Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T02:02:21.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ancient Maya Agricultural Terracing in the Upper Belize River Area

Computer-aided modeling and the results of initial field investigations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Scott L. Fedick
Scott L. Fedick
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent archaeological surveys in the upper Belize River area have documented high overall settlement densities, albeit with an uneven distribution. Analyses have defined clear relationships between the distribution of land resources of varying agricultural capability and the density of ancient residential sites. However, these investigations did not provide direct physical evidence for cultivation techniques, particularly for the intensive methods that were probably employed in areas of prime land resources and high settlement density. The discovery in 1991 of terracing in direct association with a residential site prompted further investigations into the distribution of terrace systems throughout the area. The development of a computerized Geographic Information System (GIS) facilitated the prediction of terrace distributions on the basis of slope, soil type, and the parent material from which soils form. Initial field testing of the terrace-distribution model in 1992 resulted in the identification of 13 terrace systems, all situated on low slopes in soils developed on consolidated limestone. A variety of terrace systems were identified, including small, intricate patterns of “box terraces,” contour terraces, and cross-channel terraces. Locational data on these systems were used to modify the terrace-distribution model in anticipation of further field investigations. The results allow new insights into the structure of ancient Maya land use and settlement in the area, while illustrating a method that can be used to quantify landscape characteristics, thereby facilitating comparisons between local areas within a regional context.

Type
Special Section: Classic Maya Landscape Archaelogy
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 1994 , pp. 107 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, Kathleen M.S., Green, Stanton W., and Zubrow, Ezra B.W. 1990 Interpreting Space: GIS and Archaeology. Taylor and Francis, London.Google Scholar
Baillie, I.C., Wright, A.C.S., Holder, M.A., and FitzPatrick, E.A. 1993 Revised Classification of the Soils of Belize. Bulletin No. 59. Natural Resources Institute, Overseas Development Administration, Chatham Maritime, Kent, England.Google Scholar
Ball, Joseph W., and Kelsay, Richalene G. 1992 Prehistoric Intrasettlement Land Use and Residual Soil Phosphate Levels in the Upper Belize Valley, Central America. In Gardens of Prehistory: The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica, edited by Killion, Thomas W., pp. 234–262. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Birchall, C.J., and Jenkin, R.N. 1979 The Soils of the Belize Valley, Belize. Supplementary Report No. 15. Overseas Development Administration, Land Resources Development Centre, Surbiton, England.Google Scholar
Burrough, P.A. 1986 Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment. Clarendon Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chase, Arlen F., and Chase, Diane Z. 1987 Investigations at the Classic Maya City of Caracol, Belize: 1985–1987. Monograph No. 3. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Darch, J.P., and Furley, P.A. 1983 Observations on the Nature of Sascab and Associated Soils in Cayo and Orange Walk Districts, Belize and in El Peten, Guatemala. In Resources and Development in Belize: An Account of the University of Edinburgh Expedition to Central America, 1981, edited by Robinson, G.M. and Furley, P.A., pp. 179–221. Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald A. 1980 Soils and Land Use Planning. Longman, London.Google Scholar
Dent, David, and Young, Anthony 1981 Soil Survey and Land Evaluation. George Allen & Unwin, London.Google Scholar
DMS (Director of Military Survey) 1980 Belize, Scale 1:50,000, Sheet 24 (topographic map). Series E755 (D.O.S. 4499), edition 6-GSGS. DMS, Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London.Google Scholar
Donkin, R.A. 1979 Agricultural Terracing in the Aboriginal New World. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Drennan, Robert D. 1988 Household Location and Compact Versus Dispersed Settlement in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. In Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past, edited by Wiik, Richard R. and Ashmore, Wendy, pp. 273–293. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas P. 1990 Prehispanic Maya Settlement Patterns of the Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas P. 1991 Ancient Anthrosols of the Maya Lowlands: A Reexamination of Regional Variability in the Prehispanic Agricultural Landscape. Paper presented at the Conference on Ancient Maya Agriculture and Biological Resource Management, Riverside, CA.Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas P. 1992 Lords of the Hills: Ancient Maya Settlement in the Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico. Prehistory Press, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas P., and Beach, Timothy 1994 Soil Erosion, Slope Management, and Ancient Terracing in the Maya Lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 5, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) 1989 Users Guide. TIN. ARC/INFO Surface Modeling and Display. ESRI, Redlands, CA.Google Scholar
