Scale and Intensity in Classic Period Maya Agriculture: Terracing and Settlement at the "Garden City" of Caracol, Belize

Chase, Arlen F.; Chase, Diane Z.

doi:10.1525/cag.1998.20.2-3.60

Cited by 112 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…It has subsequently become evident that LiDAR is also useful in tropical forested landscapes, as has been shown in the point cloud that was produced around Caracol, Belize [20,34,35], the piedmont zone of Chiapas, Mexico [36], and Angkor, Cambodia [37]. At Caracol, because the landscape was largely undisturbed by modern settlement, and because more than 25 years of mapping had already been undertaken at the site, it was possible to verify the accuracy of the LiDAR data with already recorded sections of residential groups [38], terraces [39], and road systems [40]. Once this was done, the effectiveness of LiDAR as a method of archaeological survey in the Maya area was established [41,42]-and its effectiveness in similar tropical forest environments in other parts of the world has now been verified [37].…”

Section: Caracol Lidar Surveymentioning

confidence: 98%

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

Chase

Awe

et al. 2014

Remote Sensing

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18 different sites within this region. Thus, a large body of archaeological research provides both the temporal and spatial parameters for the varied ancient Maya centers that once occupied this area; importantly, these data can be used to help interpret the collected LiDAR data. The goal of the 2013 LiDAR campaign was to gain information on the distribution of ancient Maya settlement and sites on the landscape and, particularly, to determine how the landscape was used between known centers. The data that were acquired through the 2013 LiDAR campaign have significance for interpreting both the composition and limits of ancient Maya political units. This paper presents the initial results of these new data and suggests a developmental model for ancient Maya polities.

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Section: Caracol Lidar Surveymentioning

confidence: 98%

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

Chase

Awe

et al. 2014

Remote Sensing

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“…Approximately 4 km 2 of terracing also was recorded (A. Chase and D. Chase 1998a). In general, however, because the terraces were ubiquitous on the overgrown karst landscape, further documentation was needed.…”

Section: History Of Work At the Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The construction of this terracing involved removing soil and stone to bedrock and then reconstructing the landscape with stone berms and soil fill (A. Chase and D. Chase 1998a). It is telling that only one surface quarry is currently known from Caracol (ca.…”

Section: Agricultural Terracing and Sustainable Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides the capital investment in agricultural terraces throughout the city (A. Chase and D. Chase 1998a), Caracol's landscape is infilled with regularly spaced residential groups and a series of dendritic roads that integrated the continuously distributed population with the epicenter of the site; the roads also connected the site's inhabitants to an economic system focused on strategically located marketplace plazas where both foreign and local goods were available (A. D.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Chase

2016

J Archaeol Res

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Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it is one of the largest, if not the largest Classic period Maya site in the southern Maya Lowlands, home to over 100,000 people at its height between AD 600 and 700. The investigations at Caracol underscore the utility of long-term archaeological projects incorporating large-scale settlement study that combine excavation with varied research designs and the use of a contextual approach. By employing Maya epigraphic history, traditional archaeology, and modern technology like LiDAR, research at Caracol details the rise, maintenance, and fall of an ancient Maya city, affording a large window into ancient Maya lifeways. Archaeological work provides evidence of sustainable agriculture, a market economy, city planning that included a road system, the impact of warfare on the site's inhabitants, the sociopolitical status of women, the role that archaeology can play in refining written history, and the significance of commemorating the cyclical passage of time to the ancient Maya. This article

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“…Like the Río Bec ridges, those of Becan would have been constructed during the Late Classic period (Bejuco phase; a.d. 600-700). Functionally, the Far West Bajo berms, located in a zone of agricultural production distant from residential areas, are interpreted as water control features (see also Chase and Chase [1998] at Caracol and Fedick et al [2000] in Yalahau region) in association with a terracing system. At Becan (Thomas 1981:88, 94, 106), besides directing runoff, some ridges may have been used as terraces, raised walkways, or property boundaries (for discussion of field walls and terracing in northwestern Belize, see also Beach et al [2002]; Hughbanks [1998]; Tourtellot et al [2003]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agrarian Features, Farmsteads, and Homesteads in the Río Bec Nuclear Zone, Mexico

Lemonnier

Vannière

2013

Ancient Mesoam

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With its overall settlement pattern more dispersed than those of other contemporary Maya sites, and many associated land use features still preserved, the spatial layout of the Río Bec nuclear zone (159 ha) leads us to give priority to the hypothesis of a production economy based on infield agriculture. Through a multidisciplinary and multiscalar research strategy, including several geoarchaeological methods developed on three different spatial scales, it is possible to forward a model of territorial occupation and land use for the Río Bec apogee period (a.d. 700-850). Geographical and archaeological data, along with chronological and spatial analyses, allow us to reconstruct a built field system made up of distinct agricultural production units. From a socioeconomic perspective, the model suggests that agricultural production was managed at the household scale and that each unit or farmstead was distinct and autonomous from its neighbors.For the past 60 years, the societal-environmental relationship particular to the Southern Maya Lowlands has been debated

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Scale and Intensity in Classic Period Maya Agriculture: Terracing and Settlement at the "Garden City" of Caracol, Belize

Cited by 112 publications

References 32 publications

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

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

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Agrarian Features, Farmsteads, and Homesteads in the Río Bec Nuclear Zone, Mexico

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