Arising from the Bajos: The Evolution of a Neotropical Landscape and the Rise of Maya Civilization

• Published in: Annals of the Association of American Geographers 2002-06, Vol.92 (2), p.267-283
• Main Authors: Dunning, Nicholas P., Luzzadder-Beach, Sheryl, Beach, Timothy, Jones, John G., Scarborough, Vernon, Culbert, T. Patrick
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Ancient history; Antiquity. Middle ages; Archaeology; Bgi / Prodig; Buried soils; Civilization; Clay soils; Evolution; Forest soils; geoarchaeology; Geography; Historical section; History; History of geographical sciences and discoveries; Landscape; Latin America; Lowlands; Maya; Maya archaeology; Mayan civilization; Milpas; Nature and Society; neotropics; Sedimentary soils; Vegetation structure; Wetland soils; Wetlands
• ISSN: 0004-5608; 2469-4452; 1467-8306; 2469-4460
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8306.00290

The conjunctive use of paleoecological and archaeological data to document past human-environment relationships has become a theoretical imperative in the study of ancient cultures. Geographers are playing leading roles in this scholarly effort. Synthesizing both types of data, we argue that large karst depressions known as bajos in the Maya Lowlands region were anthropogenically transformed from perennial wetlands and shallow lakes to seasonal swamps between 400 bc and ad 250. This environmental transformation helps answer several questions that have long puzzled scholars of Maya civilization: (1) why many of the earliest Maya cities were built on the margins of bajos, (2) why some of these early centers were abandoned between 100 bc and ad 250, and (3) why other centers constructed elaborate water storage systems and survived into the Classic period (ad 250 -900). The transformation of the bajos represents one of the most significant and long-lasting anthropogenic environmental changes documented in the pre-Columbian New World.