Background: Maya wetland agriculture and water management

In examining domesticated waterscapes, a summary of research on ancestral Maya wetland agriculture and water management is necessary. Ancestral Maya waterscape studies have kept a taut focus on wetland agriculture and cultivated fields (Beach et al. Reference Beach, Luzzadder-Beach, Lohse and Lohse2013; Dunning et al. Reference Dunning, Ruhl, Carr, Beach, Brown and Luzzadder-Beach2020; Hansen et al. Reference Hansen, Morales-Aguilar, Thompson, Ensley, Hernández, Schreiner, Suyuc-Ley and Martínez2002; Lentz et al. Reference Lentz, Dunning, Sheets, Beach, Luzzadder-Beach, Wyatt, Robin, Larmon, Lucero and Valdez2022; Lucero Reference Lucero, Marcus and Stanish2006; Turner and Harrison Reference Turner and Harrison2000). In specific areas, ancestral Maya dug canals in floodplains and placed sediments on adjacent fields or agricultural zones. Investigators have studied how intensive wetland agriculture was undertaken (Figure 4) by Maya managing canal construction and irrigation since Preclassic times (ca. 1000 b.c.–a.d. 200; Hansen et al. Reference Hansen, Morales-Aguilar, Thompson, Ensley, Hernández, Schreiner, Suyuc-Ley and Martínez2002; Pohl et al. Reference Pohl, Pope, Jones, Jacob, Piperno, deFrance, Lentz, Gifford, Danforth and Kathryn Josserand1996). They have also examined Classic period (ca. a.d. 200–950) canals and reservoirs to examine ancestral Maya water control, elite labor management, and intensive agriculture in wetlands and adjacent lands (Beach et al. Reference Beach, Luzzadder-Beach, Lohse and Lohse2013; Canuto et al. Reference Canuto, Estrada-Belli, Garrison, Houston, Acuña, Kováč, Marken, Nondédéo, Auld-Thomas, Castanet, Chatelain, Chiriboga, Drápela, Lieskovoký, Tokovinine, Velasquez, Fernández-Díaz and Shrestha2018; Gunn et al. Reference Gunn, Folan, Isendahl, Domínquez Carrasco, Faust, Volta, Chase and Scarborough2014; Pohl et al. Reference Pohl, Bloom, Pope and Pohl1990; Scarborough Reference Scarborough1998). Furthermore, scholars have investigated reservoirs for water storage and canals for drainage for Maya agriculture while briefly mentioning that they teemed with fish (Arroyo and Henderson Reference Arroyo, Henderson, Houk, Arroyo and Powis2020; Beach et al. Reference Beach, Luzzadder-Beach, Krause, Guderjan, Valdez, Fernández-Díaz, Eshleman and Doyle2019; Harrison Reference Harrison, Scarborough and Isaac1993; Harrison-Buck Reference Harrison-Buck2014; Masson Reference Masson and McAnany2004; Matheny et al. Reference Matheny, Gurr, Forsyth and Richard Hauck1983; Pohl Reference Pohl and Pohl1985; Wiseman Reference Wiseman1983). Researchers have even noted that Maya people still fish in the canals and reservoirs (Faust Reference Faust1999; Harrison Reference Harrison, Scarborough and Isaac1993; Puleston Reference Puleston, Harrison and Turner1978; Thompson Reference Thompson and Hammond1974). Scholars studying Postclassic Maya societies (a.d. 950–1525) who shifted their settlements near water have examined fish resources, particularly in marine environments (Alexander et al. Reference Alexander, Hunter, Arata, Cervantes, Scudder, Gotz and Emery2013; Jiménez-Cano Reference Jiménez-Cano2019). Few researchers, however, have investigated reservoirs, canals, and lakes for Maya ecological aquaculture and integrated subsistence. They typically do not examine hydraulic engineering to maintain fish, turtle, and mollusk populations, among other plant and animal species. Like domesticated landscapes where terraces and fields support plant and human communities, people domesticate waterscapes for reliable food.

Figure 4.

Maya Wetland features. (a) Raised fields and canals at the ancestral Pulltrouser Swamp site, Belize. Redrawn from Harrison and Fry (Reference Harrison and Fry2000:Map 6). (b) Modern Chontal Maya camellones near reservoirs for farming and fishing at Tucta, Nacajuca District, Tabasco, Mexico. Image from Google Earth.

Earlier studies of waterscapes incorporating ethnographic observations briefly explored Maya fishing in canals with substantial fish populations (Denevan Reference Denevan1970; Harrison Reference Harrison and Fedick1996; Matheny et al. Reference Matheny, Gurr, Forsyth and Richard Hauck1983; Puleston Reference Puleston and Hammond1977; Siemens and Puleston Reference Siemens and Puleston1972; Thompson Reference Thompson and Hammond1974; Turner and Harrison Reference Turner and Harrison2000). These observations were bolstered with historic Maya sources mentioning fishing in river floodplain canals and lagoons in Tabasco (Figure 4; Gómez-Pompa et al. Reference Gómez-Pompa, Morales, Avilla, Avilla and Flannery1982; Pohl Reference Pohl and Pohl1985). Yet, scholars have not synthesized archaeological, ethnographic, or scientific data on Maya fishing in canals and reservoirs diachronically, as I do here. Additionally, few investigators mention Maya domesticating extensive waterscapes for integrated ecological aquaculture for supplemental protein for agriculture (Chopin Reference Chopin, Christou, Savin, Costa-Pierce, Misztal and Whitelaw2013; Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce and Costa-Pierce2014b; Li Reference Li, Li and Mathias1994). Archaeologists excavating wetland fields and canals, however, have demonstrated the importance of fish for ancestral Maya through the recovery of fish bones (Carr Reference Carr and Pohl1985; Thornton Reference Thornton2012). Additionally, a project at Albion Island, Belize, retrieved fish bones in canal and raised-field deposits dominated by catfish (bagres) and cichlid species (mojarras; Pohl et al. Reference Pohl, Bloom, Pope and Pohl1990:263), which thrive in ecological aquaculture. Specific fish species, however, are difficult to identify from small bones.

