Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T17:27:04.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cultural and Climatic History of Cobá, a Lowland Maya City in Quintana Roo, Mexico1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Barbara W. Leyden ,
Mark Brenner  and
Bruce H. Dahlin
Barbara W. Leyden
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, 33620
Mark Brenner
Affiliation:
Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida, 7922 NW 71st Street, Gainesville, Florida, 32611
Bruce H. Dahlin
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Howard University, Washington, DC, 20059
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lake Cobá, within the archaeological site of Cobá, provides evidence bearing on lowland Maya development. Palynological and geochemical data record multidecadal precipitation cycles from a 8.80-m, >8370-yr lake-sediment sequence terminating on bedrock. Late Classic sedimentation rates are rapid, but an anthropogenically derived colluvium layer is lacking. Initial vegetation was medium semi-deciduous and swamp forest. Forest clearance began 1650 B.C. (Early Preclassic) and maize first occurred at 850 B.C. (Middle Preclassic). Lakeside milpas existed until A.D. 720 (Late Classic) and then were moved from the city center as urbanization intensified and Lake Cobá was diked as a reservoir. Cobá was at most briefly vacated during the Classic Collapse and was abandoned after A.D. 1240, although some habitation persisted. The paleoecological record matches the archaeological history for Cobá, but pervasive disturbance muted the climatic signal, as the Late Classic drought is barely evident. The question whether economic trees were maintained within the city is unresolved. Maize cultivation allowed the Maya to develop a complex society and support a large population, but dependence on maize was ultimately doomed by variable rainfall. Precipitation in extreme years was insufficient to support crops, while native vegetation was not directly affected by drought that devastated Maya agriculture.

Keywords

classic collapseclimateCobáHoloceneMayaMexicopaleoecologypollensediment chemistryYucatán Peninsula
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 111 - 122
Copyright
University of Washington

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.)

Footnotes

1

Journal Series Number R-05830 of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.

