Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T13:33:23.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stratigraphic evidence for anthropogenically induced coastal environmental change from Oaxaca, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michelle Goman ,
Arthur Joyce  and
Raymond Mueller
Michelle Goman*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Arthur Joyce
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
Raymond Mueller
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Studies, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ 08240, USA
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail address:[email protected] (M. Goman).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previous interdisciplinary paleoenvironmental and archaeological research along the Río Verde Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, showed that Holocene erosion in the highland valleys of the upper drainage basin triggered geomorphic changes in the river's coastal floodplain. This article uses stratigraphic data from sediment cores extracted from Laguna Pastoría, an estuary in the lower Río Verde Valley, to examine changes in coastal geomorphology potentially triggered by highland erosion. Coastal lagoon sediments contain a stratigraphically and chronologically distinct record of major hurricane strikes during late Holocene times. Three distinct storm facies are identified from sediment cores obtained from Laguna Pastoría, which indicate that profound coastal environmental changes occurred within the region and are correlated with increased sediment supplied from highland erosion. The Chione/Laevicardium facies was deposited in an open bay while the Mytella/barnacle facies and sand facies were deposited in an enclosed lagoon following bay barrier formation. We argue that highland erosion triggered major geomorphic changes in the lowlands including bay barrier formation by ∼2500 cal yr B.P. These environmental changes may have had significant effects on human populations in the region. The lagoon stratigraphy further indicates an increase in mid–late Holocene hurricane activity, possibly caused by increased El Niño frequencies.

Keywords

Stratigraphic evidenceCoastal environmental changeMexicoLate HoloceneArchaeology
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , May 2005 , pp. 250 - 260
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.)

References

Abrams, E.M., Rue, D.J., (1988). The causes and consequences of deforestation among the prehistoric Maya. Human Ecology 16, 377–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aigner, T., (1985). Storm Depositional Systems: Dynamic Stratigraphy in Modern and Ancient Shallow-Marine Sequences. Springer-Verlag, Berlin., 174p.Google Scholar
Alfaro, M., Sánchez, G., (2002). Chacahua: Reflejos de un Parque. Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, México, D.F..Google Scholar
Appleby, P.G., (2001). Chronostratigraphic techniques in recent sediments. Last, W.M., Smol, J.P., Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments Basin Analysis, Coring and Chronological Techniques vol. 1, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands., 171–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atwater, B.F., (1987). Evidence for great Holocene earthquakes along the outer coast of Washington state. Science 236, 942–944.Google Scholar
Atwater, B.F., Yamaguchi, D.K., (1991). Sudden, probably coseismic submergence of Holocene trees and grass in coastal Washington state. Geology 19, 706–709.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atwater, B.F., Hedel, C.W., Helley, E.J., (1977). Late Quaternary depositional history, Holocene sea-level changes, and vertical crustal movement, Southern San Francisco Bay, California. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1014, .Google Scholar
Balkansky, A.K., Kowalewski, S.A., Pérez Rodríguez, V., Pluckhahn, T.J., Smith, C.A., Stiver, L.R., Beliaev, D., Chamblee, J.F., Heredia Espinoza, V.Y., Santos Pérez, R., (2000). Archaeological survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 27, 365–389.Google Scholar
Bentley, S.J., Keen, T.R., Blain, C.A., Vaughan, W.C., (2002). The origin and preservation of a major hurricane events bed in the northern Gulf of Mexico: Hurricane Camille, 1969. Marine Geology 186, 423–446.Google Scholar
Brenner, M., Rosenmeier, M.F., Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., (2002). Paleolimnology of the Maya lowlands: long term perspectives on interactions among climate, environment, and humans. Ancient Mesoamerica 13, 141–157.Google Scholar
Brush, C. (1969). A contribution to the archaeology of coastal Guerrero, Mexico.Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Columbia University, , New York., .Google Scholar
Clark, J.E., (2004). Mesoamerica goes public: early ceremonial centers, leaders, and communities. Hendon, J.A., Joyce, R.A., Mesoamerican Archaeology Blackwell, Malden, MA., 43–72.Google Scholar