Investigators working on Maya canals, wetlands, and raised fields have not acquired much cultural and scientific data on ancient to modern fishing and aquaculture. Instead, they concentrate on wetland cultivation, water storage in reservoirs, canals for draining fields, and water management to mitigate flooding and drought, which were important for Maya civilization (Dunning et al. Reference Dunning, Brewer, Carr, Hernández, Beach, Chmilar, Sierra, Griffin, Lentz, Luzzadder-Beach, Reese-Taylor, Saturno, Scarborough, Smyth, Valdez, Larmon, Lucero and Valdez2022; Hansen et al. Reference Hansen, Morales-Aguilar, Thompson, Ensley, Hernández, Schreiner, Suyuc-Ley and Martínez2002; Gunn et al. Reference Gunn, Folan, Isendahl, Domínquez Carrasco, Faust, Volta, Chase and Scarborough2014; Lucero Reference Lucero, Marcus and Stanish2006; Luzzadder-Beach et al. Reference Luzzadder-Beach, Beach, Hutson and Krause2016). Investigators also concentrate on crop productivity, soil qualities, and plant diversity for human use on the shores of lakes and canals (Beach et al. Reference Beach, Luzzadder-Beach, Krause, Guderjan, Valdez, Fernández-Díaz, Eshleman and Doyle2019; Darch Reference Darch, Turner and Harrison2000; Harrison Reference Harrison, Scarborough and Isaac1993; Lentz et al. Reference Lentz, Dunning, Sheets, Beach, Luzzadder-Beach, Wyatt, Robin, Larmon, Lucero and Valdez2022). But through aquaculture perspectives, plants near canals and ponds were also important for maintaining fish populations, since they give shade, food, nutrients for invertebrates, in addition to water filtration. Where rivers, lakes, and seasonal waterscape flooding are found, canals and reservoirs produce many useful plants in addition to fish (Denevan Reference Denevan1970, Reference Denevan and Flannery1982; Harrison-Buck et al. Reference Harrison-Buck, Clarke-Vivier, Phillips and Runggaldier2020; Turner and Harrison Reference Turner and Harrison2000). The canals connecting to rivers effectively bring in freshwater, nutrients, and fish to the reservoirs. In one case, an array of canals, raised fields, and reservoirs adjacent to the Candelaria River at the site of El Tigre presents an example of Maya floodplain agriculture and integrated ecological aquaculture over the last 2,000 years (Siemens Reference Siemens, Harrison and Turner1978). These features were dug in swamps with fluctuating water levels between rainy versus dry seasons. Their extensive sizes, which add air exposure, increase water oxygenation for fish. Their ample constructions also allow for extensive foliage growth within the waterscapes providing food to invertebrates and fish to power the subsistence system.

Archaeologists have also found construction features, including berms, walls, and stone alignments, in Maya waterscapes (Berry and McAnany Reference Berry, McAnany, Scarborough and Clark2007; Fedick Reference Fedick, Gómez-Pompa, Allen, Fedick and Jiménez-Osornio2003; Hansen et al. Reference Hansen, Morales-Aguilar, Thompson, Ensley, Hernández, Schreiner, Suyuc-Ley and Martínez2002; Harrison Reference Harrison and Fedick1996; Matheny and Gurr Reference Matheny and Gurr1979; Pohl et al. Reference Pohl, Bloom, Pope and Pohl1990; Scarbourough Reference Scarborough1991; Siemens and Hebda Reference Siemens and Hebda2009; Turner and Harrison Reference Turner and Harrison2000). Variable Maya dredging techniques and filling with clay, sand, and stone have been noted. These investigations also identified stacked stone retention walls, clay liners, and earthen berms for dams, clay canal walls, and probable linear stone weirs or fish traps. In some projects, wooden poles, or possible fish weirs, were recovered in waterlogged deposits (Lowe and Alvarez Asomoza Reference Lowe, Asomoza, Lowe and Pye2007; Pohl et al. Reference Pohl, Bloom, Pope and Pohl1990:218–221), but their function was not explored. Archaeologists also found carbonized and waterlogged plants from the canals and fields (Darch Reference Darch, Turner and Harrison2000). The burning effectively fertilized the aquaculture system. The findings demonstrate that ancestral Maya cultivated a variety of plants, including maize, squash, cassava, and cotton (Beach et al. Reference Beach, Luzzadder-Beach, Krause, Guderjan, Valdez, Fernández-Díaz, Eshleman and Doyle2019; Puleston Reference Puleston and Hammond1977:454–455), which also benefitted fish populations.

Cross-cultural studies also provide informative perspectives on wetland resources, especially fish. In this vein, African artificial floodplain fish pools (“finger ponds”) and Amazonian fish ponds used for ecological aquaculture are similar to ancestral Maya canalized wetland cultivation and raised fields (Erickson Reference Erickson2000a, Reference Erickson and Lentz2000b; Welcomme Reference Welcomme1975:26). Comparative Amazonian floodplain reservoirs farmed by communities have produced between 100,000–400,000 fish per hectare or 1,000 kg of fish per hectare per year (Erickson Reference Erickson2000a:191). In Africa and Asia, some 500–700 kilograms of fish per hectare have been raised (Welcomme Reference Welcomme2001:139). Similar amounts of fish could have been extracted in ancestral Maya ecological aquaculture. Comparative research in the Americas has also demonstrated that many types of fish remains, in addition to wooden posts and stones for fish weirs, materials for smoking fish, cooking areas, stone cutting tools for processing fish, net fragments and weights, projectile points, and hooks can be archaeologically recovered (Connaway Reference Connaway1982; Lyons Reference Lyons and Yu2015; McKillop and Aoyama Reference McKillop and Aoyama2018; Rice et al. Reference Rice, Rice and Pugh2017; Rodríguez Galicia Reference Rodríguez Galicia2017; Yu Reference Yu2015). Therefore, people living in sites on floodplains or near wetland fields, reservoirs, and canals in various parts of Mesoamerica may also have intensified aquatic resource production (Ebel Reference Ebel2019; Guzmán and Polaco Reference Guzmán and Polaco2002; Morehart Reference Morehart2016; Sluyter Reference Sluyter1994; Stoner et al. Reference Stoner, Stark, VanDerwarker and Urquhart2021; VanDerwarker Reference VanDerwarker2006; Weigand Reference Weigand, Isaacs and Scarborough1993) giving ecological aquaculture and integrated subsistence significant research potential. Instead of just agriculture, human actions following the extraction of sediment and earth in the waterscape mutually impacted human, plant, and animal communities. Canals and reservoirs held water for humans, fish, and plants. Berms and rock alignments trapped fish and turtles for human use. The identification of fish as important in some ancestral Maya diets is a crucial step for understanding Maya domesticated waterscapes.

Integrated subsistence: fish in the Maya diet

Comparative evidence for the importance of freshwater fish, in addition to other aquatic species such as turtles, waterfowl, and mollusks, has been presented from archaeology, historic documents, and ethnographies across the Maya region (Harrison-Buck et al. Reference Harrison-Buck, Clarke-Vivier, Phillips and Runggaldier2020; Ruz Reference Ruz and Ruíz1998; Sharpe et al. Reference Sharpe, Inomata, Triadan, Burham, MacLellan, Munson and Pinzón2020; Thompson Reference Thompson and Hammond1974). For instance, through excavations and ethnography, Dillon (Reference Dillon1981) indicates that Classic-period Maya at Camelá near the Chixoy River in lowland Guatemala could not have raised many crops in the swampy terrain around a large lagoon. Instead, he argues Maya inhabitants practiced fish farming in the abundant shallow waters of oxbow lakes and swamps like fishermen do today (Rivas and Odum Reference Rivas and Odum2019). Contemporary fishers at Camelá capture various species of catfish (including Ictalurus and Lacantunia sp.) mojarras (cichlids; Cichlasoma or Vieja sp.), tarpon (unknown sp.), and gar (Atractosteus tropicus) with nets and hooks. They also take turtles, turtle eggs, and crocodiles. The fish are salted and dried for transportation to market. One fisher camp took eight tons of fish from the area in three months (Dillon Reference Dillon1981:79). Dillon implies that ancient Maya could have created water control features, such as dams and sluice gates, to manage fish populations for large-scale harvesting. In a recent study at the adjacent center of Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, archaeologists suggest that Classic Maya fish processing and salting took place due to the abundant obsidian blades for descaling fish (Woodfill and Wolf Reference Woodfill, Wolf, Houk, Arroyo and Powis2020). Interestingly, a Classic Maya ceramic figurine depicting a god of maize, plants, water, and fish (integrated subsistence) emerging from a cleft sustenance and water mountain possibly came from this site, which is near sacred Maya hills (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

