Agroforestry and ritual at the ancient Maya center of Lamanai

Paleoethnobotanical data retrieved from caches of Late Classic to Early Postclassic origin at the ancient Maya site of Lamanai, Belize, revealed carbonized maize kernels, cob fragments, common beans, coyol endocarps, and an abundance of wood charcoal, from both conifer and hardwood tree species. Pinus caribaea (Caribbean pine) was the most ubiquitous species in the Late and Terminal Classic sample set and the weight of Lamanai pine wood charcoal was more than the combined weight of all known archaeobotanical collections from nearby contemporaneous sites. Pollen data from northwestern Belize showed that the pine pollen signature declined during the Late Classic period, a trajectory in keeping with intensive exploitation of the nearby pine savannas as suggested by the contents of Lamanai caches examined in this study. Although Lamanai flourished far into the Postclassic period, pine charcoal use—based on present evidence—declined in Early Postclassic ritual contexts. Concomitantly, an increase in the local pine pollen rain indicated that pine timber stocks rebounded during the Postclassic period. The observed intensive use of pine at Late Classic Lamanai combined with a concurrent decline in the regional pine pollen signature is consistent with a hypothesis of over-exploitation of pine during the Late to Terminal Classic period

Consequences of Contact: An Evaluation of Childhood Health Patterns Using Enamel Hypoplasias Among the Colonial Maya of Tipu

Located in western Belize, Tipu was occupied from 1541-1704. This Colonial Maya population from a Spanish visita mission church was analyzed to investigate health disturbances associated with European contact. Dental defect called enamel hypoplasias were scored to assess childhood health. Standard methods of scoring (Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994) were employed to assess frequency, severity, and type of episode in the permanent anterior dentition. For analysis, 325 individuals were placed into age groups of subadults (6-17 years), younger adults (18-35 years), and older adults (36-50+ years). The population was also considered for differences by sex and tooth type. Results showed a mean of 1.89 hypoplasias per tooth with canines averaging 0.36 more episodes than maxillary central incisors. 79.3% of central incisors were affected and 87.3% of canines displayed lesions. Individuals dying as younger adults had significantly more episodes than older adults. Only a slight difference between means and individual tooth frequencies were present between the sexes. Over 90% of the episodes recorded were of mild severity. Subadults demonstrated a higher frequency of moderate and severe hypoplasias. Mean age at formation was consistent across sex and age groups with most forming from 2-3 years on incisors and 3-4.5 years on canines. These data suggest that overall the population at Tipu was relativity healthy despite European contact, which is also reflected in low frequencies of other indicators, such as anemia and infection. Similarly, they do not reflect extensive presence of epidemic disease, instead showing adaptation despite notable culture change

The Marco Gonzalez Maya site, Ambergris Caye, Belize: assessing the impact of human activities by examining diachronic processes at the local scale

Research at the Maya archaeological site of Marco Gonzalez on Ambergris Caye in Belize is socio-ecological because human activities have been a factor in the formation and fluctuation of the local marine and terrestrial environments over time. The site is one of many on Belize's coast and cayes that exhibit anomalous vegetation and dark-coloured soils. These soils, although sought for cultivation, are not typical 'Amazonian Dark Earths' but instead are distinctive to the weathering of carbonate-rich anthropogenic deposits. We tentatively term these location-specific soils as Maya Dark Earths. Our research seeks to quantify the role of human activities in long-term environmental change and to develop strategies, specifically Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), that can be applied to environmental impact modelling today

The rise and fall of a secondary policy: la Joyanca (Guatemala)

International audiencePaleoenvironmental studies have recently made impressive contributions to our understanding of the Maya Lowland Terminal Classic crisis. They put much emphasis on the detection of drought episodes during the ninth century and later. There is no doubt that such events had an impact on Maya sociopolitical dynamics, although ninth-century droughts may have entailed relatively moderate rainfall reduction.Not only Maya agriculture but also urban populations were vulnerable to variation in precipitation.Moreover, the impact of reconstructed climatic events does not appear to have been as direct and synchronous as we would expect, and the concatenation of environmental and sociopolitical factors remains poorly investigated

A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize

The environmental impact of the ancient Maya, and subsequent ecological recovery following the Terminal Classic decline, have been the key foci of research into socio-ecological interactions in the Yucatán peninsula. These foci, however, belie the complex pattern of resource exploitation and agriculture associated with post-Classic Maya societies and European colonisation. We present a high-resolution, 1200-year record of pollen and charcoal data from a 52-cm short core extracted from New River Lagoon, near to the European settlement of Indian Church, northern Belize. This study complements and extends a previous 3500-year reconstruction of past environmental change, located 1-km north of the new record and adjacent to the ancient Maya site of Lamanai. This current study shows a mixed crop production and palm agroforestry management strategy of the ancient Maya, which corroborates previous evidence at Lamanai. Comparison of the two records suggests that core agricultural and agroforestry activities shifted southwards, away from the centre of Lamanai, beginning at the post-Classic period. The new record also demonstrates that significant changes in land-use were not associated with drought at the Terminal Classic (ca. CE 1000) or the European Encounter (ca. CE 1500), but instead resulted from social and cultural change in the post-Classic period (CE 1200) and new economies associated with the British timber trade (CE 1680). The changes in land-use documented in two adjacent records from the New River Lagoon underline the need to reconstruct human–environment interactions using multiple, spatially, and temporally diverse records

