Land, Forest and Water Management in a Tropical Environment

This project will investigate the land and water management strategies that supported the development of complex society in a tropical environment. A primary theoretical question to be addressed in this study focuses on how the ancient inhabitants in the environmentally problematic region were able to sustain an urban population. A corollary to this question asks how agricultural intensification was achieved and how other essential resources, such as water and forest products, were managed.

The research plan includes ecological assessments such as biomass and species diversity, as well as examination of the sustainability of various land use practices all of which will be useful for the management of the region which currently co-exists in an uneasy tension in competition for land and water. The project is tri-national, involving researchers and students from multiple countries and provides training for graduate students from each country.

The archaeological site provides an ideal test case for examining the changing trajectories of human- environment interactions because it grew into one of the paramount cities and political-economic powers during the New World Classic period. The research will examine the hydraulic, agricultural, and forest management strategies that allowed the persistent occupation and growth in the face of changing environmental and political economic conditions.

It will provide insights into the variability of adaptive strategies and the rise of social complexity. These issues will be addressed by an interdisciplinary research team that includes professionals and students with training in botany, paleoecology, geoarchaeology, remote sensing, GIS, and anthropological archaeology and will employ a unique combination of paleoenvironmental and archaeological methods.

The acquisition of lidar imagery of the area will allow the team to select a variety of topographic settings, probable ancient agricultural fields, reservoirs, and residential areas for excavation and coring, thus providing data on resource management across the spectrum of environmental contexts and social strata. These analyses will include eDNA which offers novel insights into ancient land use and subsistence.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.