Classic Maya maize god, water, fish, and plants emerging from a cleft sustenance-water origin mountain on a ceramic figurine from the Museo Miraflores, Guatemala, possibly from the Salinas de los Nueve Cerros site in Peten, Guatemala. Photograph by the author.

Other ancestral Maya sites near floodplains, lagoons, and rivers present evidence for aquatic resource consumption (Sharpe et al. Reference Sharpe, Inomata, Triadan, Burham, MacLellan, Munson and Pinzón2020) and human-modified waterscapes for fish (Harrison-Buck et al. Reference Harrison-Buck, Clarke-Vivier, Phillips and Runggaldier2020), like at Edzna and Pulltrouser Swamp mentioned above. Investigators examining nitrogen isotopic levels from bone collagen from Classic Maya human burials, for instance, have additionally shown that cities near large rivers often utilized freshwater fish (Scherer et al. Reference Scherer, Wright and Yoder2007:97). High levels of nitrogen isotopes in human bone also occur at sites in the interior, however, indicating that Maya transported fish to these sites from rivers, lagoons, and domesticated waterscapes. At the Classic-period site of Piedras Negras, for instance, Maya consumed more fish during a time of political instability and population reduction (Scherer et al. Reference Scherer, Wright and Yoder2007:98–99). Many fish bones, especially catfish from the nearby Usumacinta River, were recovered in excavations (Emery Reference Emery2007; Scherer et al. Reference Scherer, Wright and Yoder2007:97). A similar pattern of reliance on local fish during social changes and less food resource availability occurred at Pueblo Grande, Arizona, where people extracted fish from local irrigation (and fish farming) canals (James Reference James and Abbott2003).

Furthermore, Alexander et al. (Reference Alexander, Hunter, Arata, Cervantes, Scudder, Gotz and Emery2013) have demonstrated the importance of aquatic resources in the Postclassic Maya community at Cilvituk (Silvituc), Campeche, Mexico. Cilvituk is an island between a large lagoon and seasonal marshes. Canals have not been reported in the marsh, but human modifications of the island and the reliance on freshwater aquatic resources point to Maya domesticated waterscapes, including fish management practices. The authors point out that Maya populations at Cilvituk had access to highly diversified terrestrial and aquatic, in addition to domesticated and collected, plant and animal species in a resilient resource exploitation strategy. Faunal bone from household excavations across the island indicates that the acquisition of fish, turtles, mollusks, and water fowl matched that of terrestrial animals, including deer, dogs, and turkeys (Alexander et al. Reference Alexander, Hunter, Arata, Cervantes, Scudder, Gotz and Emery2013:312). Ray-finned fish abound in the archaeological deposits, as do gar (Alexander et al. Reference Alexander, Hunter, Arata, Cervantes, Scudder, Gotz and Emery2013:296–298). Since cichlids are common today in the Cilvituk watershed, especially in shallower waters (Flores Ramos Reference Flores Ramos2014), it is likely many bones belong to these species. Maya household clusters likely organized the procurement of aquatic resources (Alexander et al. Reference Alexander, Hunter, Arata, Cervantes, Scudder, Gotz and Emery2013:313) since no evidence exists that elites managed the ecological aquaculture system and its resources.

Likewise, archaeologists excavating at Preclassic Kaminaljuyu in the Guatemalan highlands discovered extensive hydraulic engineering. While the canals and shallow lakes were important for agriculture and controlling the movement of and access to water for Maya populations, these hydraulic features allowed fish populations to thrive and be “farmed.” The water also provided turtles, mollusks, and water fowl (Emery et al. Reference Emery, Thornton, Cannarozzi, Houston, Escobedo, Gotz and Emery2013:388). The Maya populations here connected the lake with extensive canals leading to reservoirs that were partially forested, or supported fields and gardens (Arroyo and Henderson Reference Arroyo, Henderson, Houk, Arroyo and Powis2020). These features would have facilitated water circulation and purification. The movement of earth for water management was extensive. The domesticated waterscapes at Preclassic Kaminaljuyu are an example of ecological aquaculture and its integration of human, plant, and fish populations that minimized negative environmental impacts for the system's resilience. The archaeological fauna at the site demonstrate the importance of fish in the human diet (Valdés and Wright Reference Valdés, Wright, Bell, Canuto and Sharer2004). Fish bones from gar, cichlids, and other bony fishes were common (Emery et al. Reference Emery, Thornton, Cannarozzi, Houston, Escobedo, Gotz and Emery2013:394, 399–400). Importantly, Preclassic stone monuments depict fish, likely cichlids, that thrive in such aquaculture canals and reservoirs (Figure 3; Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto Reference Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto1999). Water imagery appeared with rulers’ portraits on monuments showing their connection to the spiritual and perhaps practical maintenance of the waterscapes (Arrroyo and Henderson Reference Arroyo, Henderson, Houk, Arroyo and Powis2020:149). At Izapa, a contemporary site on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, a stela (Figure 6) depicts a person or a water god wading in a shallow canal or reservoir like at Kaminaljuyu to extract fish with a basket (Norman Reference Norman1973:87). Classic Maya carved bones from Tikal, Guatemala (Figure 6), also depict Maya gods alongside canoes grabbing fish (tzak chay, like the Maya “fish-in-hand” hieroglyph; Ruz Reference Ruz2020:167), apparently cichlids and catfish, in shallow waters and putting them in baskets, just like people did (Trik Reference Trik1963:13). Capturing fish by hand and with baskets is a subsistence strategy seen across the Maya region (Figure 7) and around the world.

Figure 6.

Gods fishing in shallow waters. (a) A rain, water, and fishing god wading in a wavy canal catching fish (cichlids?) in a basket and creel. Note the fish imagery on the head, arms, and feet. Izapa Stela 1. Courtesy of the John Montgomery drawing collection (Famsi.org). (b) Tikal carved bone depicting Maya rain, water, and fishing gods (Chaak) grabbing cichlids and a catfish (left) alongside a canoe (see Trik Reference Trik1963:13). Courtesy of the John Montgomery drawing collection (Famsi.org).