Burial Chronological Sequencing of the Colonial Maya Cemetery at Tipu, Belize Using Fluoride Ion Analysis

This thesis ascertains the sequence of burials using fluoride ion electrode analysis at the colonial cemetery at Tipu, Belize in order to explore demographic and other cultural effects associated with European contact. The cemetery at Tipu in west central Belize, dating from within the first century of Spanish contact, has provided one of the largest and best preserved Maya skeletal series, with over 500 burials recovered. While this series has undergone vast amounts of analysis, there has yet been an analysis conducted to view how patterns changed over time. This is of interest given the rapid culture change associated with the Spanish conquest of the Maya, especially given that fluctuations in population movement due to Spanish programs meant to convert and control the indigenous population. By measuring fluoride ion levels within the sample using an electrode, a relative chronology was determined using both horizontal and vertical location to test for patterning. The spatial location was analyzed for preferential treatment and trends over time. Given the limitations of the fluoride methodology, the sample size was limited to adult burials that had ribs for testing, resulting in 134 interments tested. While previously thought that church nave would fill prior to the surrounding church grounds, the results of the study showed that both areas were utilized concurrently though the spatial preference did change over time. Sixty-seven percent of the earliest burials were mostly located in the nave of the church while this trend switched in the most recent burials. Furthermore, within the nave, the area near the altar, a place reserved for elites and honored members of the community, was used differently as well. At first, the burials were located toward the rear of the nave away from the altar. Toward the end of the cemetery’s use, the altar was the preferred location. Of these more recent burials, 64% of the male interments were located closest to the altar as compared to 40% of the oldest burials. Additionally, the results showed that pre-Conquest Maya characteristics persisted well after the arrival of the Spanish due to either blatant rebellion or slow assimilation. Given these results, previously held assumptions of the cemetery’s usage and Maya behaviors are changed. Giving the interments of Tipu a temporal context, this sheds a new light onto their agency and survival in this tumultuous time

Analyzing Pre-Inhumation Breakage Ceramics at Lamanai, Belize: A Conjunctive Approach

During the Terminal Classic period (9th-10th centuries A.D.), the ancient Maya at Lamanai, Belize, began to practice pre-inhumation breakage of ceramics in mortuary contexts. Previously, the custom had been to bury whole vessels with the deceased. This conspicuous shift in behavior suggests important changes in beliefs regarding the role of ceramics in death and interment at a pivotal moment in ancient Maya culture history. Despite this significant change, there has been no published research conducted specifically on these vessels. In fact, there has been no clearly delineated set of characteristics for what qualifies as a pre-inhumation breakage vessel (PBV). This study offers a working definition for PBVs and converts the original Lamanai grave descriptions of those that contain PBVs to a classification system for ease of future comparative analyses. Finally, the sex and age of individuals buried with PBVs are considered. The result is a conjunctive analysis that provides data not only on PBV forms and quantities, grave types, and the sex and age of those interred with PBVs, but also several statistically significant correlations among these variables. I argue that the conjoined data suggest that one of the primary purposes for the pre-inhumation breakage of ceramics in mortuary contexts was a strategic one, a method selected by Lamanai leadership, and enacted community-wide, as a way to protect the community from potentially harmful energies and to maintain communal confidence at a time of great uncertainty in the southern Maya lowlands

An Analysis of Maya Foodways: Stable Isotopes and Oral Indicators of Diet in West Central Belize

Data on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes and oral indicators of diet from the sites of Tipu and Baking Pot in western Belize offer insights into the transition of Maya life after Spanish contact. Tipu is a borderland town occupied from the Preclassic period until A.D. – 1707, when the Spanish forcefully removed its inhabitants. It is best known for its Colonial occupation and visita church with 600+ interments. Baking Pot was a regional civic-ceremonial center continuously occupied from the Preclassic (~700 cal B.C.) to the Terminal Classic periods (cal A.D. 900/1000), during which time the site center was abandoned. While outlying settlement areas continued to be occupied, the site center was not reoccupied until the Late Postclassic (cal A.D. 1280 – 1420). The two sites are within 16 km of each other, are found in the same environmental setting, and likely belonged to the same trade networks. They represent life in west central Belize before and after Spanish contact.Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes and oral indicators of diet were analyzed to answer questions about the intersection of identities and social roles of food production, procurement, processing, distribution, and consumption. The two sites have the same δ15N value, suggesting similar protein resource use through time, most likely low-order, C3-energy animals and freshwater mollusks. Tipu has a slightly higher δ13C value implying an increased reliance of maize. At Tipu, males and females from the pre-Columbian structure had different diets than individuals buried in the church, suggesting a change in gendered access and roles associated with food after Spanish contact. Only intersectional identity divisions uncovered this pattern.Both sites have high rates of calculus, likely from increased silicon and ammonia in fruits and not marine protein. Baking Pot has a slightly higher rate of caries, also potentially elevated by fruit consumption as they consumed less maize than Tipuans. At Tipu, females had greater rates of caries and AMTL, while males had more calculus. Tipu has one of the greatest rates of periodontal recession of any Maya site. Social factors, such as tobacco smoking, rather than biological factors may be the cause. The frequency of the five oral conditions suggests that the oral well-being and food consumption patterns of Tipuans were more like precontact sites than other Colonial sites