center early in the Preclassic period, survived a broader regional collaples and continued to be occupied in later prehistoric times. It is hypothesized that the complex topography associated with Yaxnohcah's location between two bajos,(lowland swampy areas) as well as the many embayments created a landscape with a great diversity of drainage and soil types and forest cover that provided early occupants with an ideal location to experiment with a wide array of cultigens and management practices that were adapted over time to changing environmental and cultural circumstances. In particular, the research addresses the development of hydraulic systems at Yaxnohcah, especially as they contributed to agricultural activity, forest clearance and exploitation of the bajos. The acquisition of LiDAR imagery of the site area and environs in 2014 allows selection of a variety of topographic settings, probable ancient agricultural fields, reservoirs/aguadas, and residential areas for excavation and coring, thus providing data on resource management across the spectrum of environmental contexts and social strata present at Yaxnohcah.