Figure 7.

Catching fish and crustaceans with baskets in a shallow canal near an ancestral Maya sustenance mountain and settlements at Yalmutz, Chiapas. Note adjacent reed beds and maize cultivation for integrated subsistence. Photograph courtesy of Ramón Folch.

Archaeologists in lowland Guatemala have pointed to the importance of aquatic foods, mainly fish, turtles, crocodiles, and water fowl, in Maya societies over time around the central Petén lakes (Rice et al. Reference Rice, Rice and Pugh2017). At Trinidad de Nosotros, archaeologists found that 23 percent of the faunal remains consisted of fish bones, particularly in commoner contexts (Thornton Reference Thornton2012:339, 344, 353). Cichlids were dominant in the bone collections, while gar, catfish, and eels were present in significant numbers. Additionally, many net weights fashioned from ceramic sherds have been recovered in Maya households across the habitational sequence. Maya used the ceramic sinkers to weigh down nets or lines with hooks. Coves and ponds dot the waterscape, which may have been transformed by Maya to obtain aquatic resources. Ancestral Maya modified the waterscape to facilitate canoe traffic, hence fishing, between some lakes (Rice and Rice Reference Rice and Rice2016). Importantly, fields for wetland agriculture and fish farming have been discovered in shallow portions of several lakes, which may have been extensive in the past (Rice et al. Reference Rice, Rice and Pugh2017:45). These waterscape features and aquatic subsistence regimes can also be seen in other parts of the Maya area, particularly in the western lowlands.

Canals, reservoirs, and fishing in the western Maya lowlands

Research in the Maya western lowland region in Tabasco, Campeche, and Chiapas, Mexico, provides insights on the use of ancestral Maya wetland agricultural fields, canals, and reservoirs to obtain crucial terrestrial and aquatic resources beginning in Preclassic times (Dunning et al. Reference Dunning, Ruhl, Carr, Beach, Brown and Luzzadder-Beach2020; Siemens and Puleston Reference Siemens and Puleston1972). New ethnographic and archaeological investigations, like at Mensabak, Chiapas, have produced data on aquatic species in the Maya diet over time. The first studies of Maya canals and raised fields took place in this region, including the Candelaria River watershed and experimental raised fields (camellones) in swamps (Pérez Sánchez Reference Pérez Sánchez2007). Recent projects here increased attention to Maya aquaculture and highlight the importance of Maya aquatic food resources (Gómez-Pompa et al. Reference Gómez-Pompa, Morales, Avilla, Avilla and Flannery1982; Martínez-García et al. Reference Martínez-García, Cifuentes-Alonso, Estrada Botello, Lopez Torres, Contreras-Garcia, Macdonal-Vera, González-Arévalo, Contreras-Sánchez and Fitzsimmons2022; Palma-Cancino et al. Reference Palma-Cancino, Martínez-García, Alvarer-González, Contreras, Gasca-Leyva, Peña and Camarillo-Coop2019). For instance, fisher-farmers at Tucta, Tabasco, have told me that the large-scale canals among their camellones provide much aquatic and terrestrial foods. Importantly, they do not have to feed the fish, turtles, and manatees in this resource-rich environment, and they only have to clean the canals of unwanted plants. Furthermore, travelers in Tabasco and Chiapas in the sixteenth century described the combined agricultural and aquatic resources in the Indigenous quotidian diet in the area:

These travelers also mentioned the frequent trips Maya took by canoe through rivers, lakes, and what appear to be canals in the region, when they gathered aquatic foods.

In my recent ethnographic observations on ecological aquaculture at Mensabak (or Metzabok), Chiapas (Figure 8), modern Maya benefit from aquatic resources in a waterscape modified extensively by their ancestors. Several lakes and many reservoirs at this site are interconnected with a lattice of streams and several canals (Figure 9). The small Naja River and several streams drain into the waterscape. The area consists of a wide, active productive floodplain with little long-term stagnant water, which is recharged with annual rainy season floods that add between five and fifteen meters of water. The large-scale, open, domesticated waterscape allows for much oxygen, sunlight, and freshwater to support the ecosystem (Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce and Costa-Pierce2014a; Hickling Reference Hickling1968). Ancestral Maya modified the Mensabak waterscape by digging out reservoirs, ponds, and canals in the floodplain. The waterscape features have feeder and exit canals to maintain water and nutrient quality for abundant aquatic plants and animals. Many canals, including four longer ones, and at least 23 reservoirs around the lakes can be seen in aerial imagery, especially in the southern areas. Ancestral Maya utilized the sediment from the canals, ponds, and reservoirs to construct earthen mounds at the Preclassic city of Noh K'uh located just south of the lakes (Juarez et al. Reference Juarez, Salgado and Hernandez2019). The terraforming for construction and subsistence was a community effort not organized only by elites, but by commoner corporate groups as well (Juarez Reference Juarez2022). In some parts of Noh K'uh the floodplain sediment fill is more than three meters under mounds and plaza floors (Figure 10). Furthermore, water from urban Noh K'uh drained into the Naja River to the west providing much nutrients and fertilizers to enhance the aquatic life in the ponds, reservoirs, and lakes (Yang Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994a). Potable water was available in cenotes, springs, and streams to the east and south.

Figure 8.

The location of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, and archaeological sites around Lake Tzibana. Redrawn from Juárez et al. (Reference Juarez, Salgado and Hernandez2019:Figure 1).

Figure 9.

Waterscapes near the Lacandon village of Mensabak (Metzabok). (a) Lakes, canals, and ponds near the Los Olores and Noh K'uh sites. Google Earth. (b) Ponds, canals, and drainage near Noh K'uh. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) map by Jackson Krause and Chris Hernandez, courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

Figure 10.

Excavation in plaza floor fill (Operation NK-1, north profile) at Noh K'uh, Mensabak. Note the fine, light-brown sediment fill layers with ceramic sherds above and below a gravel plaza floor. Photograph by Sebastián Salgado Flores, courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

Maya later built house platforms around the lakeshores during Postclassic times, but they used less lake sediment in their low platforms. Therefore, they may have cleaned but not created waterscape features. Postclassic Maya living around the lakes and canals also tossed considerable amounts of household trash, such as animal carcasses, mollusk shells, and broken cookware, into the water providing nutrition for plankton, fish, turtles, insects, and water plants (Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto Reference Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto1999). Waste waters draining from these Maya settlements also fertilized the aquaculture system as seen in other areas (Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto Reference Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto1999; Lozano and López Reference Lozano and López2001; Yang Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994a). During the rainy season, the Mensabak floodplain fills with water and fish, fowls, mollusks, crustaceans, and turtles expand to the canals, ponds, and reservoirs. Here the animals can be more easily captured. In the dry season the water level drops, leaving aquatic animals in the shallow features to be gathered with baskets, harpoons, nets, or by hand, like Lacandon Maya do. Additionally, project members have recovered bones of turtles and water fowl in excavations at Mensabak, and some fish (Kestle Reference Kestle2021; Sánchez López Reference Sánchez López2021a, Reference Sánchez López2021b), but we need to conduct fine wet-screening of excavated soil to recover more fish bones (Prestes-Carneiro et al. Reference Prestes-Carneiro, Béatrez, Shock, Prumers and Betancourt2019; Varela Scherrer Reference Varela Scherrer2021). Interestingly, cichlids and catfish, which thrive in ponds and canals of ecological aquaculture, dominate the Mensabak collections (Kestle Reference Kestle2021:98, 214).

