TRACING WETLAND FORMATION BY GEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC FACTORS IN THE MAYA LOWLANDS

Evidence for ancient wetland agriculture is appearing across the Americas, and recent excavations and remote sensing are showing a wider distribution of ancient fields and a more precise understanding of their chronology and geological interactions. This paper explains our developing models for ancient Maya interactions with wetlands based on recent work in remote sensing and field validation to distinguish these features in Northwestern Belize. We focus on perennially moist wetland sites near the ancient Maya sites of Blue Creek, La Milpa, and Lamanai. We discuss newly identified and cored sites at Chan Cahal, and our continuing research at Chawak But'o'ob, Sierra de Agua, and Lamanai in 2011 and 2012. This work builds on our growing database of paleoecological proxies and imagery analysis to understand wetland formation and human use. We identify and estimate the extent and nature of wetland agriculture based on a variety of remote sensing imagery and analyses such as carbon isotopic ratios, elemental analysis, pollen, and soil and water chemistry. Pollen, phytoliths, and stable carbon isotopes show that wetland agriculture was a complex and intensive system that covered a large area and at least 18 different zones in Northern Belize alone. Although sites are geochemically and areally distinct, most evidence indicates wetland agriculture was a Classic Period (1400-1100 BP) adaptation to water table rise and the farm land expansion was during the period of highest population and land use intensity.