SPAFACON 2021: Papers from the SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference on Southeast Asian Archaeology and Fine Arts, 13-17 December 2021, 2021
What we know about Bagan derives almost exclusively from historical sources – namely retrospectiv... more What we know about Bagan derives almost exclusively from historical sources – namely retrospective chronicles, inscriptions, and changing architectural styles. To date, archaeological excavations have played a limited role in augmenting or challenging this traditional narrative. This is unfortunate, because small scale excavations within Bagan’s peri-urban settlement zone, and within the walled and moated “royal city,” have demonstrated considerable knowledge about the city’s past. This is especially true for the Pre-Bagan phase (600-1044 CE). This presentation documents what we think we know about the time “before Bagan,” using the established sources, and assesses this narrative using information from contemporaneous excavation levels. ပုဂံခေတ်ယဉ်ချေးမှုအခြျာင်းျို သမိုင်းအေေျ်လျ်မေားဖြစ်သည့် အစဉ်အလာရာဇဝင်မှတ်တမ်းမေား၊ ချောျ်စာမေား၊ နှင့် ခဖပာင်းလဲလာေဲ့သည့်ဗိသုျာပုံ စံမေားမှသာလေင် သိြျရသည်။ နှစ်သျ်တမ်း သတ်မှတ်ရန်အတွျ် ခရှးခောင်းသုခတ သနဆိုင်ရာတူးခြာ်ခလ့လာမှုမေားသည်အစဉ်အလာအဆိုအမိန့်...
Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This ... more Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This is no more apparent than in western Belize, where the scale and resolution of these images have identified vast networks of agricultural terrace systems, revealing their true extent and density. This paper moves beyond the initial identification of terrace distribution to use lidar imagery in combination with digital elevation models (DEM) and hydrological mapping programs (Arc Hydro) to explore the drainage catchments associated with agricultural terraces at the ancient Maya site Waybil, a minor center within the Minanha polity in the North Vaca Plateau. We specifically address how the builders of these relic agricultural features worked with the natural topography to manipulate and create more effective catchments and drainage routes. Results from hydrological modeling describe how terraces created smaller drainage catchments by increasing lower levels of flow accumulation and redirect...
This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agr... more This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agricultural terrace systems that surround the ancient Maya center of Minanha, Belize. A comparative approach is employed, using case studies representative of three different forms of organization. The Inka represent centralized organization. Decentralized organization is demonstrated by the Nyanga complex of Eastern Zimbabwe. Heterarchical organization is exemplified by the Balinese example. Each case study involves intensive hillside terrace farming. Examining the physical characteristics of these systems has provided in-sight into their socio-political and socio-economic organization. These qualities are compared to the Minanha terrace systems for their similarities and differences to uncover which organization is most similar. In addition to the comparative assessment, the thesis also involves the use of fractal analysis to explore the spatial organization of both the terraces, and ass...
Even though the extent of “greater Minanha” has not yet been defined, early investigations indica... more Even though the extent of “greater Minanha” has not yet been defined, early investigations indicate that many of the surrounding valleys and hilltops were home to the people and communities that helped sustain Minanha’s Late Classic royal court. More specifically, Contreras is a one kilometer square zone located approximately one kilometer southeast of Minanha’s epicenter and is situated a densely terraced valley with an abundance of archaeological remains. In 2006, Phase II investigations began in Contreras which have focused on examining the composition of this peripheral settlement community. As a result, for the past four field seasons, reconnaissance, excavations within the settlement groups, and the mapping of the terraces have been completed in order to examine the organization of these aforementioned anthropogenic features. More specifically, this research is aimed at exploring settlement patterns and terrace construction, both temporally and spatially, of the Contreras inha...
LiDAR has dramatically enhanced the ability for archaeologists to study settlement patterns and a... more LiDAR has dramatically enhanced the ability for archaeologists to study settlement patterns and agricultural landscapes within tropical environments, such as that of Belize's North Vaca Plateau. For the past 16 years the ancient Maya settlement and agricultural terrace systems of this rugged landscape have been extensively explored. This presentation incorporates the results of this previous research with new LiDAR imagery. Analysis of the agricultural terrace systems at several scales, and in relation to settlements of varying size and complexity, allows for a more nuanced understanding of community resilience and vulnerability in this part of the Maya world.
Since the 1970's it has generally been understood that intensive agricultural practices were ... more Since the 1970's it has generally been understood that intensive agricultural practices were essential to the development of ancient Maya state formation in the Vaca Plateau. Terraced field systems were the method of choice with respect to the enhancement of agricultural production. Yet, we still have a limited understanding of the development and expansion of terrace systems found throughout the Plateau. Over the past nine years a number of researchers have attempted to build a more detailed understanding of the terrace field system at the ancient Maya center of Minanha. The results of the ongoing study will be detailed in this paper, with particular emphasis on the factors involved in the initial development of the field systems and what drove its eventual expansion.
The scale of archaeological survey has significantly changed over the past century. It's impe... more The scale of archaeological survey has significantly changed over the past century. It's imperative to understand how these changes of scale and methodology have influenced research and ultimately our interpretations. This paper addresses the historical development of survey in the Maya subarea, identifying important developments, key researchers, and projects as well as subsequent changes in research questions and scales of analysis. Presenting that the historical sequence of developments in itself has fashioned a methodological approach with the capacity to address changes in scale. Research conducted in the North Vaca Plateau of Belize by the Social Archaeological Research Program at the ancient Maya center of Minanha will be used to exemplify this method. Over the past several years Minanha has been subjected to a variety of different survey methods, progressively increasing the scale of analysis. Examining how the survey efforts have progressed provides insight into how dif...
