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Ancient Maya Life in the Far West Bajo: Social and Environmental Change in the Wetlands of Belize

by Julie L. Kunen

University of Arizona Press, 2004
eISBN: 978-0-8165-4940-5 | Paper: 978-0-8165-2235-4
Library of Congress Classification F1435.3.A37K86 2004
Dewey Decimal Classification 972.826

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Human activity during centuries of occupation significantly altered the landscape inhabited by the ancient Maya of northwestern Belize. In response, the Maya developed new techniques to harvest the natural resources of their surroundings, investing increased labor and raw materials into maintaining and even improving their ways of life.

In this lively story of life in the wetlands on the outskirts of the major site of La Milpa, Julie Kunen documents a hitherto unrecognized form of intensive agriculture in the Maya lowlands—one that relied on the construction of terraces and berms to trap soil and moisture around the margins of low-lying depressions called bajos. She traces the intertwined histories of residential settlements on nearby hills and ridges and agricultural terraces and other farming-related features around the margins of the bajo as they developed from the Late Preclassic perios (400 BC-AD 250) until the area's abandonment in the Terminal Classic period (about AD 850).

Kunen examines the organization of three bajo communities with respect to the use and management of resources critical to agricultural production. She argues that differences in access to spatially variable natural resources resulted in highly patterned settlement remains and that community founders and their descendents who had acquired the best quality and most diverse set of resources maintained an elevated status in the society.

