Ancient Maya Regional Settlement and Inter-Site Analysis: The 2013 West-Central Belize LiDAR Survey

Chase, Arlen F.; Chase, Diane Z.; Awe, Jaime J.; Weishampel, John F.; Iannone, Gyles; Moyes, Holley; Yaeger, Jason; Brown, M. Kathryn; Shrestha, Ramesh; Carter, William E.; Díaz, Juan Carlos Fernández

doi:10.3390/rs6098671

Cited by 78 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…We now recognize however that this is not a purely modern phenomenon. Recent research, including aerial and satellite reconnaissance and archaeological prospection on an unprecedented scale worldwideparticularly in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Mesoamerica (Fletcher et al, 2004;Fletcher, 2009)have stimulated discussion on the phenomena of low-density urbanism in the pre-industrial world (Isendahl and Smith, 2013;Chase et al, 2014aChase et al, , 2014b.…”

Section: Greater Angkor As a Low Density Urban Complexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaging the Waters of Angkor: A Method for Semi‐Automated Pond Extraction from LiDAR Data

Hanus

Evans

2015

Archaeological Prospection

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This article presents new archaeological data concerning the Greater Angkor region, home to successive capitals of the medieval Khmer Empire from the ninth to fifteenth centuries ad. Angkor is recognized as one of the most extensive low‐density urban complexes of the pre‐industrial world. One of the most striking features in the landscape of Angkor is the enormous assemblage of hydraulic infrastructure, including two artificial reservoirs each covering around 15 km2. However, in parallel to this massive, state‐level system of water management, we also see evidence at Angkor of a smaller‐scale system of household or community ponds in the urban core. These were described by the Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan, who visited Angkor in the late thirteenth century ad. His account includes the important information that each cistern was used by one to three families. The validity of this historical account can now be assessed using a precise map of the archaeological landscape that was created in 2012 using airborne laser scanning (‘ALS’ or ‘LiDAR’, light detection and ranging). The LiDAR data allow us to arrive at new insights into the demography of medieval Angkor. Using an algorithm for semi‐automatic pond detection in the ALS‐derived data it was possible to map over three thousand cisterns and from this to make inferences about population density in central Angkor. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Greater Angkor As a Low Density Urban Complexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaging the Waters of Angkor: A Method for Semi‐Automated Pond Extraction from LiDAR Data

Hanus

Evans

2015

Archaeological Prospection

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“…In addition to the ongoing work at Caracol (Chase et al, 2014), recent projects in the Maya area-ranging from mapping the site of Mayapán (Hare et al, 2014), to measuring the effects of ancient Maya land use on contemporary forest canopy (Hightower et al, 2014), to assisting landscape archaeology studies (Hutson, 2015;Prufer et al, 2015)-have utilized lidar to examine various facets of ancient Maya settlement and ecology. Despite these advances, an underutilized aspect of lidar application in the Maya area is in the study of water management, specifically the analysis of how a society captures, controls, stores, and distributes water resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employing airborne lidar and archaeological testing to determine the role of small depressions in water management at the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico

Brewer

Carr

Dunning

et al. 2017

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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High-resolution airborne lidar has been employed in the Maya lowlands to examine landscape modifications, detect architectural features, and expedite and expand upon traditional settlement surveys. Another potentially beneficial-and to-date underutilized-application of lidar is in the analysis of water management features such as small reservoirs and household storage tanks. The urban center of Yaxnohcah, located within the Central Karstic Uplands of the Yucatan Peninsula, provides an ideal test case for studying how the residents of this important Maya community managed their seasonally scarce water resources at the household scale. We employ an integrative approach combining lidar-based GIS analysis of 24 km 2 of the site area, ground verification, and excavation data from five small depressions to determine their function and the role they may have played in water management activities. Our research shows that some, but not all, small depressions proximate to residential structures functioned as either natural or human-made storage tanks and were likely an adaptive component of expanding Middle Preclassic to Classic period urbanization at the site. Thus, while lidar has revolutionized the identification of topographical features and hydrologic patterns in the landscape, a combination of ground verification and archaeological testing remains necessary to confirm and evaluate these features as potential water reservoirs.

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“…Further research into residential water management went hand‐in‐hand with the advent of LiDAR survey in the Maya region. By providing large‐scale, detailed settlement and landscape information, this technology has created a paradigm shift in Maya research (A. F. Chase et al, ; A. F. Chase, D. Z. Chase, Fisher, Leisz, & Weishampel, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity in ancient Maya water management strategies and landscapes at Caracol, Belize, and Tikal, Guatemala

Chase

Cesaretti

2018

WIREs Water

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The Classic Period Maya cities of Caracol and Tikal possessed unique urban morphologies of water management. In part, the built environment at each city reflects adaptations to the hydrology of their landscapes. Caracol exists in a rugged, hilly, and karst environment; its residents invested their landesque capital in constructing agricultural terraces and residential reservoirs. These features created Caracol's anthropogenic garden‐city landscape. This landscape was unified through a dendritic causeway system and the distributed nature of monumental nodes. The landscape of Tikal exhibits a lower slope, is generally smoother, and its residents invested in constructing a large and condensed site core along with their monumental reservoirs. Additionally, the people of Tikal invested in bajo margin agriculture. The differences in urban form and hydrology conditioned the resulting water management strategies employed by both cities; the resulting built environmental features are preserved in the archeological record. Because of its higher slopes, Caracol's landscape presents a greater hazard for soil erosion and faster rainfall runoff. Yet, the construction of distributed residential reservoirs and agricultural terraces acted to collect rainfall, increase soil saturation, and reduce this runoff. Tikal's landscape on the whole presents fewer hazards in terms of soil erosion but perhaps greater issues from torrential rainfall. Water management infrastructure at both cities reflects both their unique urban morphologies and environmental conditions. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change

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Ancient Maya Regional Settlement and Inter-Site Analysis: The 2013 West-Central Belize LiDAR Survey

Cited by 78 publications

References 47 publications

Imaging the Waters of Angkor: A Method for Semi‐Automated Pond Extraction from LiDAR Data

Imaging the Waters of Angkor: A Method for Semi‐Automated Pond Extraction from LiDAR Data

Employing airborne lidar and archaeological testing to determine the role of small depressions in water management at the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico

Diversity in ancient Maya water management strategies and landscapes at Caracol, Belize, and Tikal, Guatemala

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