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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Maya defensive earthworks, agricultural land use, Tikal

College

Life Sciences

Department

Physiology and Developmental Biology

Abstract

Concurrent with the settlement surveys and excavations, Soil scientist from Brigham Young University and from Guatemala examined 62 soil profiles and collected soil samples for analysis at the Brigham Young University soil and plant analysis laboratory. The samples are currently being characterized for physical and chemical properties at the laboratory. Stable carbon isotopes will be analyzed to investigate the extent of ancient maize agriculture in the areas inside and outside the earthwork, using methods recently applied in several parts of the Maya Lowlands (Jensen 2003; Jensen et al. nd; Webb et al., nd; Webb, Henry, and Healy 2004). The soil scientists followed survey transects established by archaeologists to examine soils along the toposequence. Samples were retrieved both from excavations and from inter-site zones, including those probably not used for agriculture. Particularly informative should be samples from old topsoils buried beneath the embankment, and also soil deposited in the ditch during episodes of possible erosion that seem to have occurred just after its construction (the one excavated causeway was built atop such a deposit). Once the profiles are physically and chemically analyzed, soil resource maps will be generated and areas of ancient maize cultivation will be determined by examination of carbon isotope ratios of the soil organic matter. Results will ultimately help us to reconstruct the subsistence economy of settlement adjacent to the earthworks and ultimately to model the agricultural potential of the agricultural hinterland envisioned by Puleston and Callender (1967).

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