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

本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。研究人员希望了解在潜在的低承载能力地区支持此类事件的土地和水管理策略。考古学提供了一种有价值的方法来获得洞察力，因为它有可能在很长一段时间内追踪这些过程。辛辛那提大学的一组研究人员与一组国际同事一起确定了一个地点，通过挖掘和实地研究将使他们能够实现这一目标。对在不断变化的环境和政治经济条件下允许持续占领的水利、农业和森林管理策略的调查将提供见解，这将扩大对社会复杂性上升的理解，特别是政治经济的扩张，总的来说，文化演变的轨迹。这项研究将为研究生提供培训，研究结果将通过机构网站、大众传播媒介、本科和研究生课程以及科学期刊和会议报告传播。位于玛雅低地的Yaxnohcah考古遗址提供了一个测试案例。它在前古典时期早期发展成为一个大型城市中心，在更大范围的地区崩溃中幸存下来，并在史前时代后期继续被占领。据推测，Yaxnohcah位于两个bajos（低地沼泽地区）之间的复杂地形以及许多海湾创造了一个具有多种排水和土壤类型以及森林覆盖的景观，为早期居住者提供了一个理想的地点，可以实验各种各样的耕作和管理实践，这些耕作和管理实践随着时间的推移适应不断变化的环境和文化环境。研究特别涉及Yaxnohcah的水力系统的发展，特别是因为这些系统有助于农业活动、森林砍伐和bajos的开发。2014年获得的现场区域和周边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/瓜达斯和居民区进行挖掘和取心，从而提供跨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.