Project members have mapped several Mensabak canals and ponds while investigating two canals with earthen berms and stone and wooden post features (Figure 11). The Late Postclassic site of Los Olores (Kestle Reference Kestle2021:63) near the concentration of canals and reservoirs on the south end of Lake Tzibana has several small constructions near a main canal (Figure 12). In this area, archaeologists explored and mapped several fish ponds of different sizes with interconnecting canals. Some canals are lined with stones and some reservoirs appear to have impermeable clay and stone linings like at other Maya sites (Dunning et al. Reference Dunning, Brewer, Carr, Hernández, Beach, Chmilar, Sierra, Griffin, Lentz, Luzzadder-Beach, Reese-Taylor, Saturno, Scarborough, Smyth, Valdez, Larmon, Lucero and Valdez2022:23–24; Freidel and Scarborough Reference Freidel, Scarborough and Flannery1982:140–142). The canals contain various linear stone features (Dunning et al. Reference Dunning, Brewer, Carr, Hernández, Beach, Chmilar, Sierra, Griffin, Lentz, Luzzadder-Beach, Reese-Taylor, Saturno, Scarborough, Smyth, Valdez, Larmon, Lucero and Valdez2022:27; Fedick Reference Fedick, Gómez-Pompa, Allen, Fedick and Jiménez-Osornio2003), including dams, sluices, and weirs seen in the Maya area (Figure 13). One excavation inside the main canal at Los Olores uncovered a series of small post holes with woven cane and packed clay that could have been a wooden fish weir or trap (Connaway Reference Connaway1982; Kestle Reference Kestle, Juarez, Deeb, Palka and Hernandez2013; Ringer Reference Ringer2008). An excavation of the canal near a platform recovered artifact deposits (Figure 14) with Late Postclassic pottery fragments, trash, and dark brown ceramic figurines in the upper layers. The dark stained figurines depict women, or more likely feminine water deities associated with water in Mesoamerican societies (Durán Reference Durán1951:219–221; Sandstrom Reference Sandstrom, Mathiowetz and Turner2021:35–37), which could have been used in ceremonies at the canal for the benefit of water, fish, and the fertility of the waterscapes, aquatic species, and humans. Contemporary Lacandon Maya at Mensabak, for example, believe fish populations and access to them are controlled by the guardian “mother of fish” named Xok (or sirena), a divine mermaid-like being, like in other Mesoamerican societies. Lacandon still make ceramic figurines representing these women with fish tails (Figure 3) who live in rivers, lakes, and reservoirs (Kováč Reference Kováč, Zralka and Helmke2013). Possible fishing gear, such as small ceramic net or fish line weights (not spindle whorls, and similar in size to fish net weights at K'axob, Belize; Bartlett Reference Bartlett and McAnany2004:266–268) and small obsidian fish arrow or points for reed harpoons (historic Lacandon used small thin chert fish arrow points; Rodríguez Galicia Reference Rodríguez Galicia2017:33–34; Ruz Reference Ruz2020:161), were also recovered in the upper levels of the Los Olores canals (Figure 15). Further down in the sediments excavators recovered Late Preclassic ceramic sherds (Figure 14) likely dating to the original canal construction and use. Few fish bones were found since the excavated earth was not fine-screened. Limited excavations on the low ground (bajo) between ponds and canals at Los Olores recovered ceramic sherds and animal bone, which may indicate trash mulching for cultivation here during the dry season and for fertilizing the aquatic system.

Figure 11.

Ancient canal constructions at Los Olores, Mensabak. (a) Linear stone and earthen berm features. Photograph by the author. (b) Possible fish weir or trap posts in an excavation profile (Operation LO-2-A-4; Kestle Reference Kestle, Juarez, Deeb, Palka and Hernandez2013). Courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

Figure 12.

Map of ancestral Maya stone canal features, fishpond reservoirs, spillways/dams or weirs, and cultivation spaces on the floodplain (bajo) at Los Olores, Mensabak. Map by Kestle, Deeb, Hernandez, and Palka. Courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

Figure 13.

Maya linear stone fish traps or weirs in Chiapas. (a) Weirs in a river at Huixtla. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, Estado de Chiapas 75, Tapachula Huixtla, PIC 1979.057; public domain. (b) Ancestral Maya stone weirs in a Mensabak stream. Photograph courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

Figure 14.

Ancestral Maya pottery from canal excavations at Los Olores, Mensabak. (a) Late Postclassic ceramics from upper levels, including a Matillas Fine Orange bowl sherd and a dark-stained female figurine. (b) Late Preclassic Chicanel ceramic rim sherds from lower levels. Photographs courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

Figure 15.

Late Postclassic Maya fishing gear from canal excavations at Los Olores, Mensabak. (a) Small obsidian arrow points. (b) Small rounded ceramic net or fish line weights (not spindle whorls). Photographs courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

Interestingly, the Mensabak waterscape effectively combined subsistence practices and religious ideology for Maya people. The religious connections to an origin place strengthened Mensabak as a site for Maya to create fields and fish ponds. Mensabak exemplified the Mesoamerican symbolic sustenance and water mountain (altepetl in Nahuatl) as seen in the cleft mountain in the Tepantitlan mural described above (Figure 2). At Mensabak (Figure 16), Mirador Mountain, called Chak Aktuun (Red Cave [Turtle] Mountain [with water]; Ruz Reference Ruz2020:141) by contemporary Lacandon, rises abruptly from the lake waters to dominate the local landscape (Palka Reference Palka2014). This pyramidal mountain is cleft and red-stained on its east side, riddled with large caves, and has an underwater sinkhole at the mountain's base that initiates the Tulijá River, a major waterway leading to Tabasco and the Gulf of Mexico, just to the west. Mesoamerican lore regarding gods splitting sustenance mountain to release maize, water, fish, and food (Taube Reference Taube1986) is materialized here. Indeed, Mirador Mountain (or El Mirador) is similar physically and religiously to Postectli (“Broken”) Mountain of Nahua people in Veracruz, who believe a water god broke its peak with thunderbolts (Sandstrom Reference Sandstrom, Mathiowetz and Turner2021:35–38). In this tall, pyramidal Postectli mountain with caves, the resident deity “our honored mother” (tonantzin) maintains a garden. “Water dweller” (apanchaneh), a mermaid-like feminine god with a fish tail, also resides in the mountain where she releases rain, fish (her children), and water plants to worshipers. Mensabak also parallels Aztec myth-histories regarding Aztlan: “In this place [in distant forests] there is a great mountain, in the middle of the waters…[and] in this mountain there are caves. [Here are] many ducks, herons, and water hens…[and] the people have enjoyed beautiful and large fishes and the freshness of the greenery on the lake's edges. They travel in canoes and make “canalized raised fields” (camellones, not “agricultural fields” as often translated) on top of the water to plant the vegetables that they ate, [together with] the great abundance of many species of fish” (paraphrased by the author; Durán Reference Durán1951:219–228).

