Upland Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands: Ancient Maya Soil Conservation in Northwestern Belize

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In the 1970s scholars began to accept Maya terracing as the manifestation of ancient intensive agriculture and large populations. We examine many ancient terraces and berms excavated in the Three Rivers region of Belize, synthesize the geography and suggest the intent of terracing across the Maya Lowlands, and analyze the history of terracing and soil erosion. Terraces occur in several slope positions and diverted and slowed runoff, to build up planting surfaces that could maximize soil moisture. The first accelerated soil erosion occurred during the Preclassic period (1500 b.c.‐a.d. 250). Maya terracing started in the Early Classic period (a.d. 250–600) and spread across the Lowlands with the great population expansion of the Late/Terminal Classic period (a.d. 600–900). Thereafter, the Maya would largely forsake terracing. Though abandoned for a millennium, many terraces still function in today's tropical forests and burning milpas.

Human and natural impacts on fluvial and karst depressions of the Maya Lowlands

“…It is becoming clear, however, that bajos contain a variety of ecosystems and soil associations that are more compatible with traditional Maya agriculture, and that many farmers use them today (Culbert et al, 1989(Culbert et al, , 1996Kunen et al, 2000). Indeed, significant ancient Maya manipulation occurred, especially focused on the ecotonal bajo-margins, which are elevated, have accumulating sediments, and hold evidence for water and soil management (Scarborough and Gallopin, 1991;Beach et al, 2002;Dunning et al, 2002;Gunn et al, 2002a).…”

“…The Maya started building soil conservation features as early as c. 2500 BP (Preclassic), but most of these systems date to 1700-1100 BP (Classic). They range widely in size, exist in many slope positions, and often contain evidence for intensive cultivation on the soils that have formed behind them (Beach, 1998a;Beach et al, 2002Beach et al, , 2003. Another ancient Maya adaptation was in urban geomorphology, which involved aqueducts and causeways that channelized and diverted water around, away, and under their sites from the Guatemalan Highlands to Copán, Honduras and to Palenque, Mexico.…”

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

“…Most mounds are less than two meters tall. The residences themselves are associated with adjacent or closely situated areas of agricultural production in the form of terraces (Beach et al, 2002;Hageman, 2004a).…”

Edaphic influences on plant community adaptation in the Chiquibul forest of Belize

“…The limestone-derived San Pastor soils have been subject to continual erosion as a consequence of surface water runoff on the associated hilly, karstic landscape, whereas the granite-derived MPR soils have formed largely uninterrupted for millennia, subject to little erosion, from the stable and relatively flat granite substrate. Intensive use of the San Pastor soils by ancient Mayan civilisations, including the construction of vast terraces (Kunen, 2001;Beach et al, 2002), no doubt also contributed to the erosion of these Inceptisols, thus continually exposing fresh limestone parent material.…”