Archaeologists often struggled with understanding the life-cycles of relic agricultural field sys... more Archaeologists often struggled with understanding the life-cycles of relic agricultural field systems. By incorporating the multi-variable approach of the adaptive cycle, complex relationship dynamics can be identified and applied to understanding the historical sequences of specific cases studies. Demonstrating this is the intensive terrace systems and settlement within the Contreras Valley and the associated ancient Maya center of Minanha, Belize. The variables identified include the relationships between intensive agricultural terracing, climatic change, social pressures, and populations. This study follows the trajectory of the Contreras Valley starting with kin-based social groups practicing small-scale, decentralized, agricultural production. The succeeding rise of the Minanha royal court with new social and population pressures which in addition to climatic stresses drove the inhabitants to develop a hierarchically organized social structure with large-scale intensive terrace...
This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agr... more This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agricultural terrace systems that surround the ancient Maya center of Minanha, Belize. A comparative approach is employed, using case studies representative of three different forms of organization. The Inka represent centralized organization. Decentralized organization is demonstrated by the Nyanga complex of Eastern Zimbabwe. Heterarchical organization is exemplified by the Balinese example. Each case study involves intensive hillside terrace farming. Examining the physical characteristics of these systems has provided in-sight into their socio-political and socio-economic organization. These qualities are compared to the Minanha terrace systems for their similarities and differences to uncover which organization is most similar. In addition to the comparative assessment, the thesis also involves the use of fractal analysis to explore the spatial organization of both the terraces, and associated settlement distribution.
Bagan (11th to 14th Century C.E.) was a capital as well as a cosmological and ritual epicenter of... more Bagan (11th to 14th Century C.E.) was a capital as well as a cosmological and ritual epicenter of Theravada Buddhism for the Classical Burmese Empire. Integral in the Buddhist belief system is the notion of merit; achieved through good deeds or donations to the Buddhist Church. This often took the form of developing or renovating water management infrastructure throughout Bagan’s peri-urban zone. These were important endeavors given the semi-arid environment and limited water resources which characterize this region. This ancient landscape was also shaped by two significant climatic events during the occupation of Bagan; the Medieval Climate Anomaly (900–1300 C.E.) and Little Ice Age (1300–1570 C.E.). In this pursuit for merit, donations were inscribed on stone monuments endowing the donor with social recognition and spiritual benefits. Recorded within these stone inscriptions are references to types of water management features, construction techniques, locations, dates, donors, and recipients. The quantitative analysis of these inscriptions provides will address the shifting management strategy in response to changing water availability due to climatic fluctuations.
Journal of Archaeology and Fine Arts in Southeast Asia, 2019
The IRAW@Bagan project is aimed at developing an integrated socio-ecological history for resident... more The IRAW@Bagan project is aimed at developing an integrated socio-ecological history for residential patterning, agricultural practices, and water management at the classical Burmese (Bama) capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th centuries CE). As part of this long-term research program investigations have been initiated in the Tuyin-Thetso uplands, located 11 km southeast of Bagan’s walled and moated epicenter. This mountainous area figures prominently in the chronicles of early Bagan, given that it was one of five places around the city that a royal white elephant carrying a Buddhist tooth-relic kneeled down, prompting King Anawrahta (1044-1077 CE) to build a pagoda (i.e., temple) there. Numerous 13th century religious monuments were subsequently built on the Tuyin Range. Recent explorations in these uplands have drawn attention to an additional feature of historical significance, a rock-cut tank located along the eastern edge of the Thetso-Taung ridge. Referred to by local villagers as Nat Yekan (Spirit Lake), this reservoir appears to have been integral not only to the initial collection and subsequent redistribution of water across the Bagan plain via a series of interconnected canals and reservoirs, but also, through its associated iconographic imagery, it may have been intended to symbolically purify this water, enhancing its fertility prior to its flowing into the city’s peri-urban zone. Hydrological modelling, excavations, and both iconographic and epigraphic analysis are used to build a multilayered understanding of Nat Yekan’s economic, political, religious, and ideological significance during Bagan’s classical era.
Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This ... more Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This is no more apparent than in western Belize, where the scale and resolution of these images have identified vast networks of agricultural terrace systems, revealing their true extent and density. This paper moves beyond the initial identification of terrace distribution to use lidar imagery in combination with digital elevation models (DEM) and hydrological mapping programs (Arc Hydro) to explore the drainage catchments associated with agricultural terraces at the ancient Maya site Waybil, a minor center within the Minanha polity in the North Vaca Plateau. We specifically address how the builders of these relic agricultural features worked with the natural topography to manipulate and create more effective catchments and drainage routes. Results from hydrological modeling describe how terraces created smaller drainage catchments by increasing lower levels of flow accumulation and redirecting routes laterally across the topography. Over a decade of research within this sub-region provides the necessary survey, excavations, and chronological datasets to accurately assess the efficacy of the combined methods for relic terrace drainage analysis.
Lidar ha sido revolucionario para la comprensión de los paisajes antropogénicos de la Antigua Maya. Esto ha sido evidente en el oeste de Belice, donde la escala y la resolución de estas imágenes han identificado enormes redes de sistemas de terrazas agrícolas, revelando su verdadero alcance y densidad. Este estudio va más allá de la identificación inicial de la distribución de terrazas utilizando imágenes lidar en combinación con los modelos digitales de elevación (DEM) y programas de mapas hidrológicos (Arco Hydro) para explorar las cuencas de drenaje asociadas con terrazas agrícolas en el antiguo sitio maya Waybil, un centro menor dentro del sistema Minaha en la Meseta Vaca Norte. Específicamente explicamos cómo los constructores de estas reliquias agrícolas trabajaron con la topografía natural para manipular y crear más eficaces, rutas de captación y el drenaje. Resultados de modelación hidrológica describen cómo terrazas crearon pequeñas cuencas de drenaje por aumento de niveles de acumulación de flujo y redirigir rutas lateralmente a través de la topografía. Más de una década de investigación dentro de esta sub-región nos provee los estudios, las excavaciones y los conjuntos de datos cronológicos para evaluar con precisión la eficacia de esta combinación de métodos al analizar el drenaje de terrazas de reliquia.
