Much has been learned from the basin of the Candelaria River,
Campeche, Mexico: the fabric of a densely settled pre-Historic
landscape, including impressive ceremonial centers; the logistics
of an ancient entrepôt; the process of exploitation of
dyewood and chicle in historic times; as well as the
doubtful results of the mid-twentieth-century colonization of
an “empty” forested basin. It also yielded the first
evidence of more or less intensive pre-Hispanic wetland agriculture
in the Maya region and the remains of a profuse network of fluvial
transportation from prehistoric times to the present. This article
presents recent evidence regarding the management of the river
system itself by means of barriers, or “dams,” which
facilitated agriculture in the wetlands upstream and extensive
canoe travel. These structures seem to be elaborations or
imitations of the numerous natural barriers already in the stream.
Two models help explain context and function. It has become
apparent that the human interventions into the wetlands and
the river system are to be seen less as great attainments of
civilization than as fairly desperate expedients in the face
of climate change.
Human interventions in a bifurcating river system: Numerical investigation and uncertainty assessment