References

Andersen, J.M., 1976. An ignition method for determination of total phosphorus in lake sediments. Water Research. 10 329–331.Google Scholar
Benavides, C.A., 1976. El systema prehispánico de communicaciones terrestres en la región de Cobá, Quintana Roo, y sus implicaciones sociales. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoTésis profesional.Google Scholar
Benavides, C.A., 1981. Coba: Una Ciudad Prehispanica de Quintana Roo. Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Centro Regional de Sureste. Google Scholar
Binford, M.W., Brenner, M., Whitmore, T.J., Higuera-Gundy, A., Deevey, E.S., Leyden, B.W., 1987. Ecosystems, paleoecology, and human disturbance in subtropical and tropical America. Quaternary Science Reviews. 6 115–128.Google Scholar
Brenner, M., 1983. Paleolimnology of the Peten Lake District, Guatemala, II. Mayan population density and sediment and nutrient loading of Lake Quexil. Hydrobiologia. 103 205–210.Google Scholar
Brenner, M, 1983b, Paleolimnology of the Maya Region, University of Florida. Google Scholar
Brenner, M., 1994. Lakes Salpeten and Quexil, Peten, Guatemala, Central America. Global Geological Record of Lake Basins. Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, p. 377–380.Google Scholar
Brenner, M., Leyden, B.W., Binford, M.W., 1990. Recent sedimentary histories of shallow lakes in the Guatemalan savannas. Journal of Paleolimnology. 4 239–251.Google Scholar
Caballero, J., 1992. Maya homegardens: Past, present and future. Etnoecológica. 1 35–54.Google Scholar
Curtis, J.H., Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., 1996. Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the last 3500 years and implications for Maya cultural evolution. Quaternary Research. 46 37–47.Google Scholar
Deevey, E.S. Jr., Stuiver, M., 1964. Distribution of natural isotopes of carbon in Linsley Pond and other New England lakes. Limnology and Oceanography. 9 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deevey, E.S. Jr. Rice, D.S., Rice, P.M., Vaughan, H.H., Brenner, M., Flannery, M.S., 1979. Mayan urbanism: Impact on a tropical karst environment. Science. 206 298–306.Google Scholar
Deevey, E.S. Jr., Brenner, M., Binford, M.W., 1983. Paleolimnology of the Peten Lake District, Guatemala III. Late Pleistocene and Gamblian environments of the Maya area. Hydrobiologia. 103 211–216.Google Scholar
Engleman, E.E., Jackson, L.L., Norton, D.R., 1985. Determination of carbonate carbon in geological materials by coulometric titration. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 2 307–323.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R.G., 1989. A 17,000 year glacio-eustatic sea level record: Influences of glacial melting rates in the Younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation. Nature. 342 637–642.Google Scholar
Flores, J.S., Ucan Ek, E., 1983. Nombres usadeos por los mayas para designar a la vegetación. Cuadernos de Divulgación. INIREB, Xalapa. Google Scholar
Flores, J.S., Carvajal, I.E., 1994. Tipos de Vegetation de la Peninsula de Yucatan. Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida. Google Scholar
Folan, W.J., Fletcher, L.A., Kintz, E.R., 1979. Fruit, fiber, bark and resin: the social organization of a Maya urban center: Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Science. 204 697–701.Google Scholar
Folan, W.J., Gunn, J., Eaton, J.D., Patch, R.W., 1983. Paleoclimatological patterning in southern Mesoamerica. Journal of Field Archaeology. 10 453–468.Google Scholar
Folan, W.J., Kintz, E.R., Fletcher, L.A., 1983. Cobá: A Classic Maya Metropolis. Academic Press, New York. Google Scholar
Gallareta, N.T., 1984. Cobá: Forma y Funcion de una Comunidad Maya Prehispánica. Universidad de Yucatan, Merida. Google Scholar
Garza, T.de G.S., Kurjack, B.E.B., 1980. Atlas Arqueológico del Estado de Yucatán. Instituto Nacional de Antropologı́a e Historia.Google Scholar
Håkanson, L., Jansson, M., 1983. Principles of lake sedimentology. Springer-Verlag, New York. Google Scholar
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Jones, A., Higuera-Gundy, A., Brenner, M., Binford, M.W., Dorsey, K., 1991. Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past 10,500 years. Nature. 352 790–793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Brenner, M., 1995. Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature. 375 391–394.Google Scholar
Jones, J.G., 1994. Pollen evidence for early settlement and agriculture in northern Belize. Palynology. 18 205–211.Google Scholar
Kintz, E.R., 1990. Life Under the Tropical Canopy: Tradition and Change among the Yucatec Maya. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Fort Worth. Google Scholar
Lambert, J.D.H., Arnason, J.T., 1982. Ramon and May ruins: An ecological, not economic, relation. Science. 216.Google Scholar
Lean, J., Warrilow, D.A., 1989. Simulation of the regional climate impact of Amazon deforestation. Nature. 342 411–413.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W., 1984. Guatemalan forest synthesis after Pleistocene aridity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). 81 4856–4859.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W., 1987. Man and climate in the Maya lowlands. Quaternary Research. 28 407–414.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W., Brenner, M., Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., 1993. Late Pleistocene climate in the Central American lowlands. Geophysical Monographs. 78 165–178.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W., Brenner, M., Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., 1994. Orbital and internal forcing of climate on the Yucatan Peninsula for the past ca. 36 ka. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 109 193–210.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W., Brenner, M., Whitmore, T.J., Curtis, J.H., Piperno, D.R., Dahlin, B.H., 1996. A record of long- and short-term climate variation from northwest Yucatan: Cenote San Jose Chulchaca. Fedick, S.L., The Managed Mosaic: Ancient Maya Agriculture and Resource Use. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 30–50.Google Scholar
Lundell, C. L, 1934, Carnegie Institute, Washington, DC, 255, 355.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, L, 1987, Cobá, Quintana Roo: Analissi de Dos Unidades Habitacionales Mayas del Horizonte Clasico. Universidad Autonoma de Mexico.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, L., Barba, L., 1990. The studies of activities in Classic households. Two cases from Cobá and Teotihuacan. Ancient Mesoamerica. 1 41–49.Google Scholar
Rejmankova, E., Pope, K.O., Pohl, M.D., Rey-Benayas, J.M., 1995. Freshwater wetland plant communities of northern Belize: implications for paleoecological studies of Maya wetland agriculture. Biotropica. 27 28–36.Google Scholar
Robles, C. J. F, 1990, La Secuencia Ceramica de la Region de Coba, Quintana Roo. Serie Arqueologia del Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia.Google Scholar
Robles, C.F., Andrews, A.P., 1986. A review and synthesis of recent Postclassic archaeology in northern Yucatan. Sabloff, J.A., Andrews V, E.W., Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic. Univ. of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 53–97.Google Scholar
Rust, W.F., Leyden, B.W., 1994. Evidence of maize use at Early and Middle Preclassic La Venta Olmec sites. Johannessen, S., Hastorf, C.A., Corn and Culture in the Prehistoric New World. Westview Press, Boulder, 181–201.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., 1993. Extended14 14 . Radiocarbon. 35 215–230.Google Scholar
Vaughan, H.H., Deevey, E.S. Jr., Garrett-Jones, S.E., 1985. Pollen stratigraphy of two cores from the Peten Lake District. Pohl, M.D., Prehistoric lowland Maya environment and subsistence economy. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 73–89.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T.J., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Dahlin, B.H., Leyden, B.W., 1996. Holocene climate and human influences on lakes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: An interdisciplinary, palaeolimnological approach. The Holocene. 6 273–287.Google Scholar
Wilson, E.M., 1980. Physical geography of the Yucatan Peninsula. Mosley, E.H., Terry, E.D., Yucatan: A World Apart. Univ. of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 5–40.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E., Mann, D.H., Glaser, P.H., 1984. Piston corers for peat and lake sediments. Ecology. 65 657–659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar