With the National Science Foundation support, archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli and geographers David Wahl and Lysanna Anderson will conduct an interdisciplinary research study into the dynamics of environmental and climate change, and human-environmental interaction in the Maya Biosphere Reserve forest in northeastern Guatemala. This area was among the most densely settled by the Maya until 1000 years ago. The study will contribute to an ongoing effort to create a network of high-resolution reconstructions of environmental change and land use practices based on multiple lines of evidence for bio-mass burning, climate change, vegetation change, and settlement history for the Maya Lowlands spanning several millennia.
Environmental change, either anthropogenically induced and/or associated with natural climate variability, has been posited as contributing to two periods of marked population decline in the southern Maya Lowlands. The first episode occurred ~200 CE and is thought to have affected a number of large Preclassic period (2000 BCE-250 CE) centers. The second occurred at the end of the Classic period (250-900 CE) and is commonly referred as the "Maya Collapse" having interrupted 2000 years of occupation at most sites in the southern Maya lowlands. For both cases, climate change and environmental degradation have been proposed as the primary causes of extensive demographic decline.
Fire was certainly important to the Maya in landscape management and building activities, although the extent to which it was used remains largely unknown. Moreover, a full picture of the chronology and causes of environmental change during the Pre-Hispanic period has yet to emerge. Many of the records produced so far are insecurely dated, are lacking from key cultural zones, or lack sufficient temporal resolution to precisely date the timing of events and changes. Examination of these landscapes on a case-by-case basis will provide a foundation for gaining new insights into the dynamic climate/environment and human/environment relationships.
This study will provide a detailed record of human occupation and environmental change from Lake Eknaab, located in the Holmul region, an area of the Maya Lowlands where settlement began at 1000 BCE and where large urban centers flourished from 250 BCE to 900 CE. The lake is situated between two major centers: Cival, which was occupied in the Preclassic period (300 BCE- 250 CE) and Witzna whose occupation peaked in the Classic period (250-900 CE).
In order to model the effects of environmental degradation and/or climate change on the cultural trajectory of the region, this research will use a wide range of paleoenvironmental indicators in conjunction with detailed settlement history. High-resolution fossil charcoal analysis will be employed to reconstruct biomass burning, pollen will be used to indicate nearby agricultural activity, stable isotopes will serve as a proxy for climate variability, and sediment characteristics will be used to assess changes in hydrology and sedimentation regimes. Archaeological surveys and selective excavations near coring sites will augment interpretive capability of environmental proxies.
The broader impact of this study lies in its ability to 1) provide a detailed record of human-environment interactions in the history of Maya civilization, separating human impacts from climate change, and evaluate any correlation with settlement abandonments; 2) fill an important gap in our knowledge of landscape evolution and climate variability in an area of fragile wetland environments that supported human activities for millennia; 3) generate baseline archaeological data on the settlement of the Maya Lowlands.
