Long-Term Human Land, Forest, and Water Management in a Tropical Environment

这项研究的目的是了解导致热带环境中复杂的大规模社会群体出现的过程。研究人员希望了解土地和水资源管理战略，支持在潜在承载能力低的地区发生这种情况。考古学提供了一种有价值的方式来获得洞察力，因为它有可能在很长一段时间内追踪这些过程。来自辛辛那提大学的一组研究人员和一个国际同事小组已经确定了一个地点，通过挖掘和实地研究，他们将实现这一目标。调查的水利，农业和森林管理策略，允许在不断变化的环境和政治经济条件下的持续占领，将提供见解，将扩大对社会复杂性的上升，特别是政治经济的扩张，并在一般情况下，文化演变的轨迹的理解。这项研究将为研究生提供培训，研究结果将通过机构网站、大众媒体、本科生和研究生课程以及科学期刊和会议报告进行传播，位于玛雅低地的Yaxnohcah考古遗址就是一个试验案例。 它在前古典时期早期发展成为一个大型城市中心，在更广泛的区域崩溃中幸存下来，并在史前时代后期继续被占领。据推测，Yaxnohcah位于两个bajos（低地沼泽区）之间，地形复杂，许多海湾形成了一个排水系统和土壤类型以及森林覆盖多样性的景观，为早期居住者提供了一个理想的位置，以试验各种各样的栽培和管理实践，随着时间的推移，这些实践适应了不断变化的环境和文化环境。特别是，研究涉及Yaxnohcah的液压系统的开发，特别是因为它们有助于农业活动，森林砍伐和开发bajos。2014年获取的现场区域和周围地区的激光雷达图像允许选择各种地形设置，可能的古代农田，水库/aguadas和居民区进行挖掘和取芯，从而提供关于Yaxnohcah存在的各种环境背景和社会阶层的资源管理数据。

The goal of this research is to understand the processes which led to the emergence of complex large scale social groups in tropical environments. The researchers wish to understand the land and water management strategies that support such occurrences in regions of potentially low carrying capacity. Archaeology provides a valuable way to gain insight because it has the potential to trace such processes over extend periods of time. A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati together with an international group of colleagues have identified a site, which through excavation and field research will permit them to achieve this goal. Investigation of the hydraulic, agricultural, and forest management strategies that allowed the persistent occupation in the face of changing environmental and political economic conditions will provide insights that will broaden understanding of the rise of social complexity, the expansion of political economy specifically and, in general terms, the trajectory of cultural evolution. The research will provide for training of graduate students and the results will be disseminated through institutional websites, popular media, undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as through scientific journals and conference presentations.The archaeological site of Yaxnohcah located in the Mayan lowlands provides a test case. It grew into a large urban center early in the Preclassic period, survived a broader regional collaples and continued to be occupied in later prehistoric times. It is hypothesized that the complex topography associated with Yaxnohcah's location between two bajos,(lowland swampy areas) as well as the many embayments created a landscape with a great diversity of drainage and soil types and forest cover that provided early occupants with an ideal location to experiment with a wide array of cultigens and management practices that were adapted over time to changing environmental and cultural circumstances. In particular, the research addresses the development of hydraulic systems at Yaxnohcah, especially as they contributed to agricultural activity, forest clearance and exploitation of the bajos. The acquisition of LiDAR imagery of the site area and environs in 2014 allows selection of a variety of topographic settings, probable ancient agricultural fields, reservoirs/aguadas, and residential areas for excavation and coring, thus providing data on resource management across the spectrum of environmental contexts and social strata present at Yaxnohcah.