Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:55:03.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Preclassic Maya Water System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Vernon L. Scarborough
Vernon L. Scarborough*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Late Preclassic Maya center of Cerros, northern Belize (300 B.C. to A.D. 150) has revealed evidence of a sophisticated water control system. Canals and raised field platforms have been examined inside the community center. An underlying limestone caprock was systematically removed during the quarrying of monument fill to maintain adequate drainage in the community. The result was a man-made relief or watershed across the entire core site area. The role of present and past microenvironments at Cerros is addressed.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 720 - 744
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adams, R. E. W. (editor) 1977 The Origins of Maya Civilization. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Adams, R. E. W. (editor) 1980 Swamps, Canals, and the Locations of Ancient Maya Cities. Antiquity 54(212):206–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, R. E. W., Brown, W. E. Jr. , and Culbert, T. P. 1981 Radar Mapping, Archaeology, and Ancient Maya Land Use. Science 213:1457–1462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, J. W. 1977a The Archaeological Ceramics of Becan, Campeche, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 43. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Ball, J. W. 1977b An Hypothetical Outline of Coastal Maya Prehistory: 300 B. C. -A. D. 1200. In Social Process in Maya Prehistory, edited by Hammond, N., pp. 167–196. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ball, J. W. 1977c The Rise of the Northern Maya Chiefdoms: A Socioprocessual Analysis. In The Origins of Maya Civilization, edited by Adams, R. E. W., pp. 101–132. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Ball, J. W., and V., E. W. Andrews 1978 Preclassic Architecture at Becan, Campeche, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute, Occasional Paper 3. Tulane University, New Orleans Google Scholar
Belisle, J., Musa, S., and Shoman, A. 1977 Special Issue: The Rio Hondo Project, an Investigation of the Maya of Northern Belize. The Journal of Belizean Affairs 5. The Belize Institute for Social Research and Action, Belize City.Google Scholar
Cliff, M. B. 1980 Excavations in a Late Preclassic Nucleated Village. In Archeo Jogical Investigations at Cerros, Belize: Interim Report, edited by Freidel, D. A. and Robertson, R.. Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, in Press.Google Scholar
Coe, W. R. 1965 Tikal, Guatemala and Emergent Maya Civilization. Science 147:1401–1419.Google Scholar
Cooke, C. W. 1931 Why the Maya Cities of the Peten District, Guatemala, Were Abandoned. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 21:287.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. M., and Hutchinson, G. E. 1963 El Bajo de Santa Fe. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series 53, Part 7. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M. 1966 The Aboriginal Cultural Geography of the Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia. Ibero-Americana 48. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M. 1982 Hydraulic Agriculture in the American Tropics: Forms, Measures, and Recent Research. In Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston, edited by Flannery, K. V., pp. 181–203. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Donaghey, S., Cartwright, J., Carr, H. S., Beetz, C. P., Messick, P., Ward, J., and Hammond, N. 1979 Excavations in Platform 34, Cuello, May-June, 1978. In Cuello Project 1978 Interim Report. Archaeological Research Program, Publication 1. Rutgers, New Brunswick.Google Scholar
Eaton, J. 1975 Ancient Agricultural Farmsteads in the Rio Bee Region of Yucatan. Contribution of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Number 27. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Feldman, L. H. 1979 Snails, Clams, and Mayas: The Use of Mollusks to Measure Ecological Change. Ms. on file, Departmentof Anthropology, Southern Methodist University.Google Scholar
Folan, W. J., Fletcher, L. A., and Kintz, E. R. 1979 Fruit, Fiber, Bark, and Resin: Social Organization of a Maya Urban Center. Science 204:697–701.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. A. 1978 Maritime Adaptation and the Rise of Maya Civilization: The View from Cerros. Belize. In Prehistoric Coastal Adaptations, edited by Stark, B. and Voorhies, B., pp. 239–265. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. A. 1979 Culture Areas and Interaction Spheres: Contrasting Approaches to the Emergence of Civilizationin the Maya Lowlands. American Antiquity 44:36–54.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. A., and Scarborough, V. 1982 Subsistence, Trade and Development of the Coastal Maya. In Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memoryof Dennis E. Puieston, edited by Flannery, K. V., pp. 131–151. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, J. F. 1981 Material Culture and Patterns of Artifact Consumption and Disposal at the Maya Site of Cerrosin Northern Belize. Ph. D. dissertation. Southern Methodist University. University Microfilms, Arm Arbor.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. 1963 Agricultural Involution. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Harrison, P. D. 1977 The Rise of the Bajos and the Fall of the Maya. In Social Process in Maya Prehistory, edited by Hammond, N., pp. 470–509, Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Harrison, P. D. 1982 Subsistence and Society in Eastern Yucatan. In Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puieston, edited by Flannery, K. V., pp. 119–128. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Harrison, P. D., and Turner, B. L. 1978 Prehispanic Maya Agriculture. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hauck, F. R. 1973 The Edzna Hydraulic Complex: Initial Investigation. Unpublished Master's thesis. Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.Google Scholar
