Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T13:54:27.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temple mountains, sacred lakes, and fertile fields: ancient Maya landscapes in northwestern Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Nicholas Dunning ,
Vernon Scarborough ,
Fred Valdez ,
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach ,
Timothy Beach  and
John G. Jones
Nicholas Dunning
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221-0131, USA
Vernon Scarborough
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221-0380, USA
Fred Valdez
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712, USA
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
Affiliation:
Department of Geography & Earth Science, George Mason University, Fairfax VA 22030, USA
Timothy Beach
Affiliation:
School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington DC 20057, USA
John G. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Texas A & M University, College Station TX 77843-4352, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Forty-three years later these words still ring true, but are too seldom followed (Fedick 1996). For several years, we have been engaged in a multidisciplinary programme of research in northwestern Belize and neighbouring areas of Guatemala, eliciting a comprehensive, integrated picture of changing ancient Maya landscapes (Scarborough & Dunning 1996; Valdez et al. 1997). Our goals include a reconstructive correlation of environmental and cultural history, including the relationship between changes in water and land management and political economic organization. This work is still in progress and our understanding is far from complete (Dunning & Scarborough 1997).

Keywords

Maya archaeologycultural ecologylandscape analysis
Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 73 , Issue 281 , September 1999 , pp. 650 - 660
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1999

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

Adams, R.E.W. 1995a. A regional perspective on the Lowland Maya of the northeast Peten and northwestern Belize. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Adams, R.E.W. 1995b Early Classic Maya civilization: a view from Rio Azul, in Grube, (ed.): 35–48.Google Scholar
Ashmore, W. 1991. Site-planning principles and concepts of directionality among the ancient Maya, Latin American Antiquity 2: 199–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, J. & Taschek, J.. 1991. Late Classic Lowland Maya political organization and central place analysis, Latin American Antiquity 2: 149–65.Google Scholar
Bender, B. 1992. Theorizing landscape and the prehistoric landscapes of Stonehenge, Man 27: 735–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, J. 1997. Settlement configuration and cosmology: the role of caves at Dos Pilas, American Anthropologist 99: 602–18.Google Scholar
Brokaw, N.V.L. & Mallory, E.P.. 1993. Vegetation of the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, Belize. Manomet (MA): Manomet Bird Observatory.Google Scholar
Chase, A.F. & Chase, D.Z.. 1987. Investigations at the Classic Maya city of Caracol, Belize: 1985–1987. San Francisco (CA): Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute. Monograph 3.Google Scholar
Chase, A.F. & Chase, D.Z.. 1995. External impetus, internal synthesis, and standardization: E Group assemblages and the crystallization of Classic Maya civilization in the Southern Lowlands, in Grube, (ed.): 87–102.Google Scholar
Chase, A.F. & Chase, D.Z.. 1996. More than kin and king: centralized political organization among the Late Classic Maya, Current Anthropology 37: 803–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demarest, A.A. 1992. Ideology in ancient Maya cultural evolution: the dynamics of galactic politics, in Demarest, A.A. & Conrad, G. (ed.), Ideology and pre-Columbian civilizations: 135–58. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research.Google Scholar
Drennan, R.D. 1988. Household location and compact versus dispersed settlement in prehispanic Mesoamerica, in Wilk, R. & Ashmore, W. (ed.), Household and community in the Mesoamerican past: 273–93. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Duncan, J. 1990. The city as text: the politics of landscape interpretation in the Kandyan Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. 1992a. Notes on the environment and ancient agricultural features at La Milpa and surrounding areas, Belize, in Scarborough, et al. 1992.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. 1992b. Umwelt, Siedlungweise, Ernáhrung und Lebens-underhalt im Maya-Tiefland während der Klassik (250–900 n. Chr.), in Eggebrecht, E., Eggebrecht, A. & Grube, N. (ed.), Die Welt der Maya: 92–106. Mainz: Verlag Phillip von Zabern.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. 1992c. Lords of the hills: ancient Maya settlement of the Puuc Google Scholar
