AbstractsAnthropology

This dissertation documents geoarchaeological investigations into human-environment interactions in the ancient Maya Lowlands. Further, this research emphasizes the growing importance and subsequent uses of complex systems and resilience theories in the creation of more robust models of ancient environments and behavior. This type of approach encourages researchers to take advantage of the growing array of instrumental techniques available to researchers (e.g., multi-proxy studies of paleoenvironments) which enables researchers to more accurately model the complexities of ancient human-environment interactions. Article 1 is a detailed review article that focuses on published geoarchaeological work in Mesoamerica since the year 2000. Five themes are identified as being central to these most recent geoarchaeological studies: 1) the correlation of environmental change and culture history; 2) anthropogenic environmental impacts; 3) ancient land cover, land use, and diet; 4) archaeological prospection; and 5) provenance studies. Article 2 is a research article that focuses on the Phase II research that was conducted at the Late Classic site of Minanha which is located on the northern portion of the Vaca Plateau in west-central Belize. This article discusses the results of preliminary research into ancient Maya settlement patterns and terrace construction, both temporally and spatially, in a peripheral agricultural community located in the Contreras Valley. Through the use of excavations, spatial statistics, and GIS these investigations were designed to both supplement and expand upon earlier investigations in Minanha’s epicenter by examining the collapse sequence from the viewpoint of a peripheral support population that is believed to have been home to a population that helped to sustain Minanha’s royal court. The Contreras inhabitants had a long occupation history in their valley, but eventually, they too abandoned their homes just like those who had lived in the epicentral royal court complex (and in the Site Core too). It is this abandonment of the Contreras Valley that is examined in greater detail in Article 3. At the time of abandonment, several artifact assemblages, in the form of termination rituals, were deposited at three domestic groups in the Contreras Valley and these assemblages were used to recreate the abandonment context and chronology of these aforementioned domestic groups. The third article also discusses how these termination rituals/ceremonies may have helped to reshape the identity of social groups who were about to abandon their homes. Article 3 also speculates on how the last inhabitants (of a what is believed to have been a mostly abandoned landscape) lived through a process of gradual depopulation. This dissertation demonstrates that geoarchaeological research directly examines human-environment interactions which can help us to learn about the capacity of humans to adapt to environmental change. More specifically, understanding the success and failure of past societies can help us to predict… Advisors/Committee Members: Dunning, Nicholas (Committee Chair).