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

这项研究的目的是了解在热带环境中导致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承载能力较低的地区支持这种情况发生的土地和水管理策略。考古学提供了一种获得洞察力的宝贵方式，因为它有可能在更长的一段时间内追踪这种过程。辛辛那提大学的一组研究人员与一个国际同事小组一起确定了一个遗址，通过挖掘和实地研究，他们将能够实现这一目标。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力、农业和森林管理战略的调查，将提供深入的见解，以扩大对社会复杂性的上升、特别是政治经济的扩张以及一般而言的文化演变轨迹的理解。这项研究将为研究生提供培训，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。位于玛雅低地的雅克斯诺卡考古遗址提供了一个测试案例。它在前古典主义时期早期发展成为一个大型城市中心，在更广泛的地区范围内幸存下来，并在史前时代后期继续被占领。据推测，与Yaxnohcah位于两个Bajos(低地沼泽区)之间的复杂地形以及许多海湾相关联，创造了一个排水、土壤类型和森林覆盖非常多样化的景观，为早期居住者提供了一个理想的地点，可以试验各种种植和管理做法，随着时间的推移，这些做法会适应不断变化的环境和文化环境。特别是，这项研究涉及Yaxnohcah液压系统的发展，特别是它们对农业活动、森林砍伐和Bajos的开发作出了贡献。2014年获取了工地区域和周围地区的激光雷达图像，从而可以选择各种地形环境、可能的古代农田、水库/美洲虎鱼和居民区进行挖掘和取芯，从而提供关于Yaxnohcah现有环境背景和社会阶层范围内的资源管理的数据。

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.