The most archaeologically visible dimension of the Classic Maya Collapse is the abandonment of mo... more The most archaeologically visible dimension of the Classic Maya Collapse is the abandonment of monumental royal courts. Yet, in some cases, non-elite populations lived for centuries in and around Classic Maya centers without rulers. Processes of abandonment among Classic Maya commoners are detectable and reflect their own ritual and social practices divorced from the ritual performances undertaken by the ruling elite. We study the abandonment context and chronology of three domestic groups from the Contreras Valley, an agricultural community located on the outskirts of the Classic Maya center of Minanha, Belize. There, several artifact assemblages were deposited at the time of abandonment, representing termination rituals. This study goes beyond the ideological dimension of termination rituals, as we examine how these ceremonies helped reshape the identity of social groups who were about to abandon their home. We explore how the last inhabitants of a mostly abandoned landscape lived through this process of gradual depopulation. Moreover, we evaluate potential explanations for the archaeological processes behind the occurrence or non-occurrence of termination rituals in different domestic groups.
El aspecto arqueológico más visible del colapso Maya Clásico es el abandono de las cortes reales monumentales. Sin embargo, en algunos casos, poblaciones que no pertenecían a la élite vivieron por siglos en centros Mayas Clásicos sin la presencia de gobernantes. Los procesos de abandono de la gente común durante el periodo Clásico pueden ser discernibles y reflejar sus propias prácticas rituales y sociales, las cuales fueron distintas de la élite. En este artículo estudiamos el contexto de abandono y la cronología de tres grupos domésticos del Valle de Contreras, los cuales formaron parte de una comunidad agrícola ubicada en los alrededores del centro Maya Clásico de Minanha, Belice. Varios conjuntos de artefactos fueron depositados durante el abandono de este valle, los cuales representan rituales de terminación. Este estudio va más allá de las dimensiones ideológicas para examinar cómo estas ceremonias transformaron la identidad de los grupos sociales que estuvieron a punto de abandonar sus casas. Exploramos cómo estos últimos habitantes de un paisaje prácticamente abandonado vivieron este proceso de despoblación gradual. Además, evaluamos explicaciones potenciales para los procesos arqueológicos responsables de la presencia o ausencia de rituales de terminación en diferentes grupos residenciales.
Detachment From Place: Beyond an Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment, 2020
Detachment from Place is the first comparative and interdisciplinary volume on the archaeology of... more Detachment from Place is the first comparative and interdisciplinary volume on the archaeology of settlement abandonment, with contributions focusing on materiality, ideology, the environment, and social construction of space. The volume sheds new light on an important but underexamined aspect of settlement abandonment wherein sedentary groups undergoing the process of abandonment leave behind many meaningful elements of their inhabited landscape. The process of detaching from place—which could last centuries—transformed inhabitants into migrants and transformed settled, constructed, and agricultural landscapes into imagined ones that continued to figure significantly in the identities of migrant groups.
Drawing on case studies from the Americas, Africa, and Asia, the volume explores how relationships between ancient peoples and the places they lived were transformed as they migrated elsewhere. Contributors focus on social structure, ecology, and ideology to study how people and places both disentangled from each other and remained tied together during this process. From Huron-Wendat villages and Classic Maya palaces to historical villages in Togo and the great Southeast Asian Medieval capital of Bagan, specific cultural, historical, and environmental factors led ancient peoples to detach from their homes and embark on migrations that altered social memory and cultural identity—as evidenced in the archaeological record.
Detachment from Place provides new insights into transfigurations of community identity, political organization, social and economic relations, religion, warfare, and agricultural practices and will be of interest to landscape archaeologists as well as researchers focused on collective memory, population movement, migratory patterns, and interaction.
Contributors: Tomas Q. Barrientos, Jennifer Birch, Eduardo José Bustamante Luna, Catherine M. Cameron, Marcello A. Canuto, Jeffrey H. Cohen, Michael D. Danti, Phillip de Barros, Pete Demarte, Donna M. Glowacki, Gyles Iannone, Louis Lesage, Patricia A. McAnany, Asa R. Randall, Kenneth E. Sassaman
SPAFACON 2021: Papers from the SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference on Southeast Asian Archaeology and Fine Arts, 13-17 December 2021, 2021
What we know about Bagan derives almost exclusively from historical sources – namely retrospectiv... more What we know about Bagan derives almost exclusively from historical sources – namely retrospective chronicles, inscriptions, and changing architectural styles. To date, archaeological excavations have played a limited role in augmenting or challenging this traditional narrative. This is unfortunate, because small scale excavations within Bagan’s peri-urban settlement zone, and within the walled and moated “royal city,” have demonstrated considerable knowledge about the city’s past. This is especially true for the Pre-Bagan phase (600-1044 CE). This presentation documents what we think we know about the time “before Bagan,” using the established sources, and assesses this narrative using information from contemporaneous excavation levels. ပုဂံခေတ်ယဉ်ချေးမှုအခြျာင်းျို သမိုင်းအေေျ်လျ်မေားဖြစ်သည့် အစဉ်အလာရာဇဝင်မှတ်တမ်းမေား၊ ချောျ်စာမေား၊ နှင့် ခဖပာင်းလဲလာေဲ့သည့်ဗိသုျာပုံ စံမေားမှသာလေင် သိြျရသည်။ နှစ်သျ်တမ်း သတ်မှတ်ရန်အတွျ် ခရှးခောင်းသုခတ သနဆိုင်ရာတူးခြာ်ခလ့လာမှုမေားသည်အစဉ်အလာအဆိုအမိန့်...
Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This ... more Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This is no more apparent than in western Belize, where the scale and resolution of these images have identified vast networks of agricultural terrace systems, revealing their true extent and density. This paper moves beyond the initial identification of terrace distribution to use lidar imagery in combination with digital elevation models (DEM) and hydrological mapping programs (Arc Hydro) to explore the drainage catchments associated with agricultural terraces at the ancient Maya site Waybil, a minor center within the Minanha polity in the North Vaca Plateau. We specifically address how the builders of these relic agricultural features worked with the natural topography to manipulate and create more effective catchments and drainage routes. Results from hydrological modeling describe how terraces created smaller drainage catchments by increasing lower levels of flow accumulation and redirect...
This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agr... more This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agricultural terrace systems that surround the ancient Maya center of Minanha, Belize. A comparative approach is employed, using case studies representative of three different forms of organization. The Inka represent centralized organization. Decentralized organization is demonstrated by the Nyanga complex of Eastern Zimbabwe. Heterarchical organization is exemplified by the Balinese example. Each case study involves intensive hillside terrace farming. Examining the physical characteristics of these systems has provided in-sight into their socio-political and socio-economic organization. These qualities are compared to the Minanha terrace systems for their similarities and differences to uncover which organization is most similar. In addition to the comparative assessment, the thesis also involves the use of fractal analysis to explore the spatial organization of both the terraces, and ass...
Even though the extent of “greater Minanha” has not yet been defined, early investigations indica... more Even though the extent of “greater Minanha” has not yet been defined, early investigations indicate that many of the surrounding valleys and hilltops were home to the people and communities that helped sustain Minanha’s Late Classic royal court. More specifically, Contreras is a one kilometer square zone located approximately one kilometer southeast of Minanha’s epicenter and is situated a densely terraced valley with an abundance of archaeological remains. In 2006, Phase II investigations began in Contreras which have focused on examining the composition of this peripheral settlement community. As a result, for the past four field seasons, reconnaissance, excavations within the settlement groups, and the mapping of the terraces have been completed in order to examine the organization of these aforementioned anthropogenic features. More specifically, this research is aimed at exploring settlement patterns and terrace construction, both temporally and spatially, of the Contreras inha...
LiDAR has dramatically enhanced the ability for archaeologists to study settlement patterns and a... more LiDAR has dramatically enhanced the ability for archaeologists to study settlement patterns and agricultural landscapes within tropical environments, such as that of Belize's North Vaca Plateau. For the past 16 years the ancient Maya settlement and agricultural terrace systems of this rugged landscape have been extensively explored. This presentation incorporates the results of this previous research with new LiDAR imagery. Analysis of the agricultural terrace systems at several scales, and in relation to settlements of varying size and complexity, allows for a more nuanced understanding of community resilience and vulnerability in this part of the Maya world.
Since the 1970's it has generally been understood that intensive agricultural practices were ... more Since the 1970's it has generally been understood that intensive agricultural practices were essential to the development of ancient Maya state formation in the Vaca Plateau. Terraced field systems were the method of choice with respect to the enhancement of agricultural production. Yet, we still have a limited understanding of the development and expansion of terrace systems found throughout the Plateau. Over the past nine years a number of researchers have attempted to build a more detailed understanding of the terrace field system at the ancient Maya center of Minanha. The results of the ongoing study will be detailed in this paper, with particular emphasis on the factors involved in the initial development of the field systems and what drove its eventual expansion.
The scale of archaeological survey has significantly changed over the past century. It's impe... more The scale of archaeological survey has significantly changed over the past century. It's imperative to understand how these changes of scale and methodology have influenced research and ultimately our interpretations. This paper addresses the historical development of survey in the Maya subarea, identifying important developments, key researchers, and projects as well as subsequent changes in research questions and scales of analysis. Presenting that the historical sequence of developments in itself has fashioned a methodological approach with the capacity to address changes in scale. Research conducted in the North Vaca Plateau of Belize by the Social Archaeological Research Program at the ancient Maya center of Minanha will be used to exemplify this method. Over the past several years Minanha has been subjected to a variety of different survey methods, progressively increasing the scale of analysis. Examining how the survey efforts have progressed provides insight into how dif...
Archaeologists often struggled with understanding the life-cycles of relic agricultural field sys... more Archaeologists often struggled with understanding the life-cycles of relic agricultural field systems. By incorporating the multi-variable approach of the adaptive cycle, complex relationship dynamics can be identified and applied to understanding the historical sequences of specific cases studies. Demonstrating this is the intensive terrace systems and settlement within the Contreras Valley and the associated ancient Maya center of Minanha, Belize. The variables identified include the relationships between intensive agricultural terracing, climatic change, social pressures, and populations. This study follows the trajectory of the Contreras Valley starting with kin-based social groups practicing small-scale, decentralized, agricultural production. The succeeding rise of the Minanha royal court with new social and population pressures which in addition to climatic stresses drove the inhabitants to develop a hierarchically organized social structure with large-scale intensive terrace...
This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agr... more This thesis investigates the socio-political and socio-economic organization behind the relic agricultural terrace systems that surround the ancient Maya center of Minanha, Belize. A comparative approach is employed, using case studies representative of three different forms of organization. The Inka represent centralized organization. Decentralized organization is demonstrated by the Nyanga complex of Eastern Zimbabwe. Heterarchical organization is exemplified by the Balinese example. Each case study involves intensive hillside terrace farming. Examining the physical characteristics of these systems has provided in-sight into their socio-political and socio-economic organization. These qualities are compared to the Minanha terrace systems for their similarities and differences to uncover which organization is most similar. In addition to the comparative assessment, the thesis also involves the use of fractal analysis to explore the spatial organization of both the terraces, and associated settlement distribution.