Figure 16.

The split Mirador sustenance-water mountain of origin on an Aztlan-like island (top center) and Tlalocan paradise with canals, fish reservoirs, vegetation, and fields around lakes at Mensabak, Chiapas. Photograph courtesy of the Mensabak Archaeological Project.

The Aztlan origin mountain and watery place that formed a river was governed by a dark female deity called Coatlicue, recalling the Mensabak figurines. In ancient Maya art, the sustenance mountain can appear as a turtle shell (aktuun), which connects maize, water, and aquatic resources (Taube Reference Taube and Robertson1985). Additionally, at Mensabak a monumental, Late Postclassic Quetzalcoatl feathered serpent, who removed maize from sustenance mountain for people to consume in Mesoamerican mythology, was carved into a lakeside cliff to the east of Mirador Mountain (Lozada Toleda Reference Lozada Toleda2017; Palka Reference Palka2014:217; Taube Reference Taube1986). Hence, ancestral Maya dug canals and fish ponds, in addition to planting fields and gardens, across the waterscape to recreate an archetypical Aztlan sustenance water mountain and a Tlalocan-like paradise. To this day, Lacandon Maya believe that their rain god Mensabak, who resides in the land of the dead at a cliff with a Tlaloc design and many human burials at its base (Palka Reference Palka2014:290), split Mirador Mountain with a shooting star or lightning releasing its water, which recalls Mesoamerican beliefs. They also continue to use the ancestral fish ponds and cultivate crops around the modified waterscapes near this sacred mountain.

For Lacandon Maya in Chiapas and Petén, Guatemala, fish have been an important protein source (Marion Reference Marion1991). Early ethnographers recorded several Lacandon fish capturing techniques (Tozzer Reference Tozzer1907) that originated in ancient times. Their fishing strategies varied over the seasons and the fisher's skill sets. Generally, ethnographers described fish traps in different Lacandon settlements. The traps were constructed in conical shape from flexible vines and twigs that included a door. Embedded stakes fixed the traps in the water. Lacandon baited the trap with maize dough and closed the door with a cord when fish and crustaceans went inside. Many Lacandon also employed fish poison. They blocked parts of a stream, canal, or reservoir, where they added pieces of toxic (for fish only) vines. The vines caused the fish to suffocate and float to the surface. Moreover, skilled Lacandon took large numbers of fish in high or low waters with lances and arrows with chert, metal, or wood points while standing in canoes or on shore. Recently, hooks and nylon fish line have replaced many native Lacandon fishing techniques. People use hooks in canoes or from the shoreline to capture significant amounts of fish, but mostly during low water when fish take the bait more. It is possible past Maya used cords with thorn or bone hooks to fish as well. Today, Lacandon also utilize rubber band powered harpoons when underwater visibility is good.

At Mensabak, Lacandon Maya utilize streams, lakes, and ancient canals and ponds to acquire large amounts of fish. They have taken waterfowl, crustaceans, mollusks, and turtles as well. Lacandon people are still able to exploit the ancestral domesticated waterscapes at the site due to the durability of the ecological aquaculture system. Mensabak Lacandon mostly fish during the dry season when the waters are clearer and fish bite more. They currently use hooks, harpoons, cloth, buckets, their hands, and nets to obtain fish. They also occasionally use the bow and arrow, explosives, and even guns. The use of hook and line is the most common means of fishing as this gear is inexpensive and can be used by anyone. Considerable quantities of fish of different species and sizes, even tiny fish, are taken with this equipment. Importantly, Lacandon people obtain larger amounts of fish, including cichlids (including Cichlasoma urophthalmus, also Vieja and Archosentrus sp.; Petenia splendida), catfish (including Ictalurus furcates; Lacantunia enigmatica), and eels (Synbranchus sp.?) with long nets strung across streams, canals, ponds, and reservoirs for extensive fish capture in these restricted spaces (Figure 17). Importantly, the domesticated waterscapes support large numbers of native and introduced cichlids (especially tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus), which are omnivorous fish that thrive within and frequently reproduce in managed aquaculture environments. Cichlids (mojarras) likely were important aquaculture fish in ancient Mensabak, as they are today throughout Latin America (Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto Reference Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto1999; Lozano and López Reference Lozano and López2001). Several hundred pounds of cichlids are obtained with nets in a few hours. The fish swim into the nets or people scare them with poles towards the nets, which is a common fishing technique around the world. Additionally, Mensabak Lacandon acquire birds, turtles, crustaceans, crocodile eggs, mollusks, palms, wooden poles, reeds, and firewood (particularly hard dye wood) from the extensive Mensabak waterscapes and shorelines. They also place fields and gardens on the edges of canals and reservoirs, much like ancestral Maya wetland agriculture. The plant communities of the Mensabak domesticated waterscapes also provide shade for cooler water temperatures, water filtration, and food for aquatic animals in this ecological aquaculture system.

Figure 17.

Lacandon Maya fishing at Mensabak. (a) Canoe and net trap in a shallow canal and reservoir. (b) Native and invasive cichlids were netted, grabbed by hand, or speared. Photographs by the author.

The importance of fish and other aquatic animals, such as turtles, waterfowl, crustaceans, and mollusks, has also been identified in zooarchaeological and ethnographic research at the lowland Maya center of Palenque, Chiapas (Varela Scherrer and Liendo Stuardo Reference Varela Scherrer and Stuardo2022). In a revealing study, Varela Scherrer (Reference Varela Scherrer2021) demonstrates that fish bones remain encased in dirt clumps if they are not water-screened with fine mesh. In his faunal analysis at a Classic Maya elite residential group at Palenque, Varela Scherrer (Reference Varela Scherrer2021:175–177) discovered that around 80 percent of the animals consumed were aquatic. Besides turtles, waterfowl, and manatees, however, the largest number of specimens were fish at 70 percent of the bone assemblage—much more than deer and birds. Interestingly, the majority of the fish bones belonged to cichlids. As discussed above, various species of cichlids are native to the streams and lagoons of Chiapas, and they thrive in waterscapes modified by humans, making them perfect for ecological aquaculture (Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto Reference Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto1999; Prestes-Carneiro et al. Reference Prestes-Carneiro, Béatrez, Shock, Prumers and Betancourt2019). Catfish, white bass, and gars were also present in the Palenque faunal assemblages. Although these fish species can also live in aquaculture, cichlids dominate since they are omnivores, grow and reproduce quickly, thrive in different water conditions, and can be captured with a variety of methods in canals and reservoirs.

