Household Quarry-Reservoirs at the Ancient Maya Site of Yaxnohcah, Mexico

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L Brewer ◽  
Christopher Carr
Keyword(s):  
Water Storage ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Dual Function ◽  
Gis Analysis ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Community Water ◽  
Maya Site

In this study, we present new data from the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah in southern Mexico. These data, which are drawn from lidar-based GIS analysis, field inspection, and the excavation of two small, closed depressions, suggest that many of this site's features served a dual function. Quarrying to extract construction materials left behind closed depressions that were then sealed to create household reservoirs. We classify these water-storage features as quarry-reservoirs. The ubiquity of these small quarry-reservoirs represented an important community water source outside the sphere of direct elite control.

The Potential Role of Small Depressions as Water Storage Features in the Central Maya Lowlands

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estella Weiss-Krejci ◽  
Thomas Sabbas
Keyword(s):  
Potential Role ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Household Activities ◽  
Landscape Feature

Small depressions are a frequent landscape feature in the northeast Petén and northwestern Belize. Although generally considered the remains of seasonal ancient Maya water cisterns, they have not been subject to systematic study. Excavation of 16 depressions in northwestern Belize showed that these features are either natural sinkholes (dolines) or quarried cavities. In three depressions, quarrying for construction materials and mining for clay was evident and two depressions are the remains of collapsed chultuns. Depressions probably also served as areas where household activities were carried out, they may have played a role as gardens, and were used as trash dumps. For one quarter of the sample, a water storage function was established. Water input-output calculations showed that these features could have held water year round and thus theoretically could have played a much more important role in supplying water than commonly assumed. The study indicates that Classic Maya population could have relied on decentralized water sources and suggests that hypotheses of centralized water management in the central Maya lowlands should be critically reviewed.

Survey, Settlement, and Population History at the Ancient Maya Site of Pacbitun, Belize

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. Healy ◽  
Christophe G. B. Helmke ◽  
Jaime J. Awe ◽  
Kay S. Sunahara
Keyword(s):  
Population History ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Site

Stature at Tikal, Guatemala: Implications for Ancient Maya Demography and Social Organization

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Class Division ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Simple Class ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of stature of the prehistoric population from the Maya site of Tikal, Guatemala. From this analysis, based on 55 skeletons from the Tikal burial series, three important conclusions emerge with respect to ancient Maya demography and social organization. (1) Tikal was settled by people of moderate stature, and this remained relatively stable over several centuries. A marked reduction in male stature in Late Classic times may be indicative of a situation of nutritional stress, which may have had something to do with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. (2) Stature differences between those buried in tombs and others at Tikal suggest that, in the last century B.C., a distinct ruling class developed at Tikal. This simple class division of rulers and commoners may have become more complex in Late Classic times. (3) There was a marked sexual dimorphism in stature between males and females at Tikal. This is probably partially genetic and partially a reflection of relatively lower status for women as opposed to men in Maya society.

Ritual among the Masses: Deconstructing Identity and Class in an Ancient Maya Neighborhood

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Blackmore
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Class System ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Tacit Assumptions ◽  
Group Part

AbstractEquating a single cultural group to a classificatory scheme has implications for not only how archaeologists develop the concept of cultural identity but how we investigate and theorize about internal social dynamics within that same society. For the ancient Maya, social organization remains largely understood as a two-class system—that of commoner and elite. While these categories reflect the extreme ends of known social strata, they inadequately characterize the reality of day-to-day interactions. This has led to tacit assumptions that commoners did not participate in or comprehend the political and social complexity of the world around them. This paper examines how occupants of a Late Classic Maya neighborhood employed ritual and public practices as a means of social differentiation. Excavations at the Northeast Group, part of the ancient Maya site of Chan, Belize, identified considerable diversity between households, suggesting that occupants shaped status and identity through the control and centralization of ritual. Understanding how people distinguished themselves within the context of a neighborhood provides direct evidence of class complexity, challenging traditional models of commoner behavior and more importantly the role they played in ancient Maya society as a whole.