Bagan (11th to 14th Century C.E.) was a capital as well as a cosmological and ritual epicenter of... more Bagan (11th to 14th Century C.E.) was a capital as well as a cosmological and ritual epicenter of Theravada Buddhism for the Classical Burmese Empire. Integral in the Buddhist belief system is the notion of merit; achieved through good deeds or donations to the Buddhist Church. This often took the form of developing or renovating water management infrastructure throughout Bagan’s peri-urban zone. These were important endeavors given the semi-arid environment and limited water resources which characterize this region. This ancient landscape was also shaped by two significant climatic events during the occupation of Bagan; the Medieval Climate Anomaly (900–1300 C.E.) and Little Ice Age (1300–1570 C.E.). In this pursuit for merit, donations were inscribed on stone monuments endowing the donor with social recognition and spiritual benefits. Recorded within these stone inscriptions are references to types of water management features, construction techniques, locations, dates, donors, and recipients. The quantitative analysis of these inscriptions provides will address the shifting management strategy in response to changing water availability due to climatic fluctuations.
Journal of Archaeology and Fine Arts in Southeast Asia, 2019
The IRAW@Bagan project is aimed at developing an integrated socio-ecological history for resident... more The IRAW@Bagan project is aimed at developing an integrated socio-ecological history for residential patterning, agricultural practices, and water management at the classical Burmese (Bama) capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th centuries CE). As part of this long-term research program investigations have been initiated in the Tuyin-Thetso uplands, located 11 km southeast of Bagan’s walled and moated epicenter. This mountainous area figures prominently in the chronicles of early Bagan, given that it was one of five places around the city that a royal white elephant carrying a Buddhist tooth-relic kneeled down, prompting King Anawrahta (1044-1077 CE) to build a pagoda (i.e., temple) there. Numerous 13th century religious monuments were subsequently built on the Tuyin Range. Recent explorations in these uplands have drawn attention to an additional feature of historical significance, a rock-cut tank located along the eastern edge of the Thetso-Taung ridge. Referred to by local villagers as Nat Yekan (Spirit Lake), this reservoir appears to have been integral not only to the initial collection and subsequent redistribution of water across the Bagan plain via a series of interconnected canals and reservoirs, but also, through its associated iconographic imagery, it may have been intended to symbolically purify this water, enhancing its fertility prior to its flowing into the city’s peri-urban zone. Hydrological modelling, excavations, and both iconographic and epigraphic analysis are used to build a multilayered understanding of Nat Yekan’s economic, political, religious, and ideological significance during Bagan’s classical era.
Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This ... more Lidar has been revolutionary to the understanding of ancient Maya anthropogenic landscapes. This is no more apparent than in western Belize, where the scale and resolution of these images have identified vast networks of agricultural terrace systems, revealing their true extent and density. This paper moves beyond the initial identification of terrace distribution to use lidar imagery in combination with digital elevation models (DEM) and hydrological mapping programs (Arc Hydro) to explore the drainage catchments associated with agricultural terraces at the ancient Maya site Waybil, a minor center within the Minanha polity in the North Vaca Plateau. We specifically address how the builders of these relic agricultural features worked with the natural topography to manipulate and create more effective catchments and drainage routes. Results from hydrological modeling describe how terraces created smaller drainage catchments by increasing lower levels of flow accumulation and redirecting routes laterally across the topography. Over a decade of research within this sub-region provides the necessary survey, excavations, and chronological datasets to accurately assess the efficacy of the combined methods for relic terrace drainage analysis.
Lidar ha sido revolucionario para la comprensión de los paisajes antropogénicos de la Antigua Maya. Esto ha sido evidente en el oeste de Belice, donde la escala y la resolución de estas imágenes han identificado enormes redes de sistemas de terrazas agrícolas, revelando su verdadero alcance y densidad. Este estudio va más allá de la identificación inicial de la distribución de terrazas utilizando imágenes lidar en combinación con los modelos digitales de elevación (DEM) y programas de mapas hidrológicos (Arco Hydro) para explorar las cuencas de drenaje asociadas con terrazas agrícolas en el antiguo sitio maya Waybil, un centro menor dentro del sistema Minaha en la Meseta Vaca Norte. Específicamente explicamos cómo los constructores de estas reliquias agrícolas trabajaron con la topografía natural para manipular y crear más eficaces, rutas de captación y el drenaje. Resultados de modelación hidrológica describen cómo terrazas crearon pequeñas cuencas de drenaje por aumento de niveles de acumulación de flujo y redirigir rutas lateralmente a través de la topografía. Más de una década de investigación dentro de esta sub-región nos provee los estudios, las excavaciones y los conjuntos de datos cronológicos para evaluar con precisión la eficacia de esta combinación de métodos al analizar el drenaje de terrazas de reliquia.
The most archaeologically visible dimension of the Classic Maya Collapse is the abandonment of mo... more The most archaeologically visible dimension of the Classic Maya Collapse is the abandonment of monumental royal courts. Yet, in some cases, non-elite populations lived for centuries in and around Classic Maya centers without rulers. Processes of abandonment among Classic Maya commoners are detectable and reflect their own ritual and social practices divorced from the ritual performances undertaken by the ruling elite. We study the abandonment context and chronology of three domestic groups from the Contreras Valley, an agricultural community located on the outskirts of the Classic Maya center of Minanha, Belize. There, several artifact assemblages were deposited at the time of abandonment, representing termination rituals. This study goes beyond the ideological dimension of termination rituals, as we examine how these ceremonies helped reshape the identity of social groups who were about to abandon their home. We explore how the last inhabitants of a mostly abandoned landscape lived through this process of gradual depopulation. Moreover, we evaluate potential explanations for the archaeological processes behind the occurrence or non-occurrence of termination rituals in different domestic groups.
