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1. Harmful algal blooms and cyanotoxins in Lake Amatitlán, Guatemala, coincided with ancient Maya occupation in the watershed

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109919118  

   Waters, Matthew Neal; Brenner, Mark; Curtis, Jason Hilleary; Romero-Oliva, Claudia Suseth; Dix, Margaret; Cano, Manuel (November 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Human-induced deforestation and soil erosion were environmental stressors for the ancient Maya of Mesoamerica. Furthermore, intense, periodic droughts during the Terminal Classic Period, ca. Common Era 830 to 950, have been documented from lake sediment cores and speleothems. Today, lakes worldwide that are surrounded by dense human settlement and intense riparian land use often develop algae/cyanobacteria blooms that can compromise water quality by depleting oxygen and producing toxins. Such environmental impacts have rarely been explored in the context of ancient Maya settlement. We measured nutrients, biomarkers for cyanobacteria, and the cyanotoxin microcystin in a sediment core from Lake Amatitlán, highland Guatemala, which spans the last ∼2,100 y. The lake is currently hypereutrophic and characterized by high cyanotoxin concentrations from persistent blooms of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa . Our paleolimnological data show that harmful cyanobacteria blooms and cyanotoxin production occurred during periods of ancient Maya occupation. Highest prehistoric concentrations of cyanotoxins in the sediment coincided with alterations of the water system in the Maya city of Kaminaljuyú, and changes in nutrient stoichiometry and maximum cyanobacteria abundance were coeval with times of greatest ancient human populations in the watershed. These prehistoric episodes of cyanobacteria proliferation and cyanotoxin production rivaled modern conditions in the lake, with respect to both bloom magnitude and toxicity. This suggests that pre-Columbian Maya occupation of the Lake Amatitlán watershed negatively impacted water potability. Prehistoric cultural eutrophication indicates that human-driven nutrient enrichment of water bodies is not an exclusively modern phenomenon and may well have been a stressor for the ancient Maya. 

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2. Sea-level rise and settlement at Ek Way Nal: Coring the past

   Foster, Cher; McKillop, Heather; Sills, E Cory (July 2023, Research reports in Belizean archaeology)

   Excavations in the spring and summer of 2022 were carried out at the underwater ancient Maya salt work of Ek Way Nal in Punta Ycacos Lagoon, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize. Ek Way Nal provided salt to the ancient Maya during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (600-900 C.E.). In additional to excavations in buildings at the site, a 1 X 2 m unit was excavated to extract a sediment column for examining the relationship between the ancient Maya settlement at Ek Way Nal and sea-level rise. In this article, the excavations, extraction of the sediment column, and processing it for laboratory analyses are described. Field observations are discussed. Fine red mangrove root (Rhizophora mangle) and charcoal samples were extracted from the sediment column for radiocarbon dating. The results from the datum core excavation indicate that sea-level rise occurred before, during, and after the ancient Maya occupation at Ek Way Nal. 

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3. The Ancient Maya of the Caribbean Coast: A View from Wild Cane Cay, Belize

   McKillop, Heather (January 2024, Mar Caribe)

   Lyell, Victoria (Ed.)

   There are contrasting models for the role of coastal trading ports in the Maya economy throughout prehistory, but particularly in the Terminal Classic (A.D. 800-1000). Hammond (1972) presented a model of obsidian trade from the Maya highlands to the lowlands, in which El Chayal source obsidian was transported via inland routes, whereas Ixtepeque obsidian was traded along the Caribbean coast and then inland via rivers to the southern Maya lowland cities. Healy et al. (1984) and McKillop et al. (1988) suggested that obsidian from both sources was transported along the Caribbean coast but that El Chayal was the dominant source used in the Classic period and Ixtepeque during the Terminal and Postclassic periods. Hammond (1976) suggested that offshore trading ports were used as transshipment stations between maritime and riverine routes. This model was adopted by various researchers (Andrews et al. 1989; Cobos 2023; Guderjan and Garber 1995; Graham and Pendergast 1989; McKillop 2004, 2005a). Cobos (2023) asserts that after the abandonment of inland cities in the southern Maya lowlands at the end of the Classic period, the northern Yucatecan city of Chichen Itza developed a redistributive economy based on tribute and controlled trading ports around the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and Belize. In the Classic period, the island trading port of Wild Cane Cay was integrated into a regional network of trade between the coast and inland communities. The inland trade was anchored by the dietary need for salt, produced on the coast but absent inland where this basic dietary necessity was in demand. The pattern of coastal-inland trade was replicated along the Caribbean coast of Belize and the Yucatan. Abandonment of inland settlements at the end of the Classic period did not end coastal settlement. Evidence presented in this paper illustrates that Wild Cane Cay was as an independent trading port integrated into a regional marketplace economy and not a node on a redistribution/tribute route controlled by Chichen Itza. 

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4. Aventura in a Northern Belize Context: Challenging Traditional Narratives of Ancient Maya Civilization

   Robin, Cynthia; Kosakowsky, Laura; Grauer, Kacey; Nissen, Zachary; Fitzgerald, Kat (June 2019, Research reports in Belizean archaeology)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper draws upon the results of the 2017 field research at Aventura to illustrate how Aventura research challenges traditional narratives about ancient Maya civilization. The Maya site of Aventura, located in northern Belize, is a community with a five millennia history spanning forager-horticulturalist, PreColumbian Maya, historic, and contemporary periods. The Classic Maya city of Aventura had its heyday during the period of the Maya “collapse.” As a community with a five millennia history and a city that survives the period of the “collapse,” Aventura challenges traditional narratives about the trajectory of ancient Maya civilization. While Aventura lacks extensive trappings of Maya high culture (stelae, hieroglyphs, and tall temples) its long history belies its importance and prompts reassessment of traditional measures of high culture and reconsideration of terms such as collapse and decline. Aventura is not unique in northern Belize in terms of its ability to survive, and even thrive, during the “collapse.” Lamanai, Caye Coco, Nohmul, Santa Rita, and Sarteneja, among others, survive the “collapse.” Originally considered a peripheral part of the ancient Maya world, site longevity in northern Belize challenges the identification of this region as peripheral. 

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5. New light on the use of Theobroma cacao by Late Classic Maya

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121821119  

   Ford, Anabel; Williams, Ann; de Vries, Mattanjah S. (October 2022, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Cacao seeds, Theobroma cacao , provide the basis for a ceremonially important Mesoamerican food. Past efforts to identify cacao in ceramics focused on highly decorative vessel forms associated with elite ceremonial contexts, creating assumptions as to how cacao was distributed and who could access it. This study examines 54 archaeological ceramic sherds from El Pilar (Belize/Guatemala) of Late Classic (600 to 900 CE) residential and civic contexts representing a cross-section of ancient Maya inhabitants. Identification of cacao in ancient sherds has depended on the general presence of theobromine; we used the discrete presence of theophylline, a unique key biomarker for cacao in the region. Analysis was done by grinding off all outside surfaces to reduce contamination, pulverizing the inner clay matrix, extracting absorbed molecules, and concentrating the extractions. In order to obtain especially high selectivity and low limits of detection, our study utilized the technique of resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization coupled with laser-desorption jet-cooling mass spectrometry. This technique isolates molecules in the cold gas phase where they can be selectively ionized through a resonant two-photon process. Of the sherds analyzed, 30 samples (56%) were found to contain significant amounts of theophylline and thus test positive for cacao. Importantly, cacao is present in all contexts, common to all Maya residents near and far from centers. 

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