Conserva, M.E., Byrne, R., (2002). Late Holocene vegetation change in the Sierra Madre Oriental of Central Mexico. Quaternary Research 58, 122–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Contreras, F., (1988). Las Lagunas Costeras Mexicanas. 2nd ed. Centro de Ecodesarrollo, Secretaria de Pesca, Mexico., pp. 263.Google Scholar
Cooper, J.A.G., (1994). Lagoons and microtidal coasts. Carter, R.W.G., Woodroffe, C.D. Coastal Evolution: Late Quaternary Shoreline Morphodynamics 219–265.Google Scholar
Curray, J.R., Emmel, F.J., Crampton, P.J.S., (1969). Holocene history of a strand plain, lagoonal coast, Nayarit, Mexico. Ayala-Castenares, A., Phleger, F.B. Lagunas Costeras UN Symposium UNAM-UNESCO, Mexico, D.F.., 63–100.Google Scholar
Curtis, J.H., Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., (1996). Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the Past 3500 years, and implications for Maya cultural evolution. Quaternary Research 46, 37–47.Google Scholar
Davis, R.A., Knowles, S.G., Bland, M.P., (1989). Role of hurricanes in the Holocene stratigraphy of estuaries: examples from the Gulf coast of Florida. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 59, 1052–1061.Google Scholar
Deevey, E.S., (1978). Holocene forests and Maya disturbance near Quexil Lake, Peten, Guatemala. Polskie Archiwum Hydrobiologii 25, 117–129.Google Scholar
Deevey, E.S., Rice, D.S., Rice, P.M., Vaughan, H.H., Brenner, M., Flannery, M.S., (1979). Maya urbanism: impact on a tropical karst environment. Science 206, 298–306.Google Scholar
Donnelly, J.P., Roll, S., Wengren, M., Butler, J., Lederer, R., Webb, T. III, (2001a). Sedimentary evidence of intense hurricane strikes from New Jersey. Geology 29, 615–617.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, J.P., Bryant, S.S., Butler, J., Dowling, J., Fan, L., Hausmann, N., Newby, P., Shuman, B., Stern, J., Westover, K., Webb, T. III, (2001b). 700 yr sedimentary record of intense hurricane landfalls in southern New England. Geological Society of America Bulletin 113, 714–727.Google Scholar
Dunning, N.P., Beach, T., (1994). Soil erosion, slope management, and ancient terracing in the Maya lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 5, 51–69.Google Scholar
Fedick, S.L., (1996). The Managed Mosaic. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Fernandez, D. (2004). Subsistence in the Lower Rio Verde Region, Oaxaca, Mexico: A Zoological Analysis.Unpublished M.A. Thesis,Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, , Calgary, Alberta, Canada., .Google Scholar
Fisher, C.T., Pollard, H.P., Frederick, C., (1999). Intensive agriculture and socio-political development in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico. Antiquity 73, 642–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, C.T., Pollard, H.P., Israde-Alcántara, I., Garduño-Monroy, V.H., Banerjee, S.K., (2003). A reexamination of human-induced environmental change within the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100, 8 4957–4962.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goman, M., Byrne, R., (1998). A 5,000 year record of agriculture and tropical forest clearance in the Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. The Holocene 8, 83–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González, G.M., Rodráguez, E.A.C., (2002). El sistema lagunar: cambios naturals, antropogénicos y su impacto en el ecosistema estuarino. Alfaro, M., Sánchez, G. Chacahua: Reflejos de un Parque Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, México, D.F.., 39–57.Google Scholar
Haug, G.H., Hughen, K.A., Sigman, D.M., Peterson, L.C., Röhl, U., (2001). Southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone through the Holocene. Science 293, 1304–1308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heiri, O., Lotter, A.F., Lemcke, G., (2001). Loss on ignition as a method of estimating organic and carbonate content in sediments: reproducibility and comparability of results. Journal of Paleolimnology 25, 101–110.Google 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
Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Guilderson, T., (2001). Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya Lowlands. Science 292, 1367–1370.Google Scholar
A.A., Joyce (1991a). Formative Period Occupation in the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico: Interregional Interaction and Social Change.PhD dissertation,Rutgers University. University Microfilms, , Ann Arbor Michigan., .Google Scholar
Joyce, A.A., (1991b). Formative period social change in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 2, 126–150.Google Scholar
A.A., Joyce (2002). Human ecology of the Río Verde Drainage Basin, Oaxaca, Mexico.Final Project Report submitted to the National Science Foundation,Washington, D.C.. Google Scholar
Joyce, A.A., (2003). Imperialism in pre-Aztec Mesoamerica: Monte Albán, Teotihuacan, and the lower Río Verde Valley. Brown, M.K., Stanton, T.M. Ancient Mesoamerica warfare Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, CA., 49–72.Google Scholar