El aspecto arqueológico más visible del colapso Maya Clásico es el abandono de las cortes reales monumentales. Sin embargo, en algunos casos, poblaciones que no pertenecían a la élite vivieron por siglos en centros Mayas Clásicos sin la presencia de gobernantes. Los procesos de abandono de la gente común durante el periodo Clásico pueden ser discernibles y reflejar sus propias prácticas rituales y sociales, las cuales fueron distintas de la élite. En este artículo estudiamos el contexto de abandono y la cronología de tres grupos domésticos del Valle de Contreras, los cuales formaron parte de una comunidad agrícola ubicada en los alrededores del centro Maya Clásico de Minanha, Belice. Varios conjuntos de artefactos fueron depositados durante el abandono de este valle, los cuales representan rituales de terminación. Este estudio va más allá de las dimensiones ideológicas para examinar cómo estas ceremonias transformaron la identidad de los grupos sociales que estuvieron a punto de abandonar sus casas. Exploramos cómo estos últimos habitantes de un paisaje prácticamente abandonado vivieron este proceso de despoblación gradual. Además, evaluamos explicaciones potenciales para los procesos arqueológicos responsables de la presencia o ausencia de rituales de terminación en diferentes grupos residenciales.
Detachment From Place: Beyond an Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment, 2020
Detachment from Place is the first comparative and interdisciplinary volume on the archaeology of... more Detachment from Place is the first comparative and interdisciplinary volume on the archaeology of settlement abandonment, with contributions focusing on materiality, ideology, the environment, and social construction of space. The volume sheds new light on an important but underexamined aspect of settlement abandonment wherein sedentary groups undergoing the process of abandonment leave behind many meaningful elements of their inhabited landscape. The process of detaching from place—which could last centuries—transformed inhabitants into migrants and transformed settled, constructed, and agricultural landscapes into imagined ones that continued to figure significantly in the identities of migrant groups.
Drawing on case studies from the Americas, Africa, and Asia, the volume explores how relationships between ancient peoples and the places they lived were transformed as they migrated elsewhere. Contributors focus on social structure, ecology, and ideology to study how people and places both disentangled from each other and remained tied together during this process. From Huron-Wendat villages and Classic Maya palaces to historical villages in Togo and the great Southeast Asian Medieval capital of Bagan, specific cultural, historical, and environmental factors led ancient peoples to detach from their homes and embark on migrations that altered social memory and cultural identity—as evidenced in the archaeological record.
Detachment from Place provides new insights into transfigurations of community identity, political organization, social and economic relations, religion, warfare, and agricultural practices and will be of interest to landscape archaeologists as well as researchers focused on collective memory, population movement, migratory patterns, and interaction.
Contributors: Tomas Q. Barrientos, Jennifer Birch, Eduardo José Bustamante Luna, Catherine M. Cameron, Marcello A. Canuto, Jeffrey H. Cohen, Michael D. Danti, Phillip de Barros, Pete Demarte, Donna M. Glowacki, Gyles Iannone, Louis Lesage, Patricia A. McAnany, Asa R. Randall, Kenneth E. Sassaman
The study of past agricultural strategies has always drawn the attention of archaeologists across... more The study of past agricultural strategies has always drawn the attention of archaeologists across the globe in order to understand the development, florescence, and ultimately the demise of ancient societies. This dissertation asks the question: Were agricultural terraces a successful adaptive mechanism within the subsistence strategy of ancient Maya communities to a buffer against internal (social) and external (environmental) stress? This is addressed by examining the geo-intensive agricultural strategy of the ancient Maya minor center of Waybil, located in the hilly region of the North Vaca Plateau of west-central Belize. Waybil is a small agrarian based center within the larger polity of Minanha. Its occupation stretches from the Late Preclassic (400 B.C – A.D. 100) to Early Postclassic (900 – 1200 A.D.), with a history of agricultural terrace construction and use from the Early Classic (250 – 550 A.D.) to the Terminal Classic (810 – 900 A.D.). This dissertation draws on five years of mapping, excavation, remote sensing (LiDAR), soil analysis, GIS modeling of settlement and landscape, and combined analysis of the resulting multidisciplinary datasets to understanding the role terraces played in changing the agricultural potential of the landscape and strategy of the Waybil community. Using a socio-ecological framework, results are combined with regional archaeological and paleoclimatic data to reveal insights on the social, economic, and political structure of the Minanha polity and the North Vaca Plateau from the agrarian perspective of a minor center subjected to internal social pressure from the growing political capital center and external pressure from fluctuating local precipitation.
Concepts drawn from resilience theory conceptualize and explain significant transitional periods within the development, extensification, and eventual abandonment of the agricultural terrace systems at Waybil. Results present the emergent properties of agricultural terraces in relation to hydrological flow and erosion as well as their ability to increase land suitability for production by decreasing variation in the face of climatic fluctuations. The increased stability of production allowed the Waybil community, and subsequently the Minanha polity, to develop the capital necessary to negotiate their socio-political and socio-economic positon outside of the traditional hierarchical polity system.
Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of 5 agriculture,... more Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of 5 agriculture, but the extent, trajectory, and implications of these early changes are not well understood. An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 BP to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists by 3,000 years ago, significantly earlier than land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists. Synthesis of knowledge contributed by over 250 archaeologists highlighted gaps in archaeological 10 expertise and data quality, which peaked at 2000 BP and in traditionally studied and wealthier regions. Archaeological reconstruction of global land-use history illuminates the deep roots of Earth's transformation through millennia of increasingly intensive land use, challenging the emerging Anthropocene paradigm that anthropogenic global environmental change is mostly recent. 15 One Sentence Summary: A map of synthesized archaeological knowledge on land use reveals a planet transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers and pastoralists by 3,000 years ago.
