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29 results

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  • Water uncertainty, ritual predictability and agricultural canals at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

  • Vernon L. Scarborough, Samantha G. Fladd, Nicholas P. Dunning, Stephen Plog, Lewis A. Owen, Christopher Carr, Kenneth B. Tankersley, Jon-Paul McCool, Adam S. Watson, Elizabeth A. Haussner, Brooke Crowley, Katelyn J. Bishop, David L. Lentz, R. Gwinn Vivian
  • Journal:
    Antiquity / Volume 92 / Issue 364 / August 2018
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    22 August 2018, pp. 870-889
    Print publication:
    August 2018
    • Article
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  • The Pueblo population of Chaco Canyon during the Bonito Phase (AD 800–1130) employed agricultural strategies and water-management systems to enhance food cultivation in this unpredictable environment. Scepticism concerning the timing and effectiveness of this system, however, remains common. Using optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments and LiDAR imaging, the authors located Bonito Phase canal features at the far west end of the canyon. Additional ED-XRF and strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analyses confirm the diversion of waters from multiple sources during Chaco’s occupation. The extent of this water-management system raises new questions about social organisation and the role of ritual in facilitating responses to environmental unpredictability.

Tikal
  • Paleoecology of an Ancient Maya City
  • Edited by David L. Lentz, Nicholas P. Dunning, Vernon L. Scarborough
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    23 February 2015
  • The primary theoretical question addressed in this book focuses on the lingering concern of how the ancient Maya in the northern Petén Basin were able to sustain large populations in the midst of a tropical forest environment during the Late Classic period. This book asks how agricultural intensification was achieved and how essential resources, such as water and forest products, were managed in both upland areas and seasonal wetlands, or bajos. All of these activities were essential components of an initially sustainable land use strategy that eventually failed to meet the demands of an escalating population. This spiraling disconnect with sound ecological principles undoubtedly contributed to the Maya collapse. The book's findings provide insights that broaden the understanding of the rise of social complexity - the expansion of the political economy, specifically - and, in general terms, the trajectory of cultural evolution of the ancient Maya civilization.

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