Significantly, evidence exists at Palenque for ancestral Maya modifications of the waterscapes for resource management and intensive subsistence. Liendo Stuardo (Reference Liendo Stuardo2002) identified wetland agricultural fields and canals in swampy areas near the site. He suggests that Maya elites organized labor to build the canals and harvest crops in the wetlands due to the presence of temples for elite ritual near these features. While providing drained land, water, and raised fields for crops, the waterscapes supported large amounts of fish, turtles, fowls, and other aquatic animals. It is likely that fish remains from the elite household middens mentioned above originated in these canals and reservoirs. Other investigators (French et al. Reference French, Duffy and Bhatt2012) studied the stone block tanks at Palenque to analyze how they stored water. These tanks allow for the circulation of water, making them also ideal for small fish ponds for intensive fish farming (Varela Scherrer Reference Varela Scherrer2021; Varela Scherrer and Liendo Stuardo Reference Varela Scherrer and Stuardo2022). Elite Maya made these tanks near their buildings; hence, they would have consumed the fish, turtles, and mollusks within them. In sum, the extensive waterscapes near Palenque provided predictable food and resources beyond agriculture and forest products for ancestral Maya living there.

In similar waterscapes northwest of Palenque and Mensabak, experimental raised fields and canals in Chontal Maya communities in Tabasco, Mexico, provide key comparative contexts for past Maya ecological aquaculture, domesticated waterscapes, and integrated subsistence. The Chontal camellones, or small artificial camel-back islands in wetlands, produce economically important food plants for Maya, in addition to large numbers of reeds and palms. The Chontal communities also raise large amounts of fish and turtles in cages and in blocked areas in the canals that they often release to augment natural populations (Pérez Sánchez Reference Pérez Sánchez2007). Chontal Maya concentrate on mojarra cichlids, white bass, crustaceans, and gars for fish farming, and they capture them with nets, cloths, and vine baskets in the shallow canal waters between the camellón fields and lagoons (Figure 4; Gómez-Pompa et al. Reference Gómez-Pompa, Morales, Avilla, Avilla and Flannery1982). Multiple families, and not elites or governments, organize the labor to maintain the raised fields and canals, in addition to the harvesting of plants and animals. Hence, besides being wetland fields, Chontal Maya domesticated waterscapes have served for ecological aquaculture and integrated subsistence, especially for the intensive harvesting of fish.

Comparisons: domesticated waterscapes, ecological aquaculture, and integrated subsistence

Following the background on Maya wetland agriculture and aquatic resources presented above, this section outlines new research perspectives and models regarding ancestral Maya integrated subsistence from studies of domesticated waterscapes and ecological aquaculture. Ecological aquaculture functions within local ecosystems for the development of human, plant, and animal communities in a wider context of the natural environment, and not within small aquaculture enclosed tanks (Bravo-Utrera Reference Bravo-Utrera, Hurford, Schneider and Cowx2009; Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce and Costa-Pierce2014a:343; Li Reference Li, Li and Mathias1994; Ling Reference Ling1977; Yang Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994a, Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994b). Ecological aquaculture is oriented to the creation and monitoring of intensive aquatic farming systems that enhance, not degrade, their natural environments. These large-scale systems produce valuable resources within a local ecology that are organized for people's subsistence and the resilience of the existing ecosystem; the natural ecosystem features, interactions, and functions are preserved. Ecological aquaculture works in multi-trophic levels with numerous interconnections between several inputs and outputs involving local resources, endemic species, and recycled wastes and materials (Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce and Costa-Pierce2014a:344). People design and construct the monumental hydraulic systems to maintain natural water and nutrient quality over time for the benefit of plankton, plant, fish, and other aquatic species (Lozano and López Reference Lozano and López2001). This subsistence system does not discharge artificial chemical pollution harmful to humans and the environment like other intensive farming and small enclosed aquaculture systems. Ecological aquaculture also focuses on the diversity of native plant and animal species that parallels the local ecology (Serrano et al. Reference Serrano, Reina, Martin, Reyes, Arechederra, León and Toja2006; Yang Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994a). Plants, animals, and fish are provided with their natural foods and exist in a local food chain (Hutchinson Reference Hutchinson2005:3–4). The various species are not impacted by unnatural stress, confinement, nor chemicals like in small-scale artificial aquaculture. Once an ecological aquaculture system has been created, it can be easily maintained as it functions as a long-lasting natural ecosystem, like lakes connected to streams (Hutchinson Reference Hutchinson2005:4). Human communities benefit greatly from the products and organization of ecological aquaculture, as do the animal and plant species in the domesticated waterscapes. Labor and resource organization are organized within communities, often in lineages or groups with occupational specializations, and not at the family level as with small household aquaculture tanks. Ecological aquaculture exemplifies one of the world's most efficient protein producers: inland fish farming.

Specialists examining the extensive inland fisheries in different societies have drawn attention to the utility of large-scale, multi-trophic ecological aquaculture and the presence of integrated subsistence (Bond Reference Bond and Aston1988; Chopin Reference Chopin, Christou, Savin, Costa-Pierce, Misztal and Whitelaw2013; Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce and Costa-Pierce2014b; Ling Reference Ling1977; Welcomme Reference Welcomme1979; Yang Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994a, Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994b). Ecological aquaculture across the world involves monumental waterscape modifications by humans for subsistence purposes. Lagoons, large reservoirs, and canals for fish are combined with extensive drained lands to grow plants. Ecological aquaculture systems benefit from moving water from streams or changing flood levels, which recharge the system with freshwater, nutrients, and animal populations (Lozano and López Reference Lozano and López2001). Feeder and exit canals circulate the water and nutrients so that aquatic plants and algae can thrive to feed insects, fish, turtles, water fowl, and other animals. The water provides nutrients for plants to grow within the waterscape and on its edges. The plants give shade, food, clean water, and oxygen to the aquatic animal and plant communities. The shade and large amounts of water reduce evaporation and excessive heating of the waters. Wind circulates across the expansive system providing oxygen to the water (Hickling Reference Hickling1968). Sunlight on the open waterscape enables the growth of water lilies, grasses, and algae that feed the plankton and insects at the base of the aquatic food chain. People living near chinampa canals and raised fields in central Mexico, for instance, understood these complex connections (Pérez Espinosa Reference Pérez Espinosa and Rabiela1985) as seen with fish consuming human excrement and plant matter in canals near a raised field in the Borgia Codex (Figure 18). Ecological aquaculture systems utilize such wastes for fertilizer for plants and plankton to maintain the biomass in the engineered aquatic features (Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto Reference Gamboa-Pérez and Schmitter-Soto1999; Yang Reference Yang, Li and Mathias1994a).

Figure 18.

Postclassic central Mexican chinampa raised fields (camellones) with fish in canals consuming human excrement and corn husks. The center fish and maize husk may serve as fertilizer on a wetland field for ecological aquaculture (Codex Borgia, p. 24; Public domain, Wikipedia).