Ecology and Ritual: Water Management and the Maya

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon L. Scarborough
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Total Power ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Land Resources ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Centralize Control

How the ancient Maya of the central Yucatecan Lowlands managed their water and land resources remains poorly known, although crucial to an understanding of ancient political economy. Recent archival research and field data suggest the widespread use of artificially altered, natural depressions for the collection and containment of water, both for potable consumption and agricultural ends. During the Classic period (A. D. 250-900) several of the principal cities in the Maya area constructed their largest architecture and monuments at the summit of hills and ridges. Associated with these elevated centers—”water mountains”—were sizable, life-sustaining reservoirs quarried into their summits. The effect of this town-planning design was the centralization of a primary and fundamental resource. Although elite managers controlled the water source, other decentralizing forces prevented anything similar to Wittfogel's “total power.” However, by ritually appropriating the everyday and mundane activities associated with water by the sustaining population, elites used high-performance water ritual as manifest in the iconography to further centralize control. The significance of modifying the urban landscape in the partial image of the ordinary water hole defines the extraordinary in Maya ritual.

scholarly journals Comparison of biofilm formation and water quality when water from different sources was stored in large commercial water storage tanks

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venessa van der Merwe ◽  
Stacey Duvenage ◽  
Lise Korsten
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Sampling Point ◽  
Storage Tanks ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Biofilm Development ◽  
Term Storage

Rain-, ground- and municipal potable water were stored in low density polyethylene storage tanks for a period of 90 days to determine the effects of long-term storage on the deterioration in the microbial quality of the water. Total viable bacteria present in the stored water and the resultant biofilms were enumerated using heterotrophic plate counts. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Colilert-18® tests were performed to determine if the faecal indicator bacteria Escherichia coli was present in the water and in the biofilm samples collected throughout the study. The municipal potable water at the start of the study was the only water source that conformed to the South African Water Quality Guidelines for Domestic Use. After 15 days of storage, this water source had deteriorated microbiologically to levels considered unfit for human consumption. E. coli was detected in the ground- and potable water and ground- and potable biofilms periodically, whereas it was detected in the rainwater and associated biofilms at every sampling point. Imperfections in the UV resistant inner lining of the tanks were shown to be ecological niches for microbial colonisation and biofilm development. The results from the current study confirmed that long-term storage can influence water quality and increase the number of microbial cells associated with biofilms on the interior surfaces of water storage tanks.

The Moon in Meso-America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Milbrath
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Spanish Conquest ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Lunar Cycles ◽  
Postclassic Maya

What is known about the Moon among the ancient Maya of southern Mexico and Guatemala and the Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico, especially the Aztecs who lived in the Valley of Mexico and their neighbors in Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, has been obtained from records related to astronomy and lunar cycles inscribed on Classic Maya monuments dating between ad 250 and 850/900. Modern scholarship focusing on the mathematical units and glyphic writing has helped in deciphering the records. Postclassic Maya codices dating from 1300 to 1500, sent to Europe shortly after the Spanish conquest, also have lunar tables that have been decoded by study of the lunar cycles and glyphs. Painted books dating prior to the conquest in 1521 are also known from central Mexico, but these can only be understood with the help of books that were painted by native artists later in the 16th century and annotated with texts written in Spanish and Nahuatl. These glosses provide information about lunar deities and beliefs about the Moon. Furthermore, knowledge of the Moon in Meso-America is greatly enhanced by ethnographic studies and study of iconographic representations of deities representing different lunar roles and phases.

scholarly journals Children drinking private well water have higher blood lead than those with city water

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (29) ◽  
pp. 16898-16907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson ◽  
Michael Fisher ◽  
Allison Clonch ◽  
John M. MacDonald ◽  
Philip J. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water System ◽  
Blood Lead ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Drinking Water Source ◽  
Source Information ◽  
Community Water ◽  
Pb Exposure ◽  
City Water ◽  
Private Wells

Although the Flint, Michigan, water crisis renewed concerns about lead (Pb) in city drinking water, little attention has been paid to Pb in private wells, which provide drinking water for 13% of the US population. This study evaluates the risk of Pb exposure in children in households relying on private wells. It is based on a curated dataset of blood Pb records from 59,483 North Carolina children matched with household water source information. We analyze the dataset for statistical associations between children’s blood Pb and household drinking water source. The analysis shows that children in homes relying on private wells have 25% increased odds (95% CI 6.2 to 48%,P< 0.01) of elevated blood Pb, compared with children in houses served by a community water system that is regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This increased Pb exposure is likely a result of corrosion of household plumbing and well components, because homes relying on private wells rarely treat their water to prevent corrosion. In contrast, corrosion control is required in regulated community water systems. These findings highlight the need for targeted outreach to prevent Pb exposure for the 42.5 million Americans depending on private wells for their drinking water.

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