Dissertation Research: Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Palenque Region, Mexico: The Organization of Agricultural Production in a Classic Maya Center

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Under the direction of Dr. Robert Drennan, Mr Rodrigo Liendo will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological research at the Mayan site of Palenque, Mexico which flourished at the height of classic Maya civilization. His immediate goal is to reconstruct the settlement pattern and agricultural system and to accomplish this he will first conduct a systematic regional survey of an area of 65 square km. This will include surface collection and recording of architectural data that will provide a synchronic view of settlement organization and distribution. It will also identify the likeliest locations of elite and non-elite households and show the relationship between these and administrative centers. Households will be classified according to status on the basis of qualitative architectural indicators and well as quantitative indicators such as size and number of associated structures. The survey will also incorporate information on agricultural features such as terraces and their relation to elite and non-elite residences. Local topography, household ecological zone location, site area, slope, soil and vegetation characteristics will be noted and the data will be recorded and manipulated in a Geographic Information System. During a second phase of the work, excavation will be conducted in a sample of 12 households to collect ceramics and other materials which will permit determination of household status. On this basis it will be possible to determine the relationship between agricultural organization and elite control. One triumph of Maya civilization rests on the fact that it developed in a region which can support only limited populations today. The Mayans developed agricultural techniques which permitted dense population aggregations in a relatively hostile environment and embedded them in a social structure which allowed the development of a complex hierarchical form of organization. As agronomists have learned, the central difficulties in developing small scale agricultural systems in the tropics involve `social` rather than `technical` factors. Because it was so successful, archaeologists wish to reconstruct the social context within which the Mayan agricultural system developed and have proposed very different hypotheses. Some believe that it was highly centralized and administered from either a single central place or from smaller dispersed administrative centers. Others think that much less vertical integration was present and that small farmers thrived in a relatively independent context. Mr. Liendo's research directly addresses this question. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide information on the management of small scale tropical agricultural systems which may prove of practical use. It will yield data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in training a promising young scientist.