Joyce, A.A., Mueller, R., (1992). The social impact of anthropogenic landscape modification in the Río Verde drainage basin, Oaxaca, Mexico. Geoarchaeology 7, 503–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, A.A., Mueller, R., (1997). Prehispanic human ecology of the Río Verde drainage basin, Oaxaca, Mexico. World Archaeology 729, 75–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, A.A., Winter, M., Mueller, R.G., (1998). Arqueología de la costa de Oaxaca: Asentamientos del periodo Formativo en el valle del Río Verde inferior. Estudios de Antropología e Historia vol. 40, Centro INAH Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico.Google Scholar
Karlin, R.E., Abella, S.E.B., (1992). Paleoearthquakes in the puget sound region recorded in sediments from Lake Washington, U.S.A.. Science 258, 1617–1620.Google Scholar
Keen, A.M. Second ed.(1971). Sea Shells of Tropical West America; Marine Mollusks from Baja California to Peru vol. xiv, Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford., 1064.Google Scholar
Killion, T.W., (1992). Gardens of Prehistory. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Lankford, R.R., (1977). Coastal lagoons of Mexico—Their origin and classification. Wiley, M. Estuarine Processes Estuarine Research Federation. Academic Press, New York., 182–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyden, B.W., (2002). Pollen evidence for climatic variability and cultural disturbance in the Maya lowlands. Ancient Mesoamerica 13, 85–101.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W., Brenner, M., Whitmore, T., Curtis, J.H., Piperno, D.R., Dahlin, B.H., (1996). A record of long- and short-term climatic variation from Northwest Yucatán: Cenote San José Chulchacá. Fedick, S.L. The Managed Mosaic University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City., 30–50.Google Scholar
Liu, K.-B., Fearn, M., (1993). Lake-sediment record of late Holocene hurricane activities from coastal Alabama. Geology 21, 793–796.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, K.-B., Fearn, M., (2000). Reconstruction of prehistoric landfall frequencies of catastrophic hurricanes in Northwestern Florida from lake sediment records. Quaternary Research 54, 238–245.Google Scholar
Marcus, J., Flannery, K.V., (1996). Zapotec Civilization. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
McAuliff, J.R., Sundt, P.C., Valiente-Banuet, A., Casas, A., Viveros, J.L., (2001). Pre-Columbian soil erosion, persistent ecological changes, and collapse of a subsistence agricultural economy in the semi-arid Tehuacan Valley, Mexico's ‘Cradle of Maize’. Journal of Arid Environments 47, 47–75.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S.E., Street-Perrott, F.A., O'Hara, S.L., Hales, P.E., Perrott, R.A., (1994). The palaeolimnological record of environmental change: examples from the arid frontier of Mesoamerica. Millington, A.C., Pye, K. Environmental Change in Drylands: Biogeographical and Geomorphological Perspectives John Wiley and Sons, New York., 131–145.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S.E., O'Hara, S.L., Caballero, M., Davies, S.J., (2000). Records of late Pleistocene–Holocene climatic change in Mexico—A review. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 699–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, R., Joyce, A.A., (2002). Floodplain paleoecology of the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. Paper presented at the 67th meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver, CO.Google Scholar
Nelson, A.R., Jennings, A.E., Kashima, K., (1996). An earthquake history derived from stratigraphic and microfossil evidence of relative sea-level change at Coos Bay, Southern Coastal Oregon. Geological Society of America Bulletin 108, 141–154.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
>NGDC (National Geophysical Data Center)(2003). Tsunami Runup Database.http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/tsrnsrch_idb.shtml.NGDC+(National+Geophysical+Data+Center)(2003).+Tsunami+Runup+Database.http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/tsrnsrch_idb.shtml.>Google Scholar
Nichols, M.M., Johnson, G.H., Peebles, P.C., (1991). Modern sediments and facies model for a microtidal coastal plain estuary, the James estuary, Virginia. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 61, 883–899.Google Scholar
O'Hara, S.L., Street-Perrott, F.A., Burt, T.P., (1993). Accelerated soil erosion around a Mexican highland lake caused by prehispanic agriculture. Nature 362, 48–51.Google Scholar
O'Hara, S.L., Metcalfe, S.E., Street-Perrott, F.A., (1994). On the arid margin: the relationship between climate, humans and the environment. A review of evidence from the highlands of Central Mexico. Chemosphere 29, 965–981.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
F., Ortega-Gutiérrez (1990). Centennial Continent/Ocean Transect #13, H-3 Acapulco Trench to the Gulf of Mexico across Southern Mexico, TRA-H3.Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America, 9 pp and Plates.Google Scholar