region, Yucatan, Mexico. Madison (WI): Prehistory Press.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. 1995. Coming together at the temple mountain: environment, subsistence, and the emergence of Classic Maya segmentary states, in Grube, (ed.): 61–70.Google Scholar
Dunning, N. P. & Beach, T.. 1994. Soil erosion, slope management, and ancient terracing in the Maya Lowlands, Latin American Antiquity 5: 51–69.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. 1996. Pedo-archaeological investigations of ancient Maya land use at La Milpa, Belize, 1996. Manuscript submitted to the La Milpa Archaeological Project, Department of Archaeology, Boston University.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. In press. Stability and instability in pre-Hispanic Maya landscapes, in Lentz, D. (ed.), Precolumbian New World Ecosystems. New York (NY): Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. N.d. An ancient Maya landscape: environmental archaeology and ancient settlement of the Petexbatun Region, Guatemala. Nashville (TN): Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P., Beach, T., Farrell, P. & Luzzadder-Beach, S.. In press. Prehispanic agrosystems and adaptive regions in the Maya Lowlands, Culture and Agriculture 20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunning, N.P., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Beach, T., Hughbanks, P. & Valdez, F. Jr 1996. Ancient Maya soil use and abuse: pedo-archaeological investigations in the Programme for Belize. Paper presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P., Rue, D., Beach, T., Covich, A. & Traverse, A.. 1998. Human-environment interactions in a tropical watershed: the paleoecology of Laguna Tamarindito, Peten, Guatemala, Journal of Field Archaeology 25: 139–51.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P. & Scarborough, V.L.. 1997. Preliminary report on NSF Grant No. SBR-963–1024: an accretive model of ancient Maya water and land use in northwestern Belize (the 1997 season). Report submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington (DC).Google Scholar
Eaton, J.D. 1975. Ancient agricultural farmsteads in the Rio Bee Region of Yucatan, Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 27: 56–82. Berkeley (CA): University of California.Google Scholar
Fedick, S.L. 1996. Conclusion: landscape approaches to the study of ancient Maya agriculture and resource use, in Fedick, S.L. (ed.), The managed mosaic: ancient Maya agriculture and resource use: 335–47. Salt Lake City (UT): University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Freidel, D.A., Schele, L. & Parker, J.. 1993. Maya cosmos: three thousand years on the shaman’s path. New York (NY): William Morrow.Google Scholar
Grube, N. (ed.). 1995. The emergence of Classic Maya civilization. Möckmühl: Verlag von Flemming. Acta Meso-americana 8.Google Scholar
Grube, N. (ed.). 1995. Transformations of Maya society at the end of the Preclassic: processes of change between predynastic and dynastic periods, in Grube, (ed.): 1–7.Google Scholar
Guderjan, T.H. (Ed.). 1991. Maya settlement in northwestern Belize: the 1988 and 1990 seasons of the Rio Bravo Archaeological Project. Culver City (CA): Labyrinthos.Google Scholar
Guderjan, T.H. (Ed.). 1996. Summary of research at Blue Creek, in Guderjan, T.H., Driver, W.D. & Haines, H.R. (ed.), Archaeological research at Blue Creek, Belize: progress report of the fourth (1995) season: 5–26. San Antonio (TX): Maya Research Program.Google Scholar
Hammond, N. & Bobo, M.R.. 1994. Pilgrimage’s last mile: late Maya monument veneration at La Milpa, Belize, World Archaeology 26: 19–34.Google Scholar
Hammond, N., Tourtellot, G., Donaghey, S. & Clarke, A.. 1996. Survey and excavation at La Milpa, 1996, Mexicon 18: 86–91.Google Scholar
Hansen, R. 1995. Nuevas perspectivas de los origines y colapso de civilización Maya. Paper presented at the V Encuentro de los Investigadores de la Cultura Maya, Campeche.Google Scholar
Houk, B.A. 1996. The archaeology of site planning: an example from the Maya site of Dos Hombres, Belize. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of Texas, Austin (TX).Google Scholar
