Fruit, Fiber, Bark, and Resin: Social Organization of a Maya Urban Center

Abstract

Quantitative analysis of 3579 trees recorded in the Classic Maya city of Cobá, Quintana Roo, Mexico, indicates a strong relation between the location and quantity of certain trees producing fruit, fiber, bark, and resin, high-status vaulted architecture, and their distance from the center of the site out toward the fringes. The relationships suggest agreement between the residence pattern of Cobá and Diego de Landa's 16th-century class-oriented description of Maya towns during preconquest times.

An integrated assessment of archaeobotanical recovery methods in the Neotropical rainforest of northern Belize: flotation and dry screening

“…Additionally, Prehispanic codices (Bricker, 1986), and murals (Saturno, 2006), demonstrate that some forms of written evidence remain to be tapped Pohl, 1981). Another fruitful avenue of research is the search for relict groves of cultivated taxa now living within the confines of the Neotropical rainforest (e.g., Atran, 1993;Chen, 1987;Dunham, 1996;Folan et al, 1979;Gó mez-Pompa et al, 1990;Graham, 1987;McKillop, 1996;Puleston, 1978). Taken together, the isotopic, linguistic, and modern floristic approaches can vastly enhance our understanding of ancient Maya plant use.…”

Classic Period collapse of the Central Maya Lowlands: Insights about human–environment relationships for sustainability

“…Other evidence is indirect, including orchard gardens, managed forests, and possible cultivation along modified edges of seasonal wetlands (66). The evidence for orchard gardens is based on the archaeological record of vegetative remains in middens, suggesting a long history of a strong reliance on fruits and nuts (84)(85)(86)(87), and walled spaces around house sites, indicating orchard gardens as described by the Spaniards (83, 88). The abundance of economic species found today among Maya ruins (89) (65,71).…”

Rare Animals, Poor People, and Big Agencies: A Perspective on Biological Conservation and Rural Development in the Himalaya

“…Semi-domesticated forest community types which, as in the Jiri example, have been shaped to provide fodder trees, are not short-lived accommodations. Not only do the patterns take many years to emerge, but evidence from Latin America, of the many-hundred year persistence of cultivated patterns of forest trees around ruined Mayan cities, suggests a remarkable biological durability for this kind of forest once it has been created (Folan et al, 1979;Gomez-Pompa, 1981). Unfortunately, as these diverse forests are cut for the sake of the most simple and most elemental product -firewood -the village-level environmental knowledge and expertise necessary to make the best use of the domestic forest is soon lost as well.…”