INVESTIGATING ANCIENT MAYA WETLAND FIELD SOIL AND WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE BIRDS OF PARADISE CANAL SYSTEM

The anthropogenic landscape alteration of wetland fields in the Birds of Paradise (BOP) complex in the upland interior region of northwestern Belize illustrates wide sweeping landesque capital investment by the ancient Maya that persisted for millennia. Recent field excavations employed multi layered techniques to investigate and quantify the significant landesque capital investment at this site. Lidar analysis and paleoecological proxies are paired to provide a more thorough understanding of the extent, chronology, and use of these well-studied wetland fields. Large scale collective construction investments were required to build and maintain these field systems. Previous studies of BOP revealed that the system began approximately 2000 years before present and survived two critical drought events that occurred in the both the Late Preclassic and Terminal Classic periods. This research identifies potential factors for system changes through lidar analysis and hydrologic modeling of the BOP wetland field complex and its water management infrastructure paired with a strong radiocarbon chronology and palaeoecological proxies to reconstruct the production and capacity of this system. The new flow modeling includes sourcing from three main drainages to produce a series of west to east major large canals and smaller and more rectilinear north to south canals.