WORKSHOP: February 8-9, 1997
Ancient Maya Use of Wetlands
in the Yalahau Region of Northern Quintana Roo
UC Riverside
Dept. of Anthropology
1343 Watkins Hall
Riverside CA 92521 USA
tel: (909) 787-3915
fax: (909) 787-5409
email: slfedick@ucrac1.ucr.edu
Since the 1970s researchers have been gathering
evidence that wetlands of the southern Maya Lowlands had been used for agricultural
production in ancient times. Use of wetlands apparently ranged from exploitation of natural cycles
of flooding and water recession to labor-intensive construction of channels
and raised fields. There has, however, been a great deal of debate in
recent years concerning 1) the types of wetlands that were exploited, 2) the forms of wetland management practiced, 3)
the dates during which wetland manipulation was practiced, and 4) the relative contribution of wetland
management to ancient Maya subsistence.
 Field
investigations of 1996 conducted in a wetland of the El Edén Ecological Reserve in northern
Quintana Roo, Mexico, provide the first confirmed evidence for ancient
manipulation of wetlands
in the northern Maya Lowlands. Constructed features within the seasonally
inundated wetland
consist of alignments of limestone boulders and slabs apparently intended
to function as dikes and check-dams to control water and sediments.
Associated settlements investigated by Bethany
Morrison have been assigned to the Late Preclassic period (ca.
100 B.C. to A.D. 400). Potential uses of the wetland include intensive cultivation of domesticates, management
and harvesting of periphyton for use as a fertilizer, and management of edible wetland
resources such as cattail (Typha latifolia) and apple snail (Pomacea
flagellata). Our 1996 survey covered about 60 percent of the El
Edén wetland. We will return in the spring
of 1997 to complete the survey and to conduct excavation of a sample
of the constructed features.
The El Edén wetland is only one of an extensive system of wetlands found within the Yalahau
region of northern Quintana Roo. It is anticipated that evidence for
ancient manipulation of other wetlands of the Yalahau region awaits discovery. Ultimate understanding
of wetland manipulation by the ancient Maya will necessitate cooperative research
of archaeologists with ecologists, biologists, geomorphologists, agroecologists,
and paleontologists. The team of El Edén researchers represents
the ideal interdisciplinary atmosphere for conducting such studies.
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