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LATE CLASSIC MAYA DRAINAGE AND FLOOD CONTROL AT COPAN, HONDURAS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2006

Karla L. Davis-Salazar
Karla L. Davis-Salazar
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, SOC 107, Tampa, FL 33620-8100, USA
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Abstract

Recent research on pre-Hispanic Maya water management has revealed a diverse array of water-control techniques that were employed in the Maya Lowlands. Since much of this research has focused on water management for consumption and agriculture, other forms of water management—namely, for drainage and flood control—remain poorly understood. This report describes the various water-control techniques dedicated to drainage and flood control at Late Classic Copan, Honduras (a.d. 600–900), and explores the social implications of this form of water control. Technological variation in water control throughout urban Copan and between Copan and Palenque, the other major Maya center where drainage and flood control have been investigated, suggests that water management at Copan may have been organized differentially across the urban center.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 125 - 138
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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