Houston, S. & Stuart, D.. 1996. Of gods, glyphs and kings: divinity and rulership among the Classic Maya, Antiquity 70: 289–312.Google Scholar
Jacob, J.S. 1995. Archaeological pedology in the Maya Lowlands, in Pedological perspectives in archaeological research: 51–79. Madison (WI): Soil Science Society of America. Special publication 44.Google Scholar
Lohse, J.C. In press. Results of 1996 season of mapping: an interim view of residential organization at Dos Hombres, Belize, in Valdez, F. Jr (ed.), The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project: the 1996 Season. Austin (TX); Institute of Latin American Studies, University Of Texas.Google Scholar
Lohse, J.C. & Hageman, J.. 1997. Politically-influenced migration in northwestern Belize. Proposal submitted to the Foundation for Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., Crystal River (FL).Google Scholar
McAnany, P. 1995. Living with the ancestors: kinship and kingship in ancient Maya society. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Martin, S. & Grube, N.. 1995. Maya superstates, Archaeology 48: 41–6.Google Scholar
Pyburn, K. A. 1990. Settlement patterns at Nohmul, in Culbert, T.P. & Rice, D.S. (ed.), Precolumbian population history in the Maya Lowlands: 183–97. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Rice, D.S. 1993. Eighth-century physical geography, environment, and natural resources in the Maya Lowlands, in Sabloff, J.A. & Henderson, J.A. (ed.), Lowland Maya civilization in the eighth century AD: 11–63. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Robichaux, H.R. 1995. Ancient Maya community patterns in northwestern Belize: peripheral zone survey at La Milpa and Dos Hombres. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of Texas, Austin (TX).Google Scholar
Sauer, C.O. 1955. The agency of man on the earth, in Thomas, W.L. Jr (ed.), Man’s role in changing the face of the Earth: 49–69. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Scarborough, V.L. 1993. Water management for the Southern Maya Lowlands: an accretive model for the engineered landscape, in Scarborough, V. L. & Isaac, B. (ed.), Economic aspects of water management in the prehispanic New World: 17–68. Greenwich (CT): JAI Press. Research in Economic Anthropology Supplement 7.Google Scholar
Scarborough, V.L. 1998. The ecology of ritual: water management and the Maya, Latin American Antiquity 9: 135–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarborough, V.L., Becher, M.E., Baker, J.L., Harris, G., & Hensz, J.D.. 1992. Water management studies at La Milpa, Belize. Report on file at Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati.Google Scholar
Scarborough, V.L., Becher, M.E., Baker, J.L., Harris, G. & Valdez, F. Jr. 1995. Water and land at the ancient Maya community of La Milpa, Latin American Antiquity 6: 98–119.Google Scholar
Scarborough, V.L. & Dunning, N.P.. 1996. An accretive model of ancient Maya land and water use in northwestern Belize. Proposal SBR-963–1024 on file at the National Science Foundation, Washington (DC).Google Scholar
Schele, L. 1995. Sprouts and the early symbolism of rulers in Mesoamerica, in Grube, (ed.): 117–36.Google Scholar
Schele, L. & Freidel, D.. 1990. A forest of kings: the untold story of the ancient Maya. New York (NY): William Morrow.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 1993. The politics of vision and the archaeologies of landscape, in Bender, B. (ed.), Landscape politics and perspectives: 19–48. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Tourtellot III, G., Hammond, N. & Rose, J.. 1995. Reversals of fortune: settlement processes at La Milpa, Belize. Paper presented at the 1st International Symposium of Maya Archaeology, San Ignacio, Belize.Google Scholar
Tourtellot III, G., Rose, J.J., Grube, N., Donaghey, S. & Hammond, N.. 1994. More light on La Milpa: Maya settlement archaeology in northwestern Belize, Mexicon 16: 119–24.Google Scholar
Turner II, B.L. 1983. Once beneath the forest: prehistoric terracing in the Rio Bec Region of the Maya Lowlands. Boulder (CO): Westview Press.Google Scholar
Valdez, F. Jr, Adams, R.E.W., Scarborough, V. & Dunning, N.. 1997. The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project: a historical overview. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville.Google Scholar
Wheatley, P. 1967. City as symbol. London: University of London.Google Scholar