Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Water-Level Fluctuations and Ancient Maya Wetland Management and Settlement in the Yalahau Region of the Northern Maya Lowlands

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Studies of human/environment interactions in the Maya Lowlands are at the forefront of global efforts to assess the human dimensions of climate change. Over two decades of study have illustrated the environmental consequences of Maya engineering and agriculture. Most recently, studies examining sediments, isotopes and fossils from lake cores suggest links between climate-induced environmental changes like droughts, and cultural changes in the Maya region. One area where environmental change may have significantly affected Maya history is in the Yalahau region of northern Quintana Roo, Mexico. Archaeological investigations by the Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project documented dense Maya settlements, and evidence that the Maya manipulated conditions in local wetlands for food production. It is believed that the Yalahau Maya first built their towns and worked the wetlands during a surge of occupation sometime between 100 B.C. and A.D. 350/400, then abandoned the region before returning nearly 900 years later. Interestingly, abandonment of the Yalahau region occurs during the Classic period, a time of prosperity in much of the neighboring Maya realm. Mounting evidence of sea level shifts in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and changes in precipitation patterns across the northern Yucatan spanning the time of human settlement in theYalahau region presents the possibility that the Yalahau Maya abandoned the area when environmental changes impacted productive activity in the wetlands.In this study we propose that past changes in sea levels and rainfall patterns caused fluctuations in the water table, which caused expansion, contraction and/or lateral migration of wetland and associated ecological communities in the Yalahau region. We further propose these environmental changes impacted human subsistence production in the wetlands, and may explain the unusual settlement history in the Yalahau region. Under the supervision of Dr. Scott L. Fedick, Lance Wollwage will reconstruct environmental records from lagunas (ponds) and cenotes (natural wells or sinkholes) to examine the timing and nature of environmental changes, and human responses in Yalahau region over the last 3,000 years. It is also possible that the data collected on environmental changes will provide a paleoclimatic record for a considerable part of the Holocene. Sediments from the Yalahau wetlands may hold a Classic period climate record that is only minimally affected by the ravages of Classic Maya farming. Archaeologists interested in human settlement, the development of agriculture, the "Classic Period Collapse", and other ecological issues in the Maya Lowlands, as well as environmental scientists from other disciplines will find the data of interest. Paleoenvironmental inferences from this project will provide a basis for understanding Holocene natural history, cultural prehistory, and long-term human/environment interactions in the Maya Lowlands.