MANIOC CULTIVATION AT CEREN, EL SALVADOR: OCCASIONAL KITCHEN GARDEN PLANT OR STAPLE CROP?

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payson Sheets ◽  
Christine Dixon ◽  
Monica Guerra ◽  
Adam Blanford
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Drought Resistance ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Kitchen Garden ◽  
Kitchen Gardens ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Garden Plant ◽  
Staple Crop

AbstractMany scholars have thought the Classic period Maya did not cultivate the root crop manioc, while others have suggested it may have been an occasional cultigen in kitchen gardens. For many decades there was no reliable evidence that the ancient Maya cultivated manioc, but in the 1990s manioc pollen from the late Archaic was found in Belize, and somewhat older pollen was found in Tabasco. At about the same time of those discoveries, research within the Ceren village, El Salvador, encountered occasional scattered manioc plants that had grown in mounded ridges in kitchen gardens. These finds adjacent to households indicated manioc was not a staple crop, and vastly inferior to maize and beans in food volume produced. However, 2007 research in an agricultural area 200 m south of the Ceren village encountered intensive formal manioc planting beds. If manioc was widely cultivated in ancient times, its impressive productivity, ease of cultivation even in poor soils, and drought resistance suggest it might have been a staple crop helping to support dense Maya populations in the southeast periphery and elsewhere.

Ancient Manioc Agriculture South of the Ceren Village, El Salvador

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payson Sheets ◽  
David Lentz ◽  
Dolores Piperno ◽  
John Jones ◽  
Christine Dixon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Root Crops ◽  
Kitchen Gardens ◽  
Raised Bed ◽  
Seed Crops ◽  
The Village ◽  
And Storage ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThe role of seed crops in the Maya diet is well understood. The role of root crops in the ancient Maya diet has been controversial, with some scholars suggesting they were staples, and others arguing they were not cultivated at all. Research in the 1990s found occasional manioc plants in kitchen gardens within the Classic period Cerén village, leading to the interpretation that manioc did contribute to the diet, but was not a staple. Recent research outside the village encountered sophisticated raised-bed monocropping of manioc over an extensive area. This area was harvested essentially all at once, about a week prior to the eruption. An estimated ten tons of tubers were harvested. The various uses of manioc include consumption as food, exchange with other settlements, fermentation, drying and storage as a powder, and as an adhesive. It is possible that many or all these alternatives were being followed. At Cerén manioc was a staple, not just an occasional adjunct to the diet. Because Cerén is toward the wet end of the ideal range for manioc cultivation, other areas of the Neotropics that receive less than 1,700 mm of precipitation may be more suitable for manioc cultivation than Cerén.

Swamps, canals, and the locations of ancient Maya cities

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (212) ◽  
pp. 206-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. W. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Radar Data ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Rank Ordering ◽  
Topographic Information ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Mapping Discovery

The recent radar mapping discovery of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands provides new perspectives on classic Maya civilization. Swamps seem to have been drained, modified, and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones. The largest sites of Maya civilization are located on the edges of swamps. By combining radar data with topographic information, it is possible to suggest the reasons for the choice of urban locations. With the addition of patterns elicited from rank-ordering of Maya cities, it is also possible to suggest more accurate means of defining Classic period Maya polities.

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 The discovery of an ancient Maya causeway system in the southern Maya Mountains of Belize

Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (357) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc A. Abramiuk
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Remote Location ◽  
Maya Mountains

The archaeological site of Quebrada de Oro, southern Belize, is one of four ancient Maya settlement sites, mainly dating to the Classic period (AD 250–900), that are situated in the Bladen Branch drainage of the southern Maya Mountains proper. This remote location has long been taken to imply that the region was a political backwater, but the recent discovery of an ancient Maya causeway system associated with Quebrada de Oro—the first significant example to be documented in this area—sheds new light on this group of Maya sites (Figure 1).

3. The divine king

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Matthew Restall ◽  
Amara Solari
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Regional Variations ◽  
Short Biography ◽  
Maya Area

“The divine king” begins with a short biography of the Maya k’uhul ajaw (supreme lord or king) known as 18-Rabbit. During the Classic period, rulers were viewed as divine kings or queens, like 18-Rabbit and Lady K’abel (“Waterlily-Hand”). The ancient Maya used a combination of a cyclical calendar and a linear calendar called the “Long Count.” The Maya area experienced regular intrusions from imperial Teotihuacan, often leading to economic and diplomatic partnerships. Most Mayas experienced war in their lifetimes. The “Collapse” at the end of the Classic period could more accurately be called a transition, with major regional variations. Some well-known Maya sites flourished after the Collapse.

POINT COUNTER POINT: INTERPRETING CHIPPED CHERT BIFACES IN TERMINAL CLASSIC “PROBLEMATIC” ON-FLOOR DEPOSITS FROM STRUCTURES A2 AND A3 AT CAHAL PECH, BELIZE

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. James Stemp ◽  
Jaime J. Awe
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Terminal Phase ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Symbolic Meanings

AbstractProblematic deposits, containing different types of artifacts and skeletal remains, are typically recovered on or near the surfaces of the terminal phase of elite civic-ceremonial architecture at ancient Maya sites. These contexts often date to the Terminal Classic period (~a.d. 750–900). They have been variously interpreted as evidence for site abandonment, squatting, warfare, or dedication or termination rituals. Sixteen chert bifaces were recovered from problematic deposits at the bases of Structures A2 and A3 in the elite Plaza A at Cahal Pech, Belize. Stone tools from problematic deposits are rarely examined in significant detail. Based on stylistic, metric, and use-wear analyses, the bifaces were likely produced locally, used during important hunting or warfare activities, and then ritually deposited in the Terminal Classic. These bifaces were likely hafted to spearthrower darts and represented “success” at hunting or fighting. The recovery of weaponry in problematic deposits that is not the direct result of warfare is an important observation because Mayanists have generally interpreted their presence in these contexts as evidence of warfare. The fact that the points were recovered in groups of seven and nine may indicate that they had important symbolic meanings that connected them to supernatural or mythological places or entities.

Cacao Residues in Ancient Maya Vessels from Rio Azul, Guatemala

1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant D. Hall ◽  
Stanley M. Tarka ◽  
W. Jeffrey Hurst ◽  
David Stuart ◽  
Richard E. W. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
New Method ◽  
Chemical Analyses ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Clear Indication ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Early Classic Period

Results of chemical analyses on residues collected from ceramic vessels found in an Early Classic period Maya tomb revealed that certain of the residues contained theobromine and caffeine, a clear indication that the corresponding vessels once contained cacao in some form. One of the vessels yielding cacao residues is decorated with hieroglyphs, two of which we believe have the phonetic values for the word “cacao” in the Mayan language. These findings are significant for three reasons: (1) a new method for recognizing ancient cacao use is demonstrated, (2) a novel way of verifying glyph interpretations is presented, and (3) data are generated that indicate what contents certain Maya vessels actually held, thus permitting useful functional interpretations.

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