Soils and Land-Use in an Urban Context - Past, Present and Future: Lamanai, Belize from 1600 B.C. to A.D. 1990

该项目旨在调查伯利兹Lamanai玛雅遗址两千年来人类与环境的相互作用，重点是了解城市背景下的土地利用及其对土壤的影响。过去的土地利用继续影响着今天的社会生态系统。在这些人类活动的交汇处，过去和现在都有土壤。与古代城市相关的人为城市土壤和沉积物——即在过去受人类活动影响的聚点内形成的土壤和沉积物（Lehmann and Stahr 2007: 248-249）（如建筑活动、生产、废物处理、城市农业和耕作）——是过去人类与环境相互作用的遗产，保留了过去土地利用的物理和化学痕迹，同时也是当前社会生态相互作用的积极组成部分。位于伯利兹北部的Lamanai遗址，提供了一个难得的机会来研究3000年来玛雅城市背景下人类与环境的相互作用。占领和土地使用可以追溯到大约公元前1600年（Hanna et al. 2016; Rushton et al. 2020），直到该遗址在公元1990年成为保护区。从公元前300年到1530年代西班牙征服前一个世纪，它一直是城市和商业中心，特别是在玛雅崩溃（公元）期间800-950)，当时该地区的其他城市经历了社会政治崩溃和被遗弃。Lamanai的建筑环境是广泛的，但是三个代表（大部分但不是全部）前古典时期、古典/后古典时期和殖民时期的行政中心已经被绘制和挖掘出来（例如Graham 2004； Pendergast 1981）。场地不同区域的土地利用将通过挖掘和土壤链研究进行检查，重点是土壤剖面作为土地利用变化的序列档案。将使用一系列技术（粒度分析、磁化率、土壤化学、微形态分析、微化石分析）分析选定剖面的样品的物理和化学性质，以确定过去土地使用的性质；与不同土地用途有关的资源和材料；以及相关城市土壤的形成过程和性质。对每个区域的沉积历史的研究，扩展到城市周边区域，将允许探索以下探究线：(1)已知Lamanai的建筑环境（公民仪式建筑区域，住宅，广场，道路[sacbes]），随着时间的推移，建筑环境（覆盖空间）和开放空间（厨房花园，城市农业，花园）之间的关系是什么？在区域社会不稳定时期，城市景观是否发生了变化？(2)土壤和沉积物的形成和性质是否与过去的人类活动和相关材料（矿物建筑、木材、家庭垃圾、灰烬、木炭、人类遗骸）的腐烂有关？不同土地使用环境（建筑和开放/“绿色”）下的土壤和沉积物的特性是什么？都市农业的特点和影响与腹地农业有何不同？(3)过去城市土地利用对现代地表和地下土壤的形成和性质有何影响？如何利用这些知识为与城市土地利用管理有关的讨论提供信息，以促进土壤健康和生态系统服务？研究结果将对围绕玛雅城市化特征的辩论产生影响，并将允许评估不同形式的城市土地利用和使用的资源/材料导致的土壤富集和景观退化。研究结果将有助于制定城市土地利用战略，以促进土壤健康和环境可持续发展的城市。这项研究还将用于提高公众对社会与土壤关系的认识和参与。

The project aims to investigate over two millennia of human-environment interactions at the Maya site of Lamanai, Belize, with a focus on understanding land use in an urban context and its impact on soils. Past land use continues to influence socio-ecological systems today. At the interface of these human activities, past and present, lie soils. Anthropic urban soils and sediments associated with ancient cities - that is, the soils and sediments that formed within past settlements influenced by human activities (Lehmann and Stahr 2007: 248-249) (e.g. building activities, production, waste disposal, urban agriculture and cultivation) - are legacies of past human-environment interactions, retaining the physical and chemical traces of past land use, whilst also being active constituents of current socio-ecological interactions. The site of Lamanai, northern Belize, provides the rare opportunity to study human-environment interaction within an urban Maya context over a period of 3,000 years. Occupation and land use can be traced from ca. 1,600 B.C. (Hanna et al. 2016; Rushton et al. 2020) to the time the site was made a reserve in A.D. 1990. It stood as an urban and commercial centre from about 300 B.C. to about a century before the Spanish conquest in the 1530s and notably, remained so during the Maya collapse (~A.D.800-950), when other cities in the region experienced socio-political collapse and abandonment. The built environment at Lamanai is extensive, but three civic-administrative epicentres representing (largely but not entirely) Preclassic, Classic/ Postclassic, and colonial period occupations have been mapped and excavated (e.g. Graham 2004; Pendergast 1981). Land use in the different zones of the site will be examined through excavation and study of soil catenas, focusing on soil profiles as sequenced archives of land-use change. Samples from selected profiles will be analysed for their physical and chemical properties using a range of techniques (particle size analysis, magnetic susceptibility, soil chemistry, micromorphological analysis, microfossil analysis) to determine the nature of past land use; the resources and materials associated with different land uses; and the formation processes and properties of associated urban soils. The study of the sedimentary history in each zone, expanding to peri-urban zones, will allow the following lines of inquiry to be explored:(1) Given what is known about the built environment at Lamanai (civic-ceremonial building zones, residences, plazas, roads [sacbes]), what is the relationship between the built environment (covered space) and open space (kitchen gardens, urban farming, middens) over time? Did the urban landscape change during periods of regional societal instability?(2) Can the formation and properties of soils and sediments be linked to past human activity and the decay of associated materials (mineral-based construction, timber, household waste, ash, charcoal, human remains)? What are the properties of soils and sediments associated with different land-use contexts (built and open/'green')? How do the characteristics and impact of urban agriculture differ from those of agriculture carried out in the hinterland?(3) What are the effects of past urban land use on the formation and properties of modern surface and sub-surface soils? How might this knowledge be used to inform discussions relating to urban land-use management to promote soil health and ecosystem services?Findings will bear on debates surrounding the character of Maya urbanism and will allow for the assessment of both soil enrichment and landscape degradation resulting from different forms of urban land use and resources/ materials used. Results will contribute to the development of urban land-use strategies to promote soil health and environmentally sustainable cities. The research will also be used to raise public awareness of, and engagement with, society's relationship with soils.