SPECIAL SECTION: HISTORICAL CLIMATOLOGY IN THE MAYA AREA,
PART 2 | |
CLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY IN THE RISE OF MAYA
CIVILIZATION: A preliminary perspective from northern Peten
Richard D.
Hansen
a1, Steven
Bozarth
a2, John
Jacob
a3, David
Wahl
a4 and Thomas
Schreiner
a5
a1 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics,
3845 Slichter Hall, University of California, Los
Angeles, CA 90095-1567; Foundation for Anthropological Research
and Environmental Studies (FARES), Route 3, Rupert, ID 83350,
USA
a2 Palynology Laboratory, Department of Geography,
213 Lindley Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence,
KS 66045, USA
a3 Texas Sea Grant and Texas Cooperative Extension,
1322 Space Park, A-256, Houston, TX 77058, USA
a4 Department of Geography, 507 McCone Hall, 4740,
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-4740,
USA
a5 Department of Architecture, 232 Wurster Hall,
1800, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1800,
USA
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AbstractArchaeological and ecological investigations in the Mirador
Basin of northern Guatemala have recovered archaeological,
phytolith, palynological, and pedological data relevant to the
early occupation and development of Maya civilization in a specific
environmental matrix. Fluctuation in vegetation types as evident
in cores and archaeological profiles suggest that the seasonally
wet, forested bajo environment currently found in the
northern Peten was anciently more of a perennially wet marsh
system that may have been heavily used and influenced by large
Preclassic occupations. Data suggest that climatic and
environmental factors correspond with the cultural process in
the Mirador Basin, and research in progress is oriented to further
elucidating these issues.
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