Paine, R.R., Freter, A., (1996). Environmental degradation and the classic Maya collapse at Copan, Honduras (A.D. 600–1250): evidence from studies of household survival. Ancient Mesoamerica 7, 37–48.Google Scholar
Philander, S.G., (1989). El Niño, La Niña, and the southern oscillation. Academic Press, New York., 293 pp.Google Scholar
Riedinger, M.A., Steinitz-Kannan, M., Last, W.M., Brenner, M., (2002). A ∼6100 14C yr record of El Niño activity from the Galápagos Islands. Journal of Paleolimnology 27, 1–7.Google Scholar
Rice, D., (1996). Paleolimnological analysis in the Central Petén, Guatemala. Fedick, S.L. The Managed Mosaic University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City., 193–206.Google Scholar
Rice, D.S., Rice, P.M., Deevey, E.S. Jr., (1985). Paradise lost: classic Maya impact on a lacustrine environment. Pohl, M. Prehistoric Lowland Maya Environment and Subsistence Economy Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge., 91–105.Google Scholar
Rodbell, D.T., Selztzer, G.O., Anderson, D.M., Abbott, M.B., (1999). An ∼15,000-year record of El Niño-driven alluviation in southwestern Ecuador. Science 283, 516–520.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenmeier, M.F., Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., (2002a). A 4000-year lacustrine record of environmental change in the Southern Maya Lowlands, Petén, Guatemala. Quaternary Research 57, 183–190.Google Scholar
Rosenmeier, M.F., Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Martin, J.B., Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., Guilderson, T.P., (2002b). Influence of vegetation change on watershed hydrology: implications for paleoclimatic interpretation of lacustrine δ18O records. Journal of Paleolimnology 27, 117–131.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, D.H., Maasch, K.A., Burger, R.L., Richardson, J.B. III, Rollins, H.B., Clement, A., (2001). Variations in Holocene El Niño frequencies: climate records and cultural consequences in ancient Peru. Geology 29, 7 603–606.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sluyter, A., Siemens, A.H., (1992). Vestiges of pre-Hispanic, sloping-field terraces on the Peidmont of Central Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 3, 2 148–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spores, R., (1969). Settlement, farming technology, and environment in the Nochixtlan Valley. Science 166, 557–569.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., (1993). Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C calibration program. Radiocarbon 350, 215–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., P.J., Reimer (2000). Radiocarbon Calibration Program. CALIB rev. 4.3..Google Scholar
Tamayo, J.L., (1964). The hydrography of Middle America. West, R.C. Handbook of Middle American Indians Natural Environments and Early Cultures vol. 1, University of Texas Press, Austin., 84–121.Google Scholar
Torres-Moye, G., Ledesma-Vazquez, J., Castro-Valdez, R., Ortega-del Valle, D., (1993). Tidal inlet closure effects on three Mexican coastal lagoons. Fermán Almada, J.L., Gómez-Morin, L., Fischer, D.W. Coastal Management in Mexico: The Baja California Experience 156–164.Google Scholar
Vaughan, H.H., Deevey, E.S., Garrett-Jones, S.E., (1985). Pollen stratigraphy of two cores from the Petén Lake District, with an appendix on 2 deep water cores. Pohl, M. Prehistoric Lowland Maya Environment and Subsistence Economy Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge., 73–89.Google Scholar
Voorhies, B., (2004). Coastal Collectors in the Holocene: The Chantuto People of Southwest Mexico. Univ. Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Webster, D., Freter, A., Gohlin, N., (2000). Copán: Rise and Fall of an Ancient Maya Kingdom. Wadsworth Thomson Learning, Belmont, CA.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T.J., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Dahlin, B.H., Leyden, B., (1996). Holocene climatic and human influences on lakes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: an interdisciplinary palaeolimnological approach. The Holocene 6, 3 273–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wingard, J.D., (1996). Interactions between demographic processes and soil resources in the Copán Valley, Honduras. Fedick, S.L. The Managed Mosaic University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City., 207–235.Google Scholar
Winter, M., (1989). Oaxaca: The Archaeological Record. Minutiae Mexicana, Mexico.Google Scholar
Workinger, A. (2002). Coastal/highland interaction in pre-Hispanic Oaxaca, Mexico: the perspective from San Francisco de Arriba.PhD Dissertation,Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, University Microfilms, , Ann Arbor., Michigan.Google Scholar
R.N., Zeitlin (1979). Prehistoric Long-Distance Exchange on the Southern Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico.PhD dissertation,Yale University. University Microfilms, , Ann Arbor, Michigan., .Google Scholar