The thorough integration of three lines of evidence—the settlement system, the agricultural system, and the ancient environment—breaks new ground in landscape research and in the study of Maya non-elite domestic organization. Kunen reports on the history of settlement and farming in a small corner of the Maya world but demonstrates that for any study of human-environment interactions, landscape history consists equally of ecological and cultural strands of influence.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Julie L. Kunen is a Diplomacy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science assigned to the Forestry Team of the US Agency for International Development in the Office of Natural Resources Management, where she focuses on the sustainable development of tropical forests.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
PREFACE	vii
   Acknowledgments	viii
1.	THE EVOLVING MAYA LANDSCAPE		1
	Maya Place and Time	1
	Wetlands Research	3
	The Patchy Lowland Environment	5
	Resource Specialization and
		Bajo Communities	6
2.	INVESTIGATING THE BAJO	9
	Previous Research in Northern Belize	9
		La Milpa Archaeological Project	9
		Programme for Belize Archaeological
			Project	11
		Ancient Maya Land and Water
			Management Project	12
		Blue Creek Project	13
	The Bravo Hills Region	14
	Research Methods	17
		Location of Survey Blocks
			and Transects	18
		Topographic Mapping Methods	19
		Settlement Survey Methods	20
		Sample Transect Survey Methods	21
		Excavation Methods	21
		Vegetation Mapping Methods	22
3.	ENVIRONMENT OF THE BAJO INTERIOR	24
	A Cross-section of the Far West Bajo	25
		Bajo Microenvironments	26
		Vegetation Mapping Results	27
		Rockpiles in the Bajo Interior	29
	Resources of the Bajo Interior	32
	Paleoecological Research in
		the Far West Bajo	34
4.	AGRICULTURAL ZONES	36
	Agricultural Zone 1	38
	Agricultural Zone 2	41
	Agricultural Zone 3	45
	Agricultural Zone 4	47
	Agrotechnology	49
		Chronology of Agricultural Zones	49
		Artifacts from Agricultural Contexts	51
		Vegetation Zones of Agricultural
			Features	52
		Construction and Function of
			Agricultural Features	53
	Accretionary Development of
		Intensive Agriculture	54
5.	BAJO COMMUNITIES	56
	Residential Group and Structure Typologies	57
	The Bajo Hill Site	59
		Group A	59
		Group B	63
		Group C	64
		Groups D-G	65
		Group H	66
		Group I	66
		Group J	67
		Group K	67
		Group L	67
		Group M	68
		Group N	68
		Group O	68
		Group P	69
		Group Q	69
	La Caldera	69
		Group A	69
		Group B	73
		Groups C and D	74
		Group E	74
		Group F	75
		Groups G and H	77
		Group I	77
		Groups J-W	78
		Group X	78
		Groups Y-FF	80
	[iii]
	Thompson's Group	80
		Group 10	82
		Group 6	82
		Patio-focused Groups	83
		Platform Pairs and Isolates	83
	Other Residential Groups	83
		Survey Block 2	83
		Survey Block 4	84
		Survey Block 5	85
		Survey Blocks 6 and 7	86
	Occupational History of the
			Residential Zones	87
		Late Preclassic	88
		Early Classic	88
		Early Late Classic	89
		Late/Terminal Classic	89
		Measures of Architectural Complexity	90
	Residential Zones in Retrospect	93
6.	SPATIAL AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
	OF THE FAR WEST BAJO LANDSCAPE	96
Zones of Use: The Tripartite Division
		of the 	Landscape	96
	Bajo Community Organization	99
		Uniqueness of Principal Groups	100
	Settlement, Ecology, Domestic Economy
		and		the Principle of First Occupancy	102
	Resource Specialization	105
7.	LIFE IN A BAJO COMMUNITY	196
	The Bajo Interior	107
	Bajo Margins	108
	Upland Villages	109
	In the Bajo, Looking Out	116
APPENDIX A: Ceramics from Excavations
in the Far West Bajo	118
APPENDIX B: Flakes from Excavations
	in the Far West Bajo	127
APPENDIX C: Lithic Tools from Excavations
	in the Far West Bajo	135
APPENDIX D: Groundstone from Excavations
	in the Far West Bajo	143
APPENDIX E: Obsidian from Excavations
	in the Far West Bajo	144
APPENDIX F: Fauna and Shell from Excavations
	in the Far West Bajo	146
APPENDIX G: Prehistoric Burials in the
	Far West Bajo, Belize	147
	Julie Mather Saul and Frank P. Saul
REFERENCES	157
INDEX	169
ABSTRACT, RESUMEN	173
	FIGURES
1.1.	The Maya lowlands, showing sites and regions discussed in the text	xii
1.2.	The regional distribution of wetlands and pertinent sites in the Maya lowlands	2
2.1	The Río Bravo Conservation Management Area, showing location in Belize, major
	sites of the area, and physiography	10
2.2	Howler monkey in an area of upland forest	15
2.3	Mixed palm-transitional forest	16
2.4.	Scrub bajo forest	17
2.5.	Corozo Bajo forest	17
2.6.	The Far West Bajo, showing the position
			of survey blocks, transects, and
		Drainage 3	19
3.1Cross-section of the Far West Bajo along Transect 1, showing changes in elevation, topography, and vegetation	25
3.2.Schematic classification of bajo
		vegetation types	26
3.3.Vegetation map of the Far West Bajo, showing numbered survey blocks and transects	28
3.4Locations of rockpiles in the Far West
		Bajo interior	29
3.5.A rockpile in the Far West Bajo	30
3.6.A Maya farmer in his field in Peten, Guatemala in front of a bean crib
		constructed of wood and thatch	33
4.1.	An agricultural terrace on the edge
	of the Far West Bajo	36
4.2.	A terrace after excavation, showing
	a limestone cobble wall and underlying
	fill on bedrock	37
4.3.	A berm on the edge of the Far West Bajo	37
4.4.	A berm during excavation, showing a
	layer of rocky fill that comprises the
	interior of the feature	37
4.5.	A small rockpile during excavation,
	showing the cobble fill of the feature	38
4.6.	Map of Agricultural Zone 1	39
4.7.	Op. V58A, an excavation on a terrace	40
4.8.	Op. V59A, an excavation on a berm	41
4.9.	Op. V59B, an excavation on a rockpile	41
4.10.	Map of Agricultural Zone 2	42
4.11.	Map of Agricultural Zone 3	46
4.12.	Map of Agricultural Zone 448
5.1.	Laura Levi's typology of residential compounds	57
5.2.	Typical forms of buildings found
	in the Maya lowlands	58
5.3. 	Map of the Bajo Hill site	60
5.4.	One of two cached bifaces found
	in the Group A pyramid	62
5.5.	Profile of Op. V39C	62
5.6.	Profile Op. V42A	63
5.7.	Hematite discs associated with
	Burial 2 in Group B	64
5.8	Profile of Op. V42C	64
5.9.Profile of Op. V52B	67
5.10.Map of La Caldera	70
5.11.Profile of Op. V62A	71
5.12.A plaster-topped bench with masonry
		veneer stones during excavation of
		Op. V62A	72
5.13.Profile of Op. V63A	73
5.14.Profile of Op. V66D	76
5.15.A shell pendant found during
		excavation		of Op. V66D	77
5.16.Profile of Op. V67A	77
5.17.Profile of Op. V68A	79
5.18.A ceramic curtain rod holder in situ
		in a masonry wall during excavation
		of Op. V68A	79
5.19.Map of Thompson's Group	81
5.20.A shell rasp found during
		excavation		of Op. V60B	85
5.21.Residential occupation by
		chronological period	90
5.22.Projected structure density
		by chronological period	90
5.23.Principal architectural groups: Bajo
		Hill site, La Caldera, and Thompson's
		Group	93
6.1.Schematic view of the organization of
		the landscape in a bajo community	99
6.2.Map showing the spatial relationship of berms to intermittent stream channels
		in the Far West Bajo	100
	TABLES
3.1.	Vegetation zones of residential and
		agricultural features	27
3.2.	Artifacts from rockpile excavations in extraction zones	30
4.1.	Ceramics from agricultural contexts
	by time period	50
4.2.	Artifacts from excavations in
	agricultural contexts	52
4.3.	Agricultural features in vegetation zones	53
5.1.	Description of groups in the Bajo Hill Site	59
5.2.	Description of Groups in La Caldera	71
5.3.	Description of Groups in
	Thompson's Group	82
5.4.	Description of other residential groups	84
 

Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Bajo Hill Site (Belize)Mayas Agriculture, Mayas Antiquities, Excavations (Archaeology) Belize, Wetland agriculture Belize, Terracing Belize, Irrigation farming Belize, Belize Antiquities

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