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Torben Rick, Tim Denham, Jonathan Driver, Heather Thakar, Amber L. Johnson, R. Alan Covey, Jason Herrmann, Carrie Hritz, Catherine Kearns, Dan Lawrence, Michael Morrison, Robert J. Speakman, Martina L. Steffen, Keir M. Strickland, M. Cemre Ustunkaya, Jeremy Powell, Alexa Thornton.
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Papers by Scott Macrae
Journal Articles by Scott Macrae
IRAW@Bagan စီမံကိန္◌းသည္ ၁၁ရာစ0မွ ၁၄ရာစ0အ4တင္◌း စ789ငန: ္◌းကားခ့ေဲ ◌သာ ◌ျမ@Aာတိ0႔၏ ပ0ဂံႏ◌ိ◌0ငGံေ◌တာ◌္4တင္ ဘက္ေ◌ပါင္◌းစံ◌0ေ◌ပါင္◌းစည္◌းထားေ◌သာ လLမႈေ ◌ဂဟ သမင0ိ ္◌းေ◌ၾကာင္◌း◌ျဖစ္ေ◌သာ လLေ◌နထ0ိငႈA ပံ◌စ0 ံ၊ စ0ိကး8် ေိ ◌ဳ ရး ေဓလစ့ ႐0ိကA်ား ◌ႏ◌ွင္◌ ့ ေ◌ရအရင◌္ းအျမစသV ံ◌0◌းခ်မႈမ်ားအား ◌ျပ@Wည္ေ◌ဖာ◌္ထ0တXန ္ အဓိကရY7Xယ8ါသည္။ အဆိ0ပါ ေ◌ရရွည္ သ0ေ◌တသန စီမံကိန္◌း ေ◌လ့လာေ◌ရးအား ဗဟ0ိအခ်ကV ခ်ာ◌ျဖစ္ေ◌သာ ပ0ဂံၿမိေဳ႕ဟာင္◌း၏ ေအရွေ႕တာငက` ္ ၁၁ကီလ0ိမီတာေ ◌ဝး4ကာေ◌သာ တ0ရင္ ◌ႏ◌ွင◌္ ့ သကbိcးေ◌တာင္ ဧရိယာမွ စတငWcပ္ေ◌ဆာငပeဲ ့ ါသည္။ေ ၎တာငgန္◌းဧရိယာသည္ ပ0ဂံရာဇဝ9ငgင္ ေအနာ◌္ရထာမင္◌းႀကီး ၁၀၄၄-၁၀၇၇ AD) အဓိဠာန္◌ျပဳ၍ လႊတW ိcက္ေ◌သာ ဗ0ဒၶျမYတbယ္ေ◌တာ◌ ္ တင္ေ◌ဆာငqည္◌ ့ ဆင္◌ျဖဴေ◌တာ◌္ကိန္◌းဝပXာ ငါးေ◌နရာ4တင္ တစecအပါအဝင္◌ျဖစqည္◌ ့ ထငာX းs ေအရးပါသည◌္ ့ ေ◌နရာလဲ ◌ျဖစ8ါသည္။ မ်ားြစာေ◌သာ ၁၃ရာစ0 ပ0ဂံေ◌ခတ္
သာသနကိ ေအဆာကVအံ◌0 မ်ားလည္◌း တ0ရင္ေ◌တာင္ေ◌ၾကာ တစ္ေ◌လ်ာက္ တည္ေ◌ဆာက:ား ၾကသည္။ အဆိ0ပါေ◌တာငgန္◌း4တင္ လေကgလာ စLးစမ္◌းရွာေ◌ြဖမႈ သ7Wည္◌း သမ0ိင္◌းတ@vိcးအရ သာသနကိ ေအဆာကVအံ◌0မ်ား ကဲ့သ0ိ႔ေအရးပါေ◌သာ သကbိcးေ◌တာင္၏ ေအရွ႕ဖကV ြစန္◌း4တင္ တ7Xိေs◌သာ ေ◌က်က္ေ◌ရက@ာV း
အထLး◌ျပဳေ◌လ့လာ◌ျခင္◌း◌ျဖစqည္။ ေ◌ဒသခံ wxာသLwxာသားမ်ားက ေ၎က်ာက္ေ◌ရက@Vား နတ္ေ◌ရက@yc ေ◌ခၚဆိ0မႈအရ ေ၎ေရလွာင{@|ကီးသည္ ကနဦး ေ◌ရစ0ေ◌ဆာင္◌း သိ0ေ◌လွာင~ပီးေ◌နာက္ ပ0ဂံ4လင္◌ျပင္ တစ္ေ◌လ်ာကXိ s ေ◌ေရလွာင@{ ာ်A း တLးေ◌◌ျမာင္◌းမ်ားႏ◌ွင◌္ ့ ဆကqယ္၍ ေ◌xျပ@Wည ္ ◌ျဖန္ေ႔ေဝပးယံ◌0သာ မကဘ ဲ 4ထင္◌းထ0ထားေ◌သာ ႐0ပWံ◌0◌း႐0ပ္◌ႂ4ကမ်ားသ7Wည္◌း ကန္ေ◌ရအား ဒ0မဂၤလ သန္႔ရွင္◌းစငက ယAႈေသဘာေ◌ဆာင္၍ ◌ျဖန္ေ႔ဝျခင္◌း◌ျဖင္◌ ့ ပ0ဂံၿမိ႕ဳအနးီ တဝ0ိက္ ၎ကန္ေ◌ရရာရွိရာ ေ◌နရာေ◌ဒသမ်ား သာယာစ78င ္ ြဖံ႔ၿဖိးေဳ ◌အာင ္ ◌ျပဳလ0ပမbီ ံထားသ7yc မွတ ရပါသည္။ ဂႏ◌ဝၲ ငc8 ဂံ ေ◌ခတV 4တင္◌း ထငာX းs ခ့ေဲ ◌သာ နတ္ေ◌ရကန္◌ႏ◌ွင္◌ ့
ပတqတက္◌ႏြ◌ယ္ေ◌ေနသာ စီးြပားေ◌ရး၊ ◌ႏ◌ိ◌0ငGံေ◌ရး၊ ဘာသာေ◌ရး
စသည္◌ေ့ သဘာတရားေ◌ရးရာ အဆင◌္ ဆ့ င္◌အ့ ား နားလည္ေ◌စရန္
ေ◌ရအရင္◌းအျမစVသံ◌0◌းခ်သိပၸံပညာ၊ ေ◌ရွးေ◌ဟာင္◌းသ0ေ◌တသန တLးေ◌ဖာ◌္မႈ ◌ႏ◌ွင္◌အ့ တL ႐0ပWံ◌◌0 း႐0ပ◌္ ေႂ 4ကလ့လာမႈ ◌ႏ◌ွင္◌ ့ ေ◌က်ာကbာ စိစစ္ေ◌4တ႕ရွိခ်ကA်ားအား အသံ◌0◌း◌ျပဳ ေ◌လ့လာ တင္◌ျပ4သားပါမည္။
Lidar ha sido revolucionario para la comprensión de los paisajes antropogénicos de la Antigua Maya. Esto ha sido evidente en el oeste de Belice, donde la escala y la resolución de estas imágenes han identificado enormes redes de sistemas de terrazas agrícolas, revelando su verdadero alcance y densidad. Este estudio va más allá de la identificación inicial de la distribución de terrazas utilizando imágenes lidar en combinación con los modelos digitales de elevación (DEM) y programas de mapas hidrológicos (Arco Hydro) para explorar las cuencas de drenaje asociadas con terrazas agrícolas en el antiguo sitio maya Waybil, un centro menor dentro del sistema Minaha en la Meseta Vaca Norte. Específicamente explicamos cómo los constructores de estas reliquias agrícolas trabajaron con la topografía natural para manipular y crear más eficaces, rutas de captación y el drenaje. Resultados de modelación hidrológica describen cómo terrazas crearon pequeñas cuencas de drenaje por aumento de niveles de acumulación de flujo y redirigir rutas lateralmente a través de la topografía. Más de una década de investigación dentro de esta sub-región nos provee los estudios, las excavaciones y los conjuntos de datos cronológicos para evaluar con precisión la eficacia de esta combinación de métodos al analizar el drenaje de terrazas de reliquia.
