Ancient Maya Wetland Agriculture

New Insights from Ecological and Remote Sensing Research

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11073687
AutoresKevin O Pope, Kevin Pope (0000-0002-0779-4312, autor correspondente), Bruce H Dahlin
Ano1989
Volume16
Fascículo1
Páginas87-106
Data de publicação1989-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Field Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0093-4690 • E-ISSN: 2042-4582
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/jfa.1989.16.1.87
OpenAlexW1983558151
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas63
Referências citadas26

Despite claims that ancient Maya canals are found throughout the central Maya Lowlands, our study of satellite and aircraft imagery indicates that canals are concentrated in three regions: northern Belize, southern Quintana Roo, Mexico, and along the upper Candelaria River and its tributaries in Campeche, Mexico. Earlier reports of lattices of small canals in the karstic depressions, or bajos, of Petén, Guatemala, based on the analysis of airborne radar imagery, have not been verified with other remote sensing data or by field research. Our analyses of this same airborne imagery and Seasat satellite radar imagery demonstrate that the spatial resolution of, and speckle noise in, existing radar imagery make it inadequate for mapping lattice patterns of small canals. Radar imagery and Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery were, however, useful in mapping large canals, which in most cases are connected to lattices of smaller canals. Furthermore, our analyses of wetland soils, vegetation, and hydrology confirm that canals are confined mostly to perennially moist wetlands where the water table lies near the surface in the dry season. The seasonal swamps typical of the karstic depressions in the vast interior portion of the Maya Lowlands do not contain canals; here, frequent inundation plus severe desiccation during dry periods would have made cultivation difficult and unreliable. We conclude that the majority of densely-populated Classic Maya sites were not dependent on wetland agriculture

Archaeology · Cartography · Dry season · Geography · Hydrology (agriculture · Karst · Physical geography · Remote sensing · Satellite imagery · Swamp · Thematic Mapper · Tributary · Vegetation (pathology · Wetland · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Ecology · Geology