84-2 Water Resources Management in Ancient Maya Wetland Fields through Hydrological Modeling and Geoarchaeological Applications

Session: Geoarchaeology of Sites to Landscapes: Current Research on Long-Term Water and Soil Management and Maladaptation, Part I

Presenting Author:

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Abstract:

 Our research investigates water and soil management features of the ancient Maya site ‘Birds of Paradise’ (BOP) in Northwestern Belize, including wetland fields, canals, and reservoirs in the BOP area. BOP is the largest known well studied wetland field complex in the Maya world, but much is still unknown such as water sourcing, flow quantities, and flow routes through its 5 square kms and numerous main and secondary canals.  We correlate the system’s construction and its use over two millennia to regional paleoclimate reconstructions through geochemistry, remote sensing, extensive radiocarbon dating, and hydrologic modeling to understand system organization and strategies for water resources management and adaptation in this region. 

     Assumptions about the trajectory of the Maya is often correlated to drought and “collapse” narratives and although these have been investigated through methods such as paleoproxy analysis and direct excavation, remote sensing may also be used to put the spatial pieces together and better comprehend the complex human-environment interactions that occurred at the landscape scale in these wetland environments. 

     Regional scale hydrologic modeling using GIS methodology is performed in this paper, to complement geochemistry and paleoproxy reconstruction for my 2023 and 2024 excavations and coring in select BOP hydrologic features, to investigate the use and adaptive strategies in ancient Maya wetland field management. These methods may reveal underlying connections to the basis and motivations for the earliest canal construction in this region of the ancient Maya lowlands

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-10309

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