Fedick, Scott L. 1988 Prehistoric Maya Settlement and Land Use Patterns in the Upper Belize River Area, Belize, Central America. Ph.D. dissertation, Arizona State University, Tempe. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Fedick, Scott L. 1989 The Economics of Agricultural Land Use and Settlement inthe Upper Belize Valley. In Prehistoric Maya Economies of Belize, edited by McAnany, Patricia A. and Isaac, Barry L., pp. 215–253. Research in Economic Anthropology, supplement No. 4. JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.Google Scholar
Fedick, Scott L. 1994 Land Evaluation and Ancient Maya Land Use in the Upper Belize River Area, Belize, Central America. Latin American Antiquity 5, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fedick, Scott L., and Ford, Anabel 1990 The Prehistoric Agricultural Landscape of the Central Maya Lowlands: An Examination of Local Variability in a Regional Context. World Archaeology 22:18–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, Anabel 1990 Maya Settlement in the Belize River Area: Variations in Residence Patterns of the Central Maya Lowlands. In Precolumbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick and Rice, Don S., pp. 167–181. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Ford, Anabel 1991 Economic Variation of Ancient Maya Residential Settlement in the Upper Belize River Area. Ancient Mesoamerica 2:35–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, Anabel, and Fedick, Scott L. 1992 Prehistoric Maya Settlement Patterns in the Upper Belize River Area: Initial Results of the Belize River Archaeological Settlement Survey. Journal of Field Archaeology 19:35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gann, Thomas W.F. 1925 Mystery Cities. Exploration and Adventure in Lubaantun. Scribner, New York.Google Scholar
Gomez Pompa, Arturo 1987 On Maya Silviculture. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 3(1):1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, David 1989 A Geographical Information System for Land Resource Management in Belize. In Advances in Environmental and Biogeographical Research in Belize, edited by Furley, Peter A., pp. 119–129. Biogeographical Monographs No. 3. Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman, and Ashmore, Wendy 1981 Lowland Maya Settlement: Geographical and Chronological Frameworks. In Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns, edited by Ashmore, Wendy, pp. 19–36. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hartshorn, G., Nicolait, L., Hartshorn, L., Bevier, G., Brightman, R., Cal, J., Cawich, A., Davidson, W., DuBois, R., Dyer, C., Gibson, J., Hawley, W., Leonard, J., Nicolait, R., Weyer, D., White, H., and Wright, C. 1984 Belize Country Environmental Profile: A Field Study. Robert Nicolait & Associates, Belize City, Belize.Google Scholar
Healy, Paul F. 1986 Ancient Maya Agricultural Terraces: New Evidence from Belize. Paper presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Healy, Paul F. 1990 Excavations at Pacbitun, Belize: Preliminary Report on the 1986 and 1987 Investigations. Journal of Field Archaeology 17:247–262.Google Scholar
Healy, Paul F., Lambert, John D.H., Arnason, J.T., and Hebda, Richard J. 1983 Caracol, Belize: Evidence of Ancient Maya Agricultural Terraces. Journal of Field Archaeology 10:397–410.Google Scholar
Healy, Paul F., Waarden, C. van, and Anderson, T.J. 1980 Nueva evidencia de antiguas terrazas mayas en Belice. América Indígena 40:773–796.Google Scholar
Holdridge, L.R., Grenke, W.C., Hatheway, W.H., Liang, T., and Tosi, J.A. Jr. 1971 Forest Environments in Tropical Life Zones: A Pilot Study. Pergamon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Jenkin, R.N., Innes, R. Rose, Dunsmore, J.R., Walker, S.H., Birchall, C.J., and Briggs, J.S. 1976 The Agricultural Development Potential of the Belize Valley. Land Resources Study No. 24. Land Resources Division, Ministry of Overseas Development, Surbiton, England.Google Scholar
JamesJudge, W. Judge, W., and Sebastian, Lynne 1988 Quantifying the Present and Predicting the Past: Theory, Method, and Application of Archaeological Predictive Modeling. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Denver.Google Scholar
Killion, Thomas W. 1992 The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture. In Gardens of Prehistory: The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica, edited by Killion, Thomas W., pp. 1–13. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Killion, Thomas W., Sabloff, Jeremy A., Tourtellot, Gair, and Dunning, Nicholas P. 1989 Intensive Surface Collection of Residential Clusters at Terminal Classic Sayil, Yucatan. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:273–294.Google Scholar
Kvamme, Kenneth L. 1988 Development and Testing of Quantitative Models. In Quantifying the Present and Predicting the Past: Theory, Method, and Application of Archaeological Predictive Modeling, edited by Judge, W. James and Sebastian, Lynne, pp. 325–428. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Denver.Google Scholar