This type of domesticated waterscape is resilient with humans constructing and cleaning canals and setting up blockage points with weirs, nets, and dams to capture fish and animals, as seen in modern Maya communities (Figure 19). The fish and plants do not need to be fed, nor the water filtered as with small aquaculture tanks. Fish eat the plants and invertebrates, and humans eat the fish and plants. Some fish and plants are consumed by non-human species, or die, but the large-scale domesticated waterscapes still provide ample resources for people. The system is also large enough to allow canals and ponds to be set aside for fish and plant reserves that, if not harvested, can spread into the system during flooding, stocking, migration, or when people open canals. For comparison, the domesticated waterscapes at Mensabak and other Maya sites resemble the modern fish ponds, canals, orchards, and fields on a monumental scale near villages at Doñana, Spain, where terrestrial and aquatic foods are abundant (Serrano et al. Reference Serrano, Reina, Martin, Reyes, Arechederra, León and Toja2006). These domesticated waterscapes have provided much aquatic and terrestrial resources for humans across time due to the systems durability and high productivity. In this manner, ecological aquaculture can be linked to domesticated landscapes and waterscapes were people modify their environment for the sustainability of plant and animal populations for human subsistence, as discussed in the introduction (Terrel et al. Reference Terrell, Hart, Barut, Cellinese, Antonio Curet, Denham, Kusimba, Latinis, Oka, Palka, Pohl, Williams, Haines and Staller2003). People enable plant and animal communities to thrive in local ecological settings to put more food on the table and acquire adequate materials for their everyday lives (Baker Reference Baker, Thurston and Fisher2007; Nietschmann Reference Nietschmann1973; Terrell and Hart Reference Terrell, Hart, David and Thomas2008). People domesticate their physical and biotic environments to expand and integrate their subsistence regimes as much as they assist in the domestication of species. Clearly, fishing and aquatic resource management can be added to the “subsistence spreadsheet” in a subsistence ecology (Nietschmann Reference Nietschmann1973; Terrell et al. Reference Terrell, Hart, Barut, Cellinese, Antonio Curet, Denham, Kusimba, Latinis, Oka, Palka, Pohl, Williams, Haines and Staller2003) from domesticated waterscapes and ecological aquaculture in the Maya region.

Figure 19.

Modern K'iche’ Maya fish weirs in a stream in highland Guatemala. (a) Linear stone features and wooden poles. (b) Close up of trap and fish nets. Photographs courtesy of Jean Pierre Courau.

In a comparative example of domesticated waterscapes, researchers reported a large-scale canal and fish weir system for ecological aquaculture and integrated subsistence at Bangweulu, Zambia (Hickling Reference Hickling1961; McKey et al. Reference McKey, Durecu, Pouilly, Bearez, Ovando, Kalebe and Huchzermeyer2016). Here people enabled the growth of aquatic resources by making extensive canals and permanent earthen fish weirs across 7,000 km² of floodplain (McKey et al. Reference McKey, Durecu, Pouilly, Bearez, Ovando, Kalebe and Huchzermeyer2016:14939, supporting information Figures S3, S6). Some earthen fish weirs are five km long and constructed from sediments from nearby canals, all providing much fish. The seasonal floodwaters from the river and canals are only up to 1.5 meters deep, like Maya canals, thus making for prime conditions to capture fish, including cichlids and catfish (Hickling Reference Hickling1961:231). Importantly, fish are taken in nets and weirs year-round in both high and low waters (Hickling Reference Hickling1961:229–230). One annual yield on 22,500 hectares of floodplain was 800,000 kg of fish, or 35.5 kg per hectare (McKey et al. Reference McKey, Durecu, Pouilly, Bearez, Ovando, Kalebe and Huchzermeyer2016:14941). For total dried fish, 500 to 900 tons per year have been the norm (Hickling Reference Hickling1961:236). Palms with edible fruits, large snails, water birds, reeds, and antelopes and other potential economically important species are also found in this ecological aquaculture system (McKey Reference McKey, Durecu, Pouilly, Bearez, Ovando, Kalebe and Huchzermeyer2016:1–2 of the supporting information file).

Similar ecological aquaculture and integrated subsistence regimes are also seen on the Ouémé River floodplain in Benin (Jackson et al. Reference Jackson, Adite, Roach and Winemiller2013). In this region, people have managed waterscapes and adjacent lands for fishing and cultivation, mainly through the excavation of extensive whedo finger-shaped fish ponds and interconnecting canals in the watershed. Part-time fishermen and small holders of different communities manage the system (Brugere Reference Brugere, Halwart and van Dam2006:49; Welcomme Reference Welcomme1979:180). When floodwaters expand, ponds fill with water and fish for human use, like in the Maya area. People remove sediment from the ponds and then block them to retain the fish. Traps are used, often concealed in vegetation islands, in addition to nets, baskets, and weirs to capture fish (Welcomme Reference Welcomme1979, Reference Welcomme, Crisman, Chapman, Chapman and Kaufman2003). Fish yields are impressive with ranges between 2,000 and 1,500 kilograms of fish per hectare (Welcomme Reference Welcomme1975:28). People along the Ouémé River also pursue agriculture by cultivating maize, tomatoes, and peppers between the ponds (Welcomme Reference Welcomme1979:242). Additionally, rice is grown in the water works (Welcomme Reference Welcomme1975:43) showing the importance of wetland agriculture combined with ecological aquaculture. Furthermore, people raise cattle for food and aquatic fertilizer on levees built to manage local flooding.

The ancestral Hawaiian multi-trophic ecological aquaculture and integrated subsistence system also resembles the Maya case with fields, fish ponds, and water circulation from canals (Figure 20). An early visitor described the impressive Hawaiian domesticated waterscapes:

Figure 20.

Ancestral Hawaiian domesticated landscape and waterscape with shallow canals, fishpond fields, and fish reservoirs in an integrated subsistence system with ecological aquaculture. Redrawn from Costa-Pierce (Reference Costa-Pierce1987:324).

The Hawaiian waterscapes also supported large fields of taro, fruit, and other valuable plants. Fish and animal waste fed the plants and plankton; plant detritus, plankton, and insects fed the fish. Large fish ponds were also dug out near rivers in upland integrated farming zones and along the coastline to produce aquatic resources (Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce1987). These ponds were often excavated by hand in natural depressions or lakes like ancestral Maya did. The earth was piled to form embankments around the water features (Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce and Costa-Pierce2014b:35). Sluice gates, dams, and ditches among the canals and reservoirs allowed for the control of water input and drainage to recharge the system. In the ponds, people maintained large freshwater fish populations, such as mullet, perch, and gobies, in addition to prawns and algae for consumption (Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce1987:325). The fish were caught in nets, traps, baskets, and by hand. Fish yields from the ponds range from 500,000 to 2,000 kilograms per year, depending on the size of the ponds and human intervention for their upkeep and exploitation (Costa-Pierce Reference Costa-Pierce1987:324–325).