Haury, E. 1976 The Hohokam. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Healy, P. F., Waarden, C. van, and Anderson, T. J. 1980 Nueva evidencia de antiguas terrazas Mayas en Belice. America Indigena 40:773–796.Google Scholar
Hunt, E., and Hunt, R. C. 1974 Irrigation, Conflict, and Politics. In Irrigation's Impact on Society, edited by Downing, T. E. and Gibson, M., pp. 129–157. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Kirke, C. M. 1980 Prehistoric Agriculture in the Belize River Valley. World Archaeology 11:281–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundell, C. L. 1937 The Vegetation of the Peten. Carnegie Institution, Publication 478. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Lundell, C. L. 1940 The 1936 Michigan-Carnegie Botanical Expedition to British Honduras. In Botany of the Maya Area. Carnegie Institution, Miscellaneous Paper 14, Publication 522:1–57. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Matheny, R. T. 1976 Maya Lowland Hydraulic Systems. Science 193:639–646.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathewson, K. 1976 Specialized Horticulture in the Guatemalan Highlands: the Tablon System of Panajachel. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Millon, R. 1962 Variations in Social Responses to the Practice of Irrigation Agriculture. In Civilizations in Desert Lands. University of Utah, Anthropological Paper 62:56–88. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Price, B. J. 1971 Prehispanic Irrigation Agriculture in Nuclear America. Latin American Hesearch fleview 6:3–60.Google Scholar
Puieston, D. E. 1973 Ancient Maya Settlement Patterns and Environment at Tikal, Guatemala: Implications for Subsistence Models. Ph. D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Puieston, D. E. 1977 The Art and Archaeology of Hydraulic Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands. In Social Process in Maya Prehistory, edited by Hammond, N., pp. 449–467. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Puieston, D. E., and Puieston, O. S. 1971 An Ecological Approach to the Origins of Maya Civilization. Archaeology 24:330–337.Google Scholar
Reeves, C Jr. 1970 Origin, Classification, and Geologic History of Caliche of the Southern High Plains, Texas, and Eastern New Mexico. Journal of Geology 78:352–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, D. S. 1976 Middle Preclassic Settlement in the Central Maya Lowlands. Journal of Field Archaeology 3:425–445.Google Scholar
Ricketson, O. G., and Ricketson, E. B. 1937 Uaxactun, Guatemala, Group E—1926-1931. Carnegie Institution Publication 477. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Robertson-Freidel, R. A. 1980 The Ceramics from Cerros: A Late Preclassic Site in Northern Belize. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T., and Price, B. J. 1968 Mesoamerica: The Evolution of a Civilization. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Scarborough, V. L. 1980 The Settlement System in a Late Preclassic Maya Community: Cerros, Northern Belize. Ph. D. dissertation, Southern Methodist University, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Scarborough, V. L. , B. Mitchum, H. Carr, and D. Freidel, 1982 Two Preclassic Ballcourts at the Lowland Maya Center of Cerros, Northern Belize. Journal of Field Archaeology 9:21–34.Google Scholar
Siemens, A. H. 1982 Prehistoric Agricultural Use of the Wetlands of Northern Belize. In Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston, edited Flannery, K. V., pp. 205–222. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Siemens, A. H., and Puleston, D. E. 1972 Ridged Fields and Associated Features in Southern Campeche. American Antiquity 37:228–239.Google Scholar
Steward, J. (editor) 1955 Irrigation Civilizations: A Comparative Study. Pan American Union Social Science Monograph 1. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Thomas, P. M. Jr. 1981 Prehistoric Maya Settlement Patterns at Becan, Campeche, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 45. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. S. 1931 Archaeological Investigations in the Southern Cayo District. British Honduras. Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 301. Chicago.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. S. 1974 Canals of the Rio Candelaria Basin, Campeche, Mexico. In Mesoamerican Archaeology: New Approaches, edited by Hammond, N. , pp. 297–302. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L., II 1974 Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands. Science 185:118–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B. L., and Harrison, P. D. 1978 Implications for Agriculture for Maya Prehistory. In Prehispanic Maya Agriculture, edited by Harrison, P. D. and Turner, B. L., pp. 337–374. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L., and Harrison, P. D. 1981 Prehistoric Raised-Field Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands. Science 213:399–405.Google Scholar
Webster, D. L. 1976 Defensive Earthworks at Becan, Campeche, Mexico: Implications for Maya War/are. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 41. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Wilken, G. C. 1971 Food-Producing Systems Available to the Ancient Maya. American Antiquity 36:432–448.Google Scholar
Wiseman, F. M. 1978 Agricultural and Historic Ecology of the Maya Lowlands. In Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture, edited by Harrison, P. D. and Turner, B. L. II, pp. 63–115. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wittfogel, K. 1957 Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Wright, A. C. S., Romney, D. H., Arbuckle, R. H., and Vail, V. E. 1959 Land in British Honduras: Report of the British Honduras Land Use Team. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London.Google Scholar