Kvamme, Kenneth L. 1989 Geographic Information Systems in Regional Archaeological Research and Data Management. In Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 1, edited by Schiffer, Michael B., pp. 139–203. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Lundell, Cyrus L. 1933 The Agriculture of the Maya. Southwest Review 19:65–77.Google Scholar
Lundell, Cyrus L. 1940 The 1936 Michigan-Carnegie Botanical Expedition to British Honduras. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 522, pp. 1–58. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia A. 1992 Agricultural Tasks and Tools: Patterns of Stone Tool Discard Near Prehistoric Residences Bordering Pulltrouser Swamp, Belize. In Gardens of Prehistory: The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica, edited by Killion, Thomas W., pp. 184–213. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Morley, Sylvanus G. 1946 The Ancient Maya. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.Google Scholar
Muhs, Daniel R., Kautz, Robert R., and MacKinnon, J. Jefferson 1985 Soils and the Location of Cacao Orchards at a Maya Site in Western Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science 12:121–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nair, P.K.R. (editor) 1989 Agroforestry Systems in the Tropics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nations, James D., and Nigh, Ronald B. 1980 The Evolutionary Potential of Lacandon Maya Sustained-Yield Tropical Forest Agriculture. Journal of Anthropological Research 36:1–30.Google Scholar
ODA (Overseas Development Administration) 1973a Belize, Scale 1:50,000, Sheet 18 (topographic map). Series E755 (D.O.S. 4499), edition 3-D.O.S. 1973. ODA, Directorate of Overseas Surveys, Surbiton, England.Google Scholar
ODA (Overseas Development Administration) 1973b Belize, Scale 1:50,000, Sheet 19 (topographic map). Series E755 (D.O.S. 4499), edition 3-D.O.S. 1973. ODA, Directorate of Overseas Surveys, Surbiton, England.Google Scholar
ODA (Overseas Development Administration) 1973c Belize, Scale 1:50,000, Sheet 23 (topographic map). Series E755 (D.O.S. 4499), edition 4-D.O.S. 1973. ODA, Directorate of Overseas Surveys, Surbiton, England.Google Scholar
Ower, Leslie H. 1927 Features of British Honduras. The Geographical Journal 70:372–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ower, Leslie H. 1928 The Geology of British Honduras. The Clarion, British Honduras.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricketson, Oliver G., and Ricketson, Edith Bayles 1937 Uaxactun, Guatemala: Group E—1926–1931. Publication No. 477. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ruppert, Karl, and Denison, John H. Jr. 1943 Archaeological Reconnaissance in Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Peten. Publication No. 543. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Schufeldt, P.W. 1950 Reminiscences of a Chiclero. In Morleyana, A Collection of Writings in Memoriam: Sylvanus G. Morley, 1883–1948, pp. 224–229. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Soil Survey Staff 1951 Soil Survey Manual. Agriculture Handbook No. 18. Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Soil Survey Staff 1975 Soil Taxonomy: A Basic System of Soil Classification for Making and Interpreting Soil Surveys. Agriculture Handbook No. 436. Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1931 Archaeological Investigations in the Southern Cayo District, British Honduras. Publication No. 301. Anthropological Series Vol. 17, No. 3. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B.L. II. 1974 Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Mayan Lowlands: New Evidence from the Rio Bec Region. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B.L. II. 1978 Ancient Agricultural Land Use in the Central Maya Lowlands. In Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture, edited by Harrison, Peter D. and Turner, B.L. II., pp. 163–183. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Turner, B.L. II 1979 Prehispanic Terracing in the Central Maya Lowlands: Problems of Agricultural Intensification. In Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by Hammond, Norman and Willey, Gordon R., pp. 103–115. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilken, Gene C. 1987 Good Farmers: Traditional Agricultural Resource Management in Mexico and Central America. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R., and Bullard, William R. 1965 Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Maya Lowlands. In Archaeology of Southern Mesoamerica, pt. 1, edited by Willey, Gordon R., pp. 360–377. Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 2, R. Wauchope, general editor. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R., Bullard, William R. Jr., Glass, John B., and Gifford, James C. 1965 Prehistoric Maya Settlement in the Belize Valley. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. LIV. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Wright, A.C.S., Romney, D.H., Arbuckle, R.H., and Vial, V.E. 1959 Land in British Honduras: Report of the British Honduras Land Survey Team. Colonial Research Publications No. 24. Colonial Office, London.Google Scholar