El aspecto arqueológico más visible del colapso Maya Clásico es el abandono de las cortes reales monumentales. Sin embargo, en algunos casos, poblaciones que no pertenecían a la élite vivieron por siglos en centros Mayas Clásicos sin la presencia de gobernantes. Los procesos de abandono de la gente común durante el periodo Clásico pueden ser discernibles y reflejar sus propias prácticas rituales y sociales, las cuales fueron distintas de la élite. En este artículo estudiamos el contexto de abandono y la cronología de tres grupos domésticos del Valle de Contreras, los cuales formaron parte de una comunidad agrícola ubicada en los alrededores del centro Maya Clásico de Minanha, Belice. Varios conjuntos de artefactos fueron depositados durante el abandono de este valle, los cuales representan rituales de terminación. Este estudio va más allá de las dimensiones ideológicas para examinar cómo estas ceremonias transformaron la identidad de los grupos sociales que estuvieron a punto de abandonar sus casas. Exploramos cómo estos últimos habitantes de un paisaje prácticamente abandonado vivieron este proceso de despoblación gradual. Además, evaluamos explicaciones potenciales para los procesos arqueológicos responsables de la presencia o ausencia de rituales de terminación en diferentes grupos residenciales.
Books by Scott Macrae
Drawing on case studies from the Americas, Africa, and Asia, the volume explores how relationships between ancient peoples and the places they lived were transformed as they migrated elsewhere. Contributors focus on social structure, ecology, and ideology to study how people and places both disentangled from each other and remained tied together during this process. From Huron-Wendat villages and Classic Maya palaces to historical villages in Togo and the great Southeast Asian Medieval capital of Bagan, specific cultural, historical, and environmental factors led ancient peoples to detach from their homes and embark on migrations that altered social memory and cultural identity—as evidenced in the archaeological record.
Detachment from Place provides new insights into transfigurations of community identity, political organization, social and economic relations, religion, warfare, and agricultural practices and will be of interest to landscape archaeologists as well as researchers focused on collective memory, population movement, migratory patterns, and interaction.
Contributors: Tomas Q. Barrientos, Jennifer Birch, Eduardo José Bustamante Luna, Catherine M. Cameron, Marcello A. Canuto, Jeffrey H. Cohen, Michael D. Danti, Phillip de Barros, Pete Demarte, Donna M. Glowacki, Gyles Iannone, Louis Lesage, Patricia A. McAnany, Asa R. Randall, Kenneth E. Sassaman
IRAW@Bagan စီမံကိန္◌းသည္ ၁၁ရာစ0မွ ၁၄ရာစ0အ4တင္◌း စ789ငန: ္◌းကားခ့ေဲ ◌သာ ◌ျမ@Aာတိ0႔၏ ပ0ဂံႏ◌ိ◌0ငGံေ◌တာ◌္4တင္ ဘက္ေ◌ပါင္◌းစံ◌0ေ◌ပါင္◌းစည္◌းထားေ◌သာ လLမႈေ ◌ဂဟ သမင0ိ ္◌းေ◌ၾကာင္◌း◌ျဖစ္ေ◌သာ လLေ◌နထ0ိငႈA ပံ◌စ0 ံ၊ စ0ိကး8် ေိ ◌ဳ ရး ေဓလစ့ ႐0ိကA်ား ◌ႏ◌ွင္◌ ့ ေ◌ရအရင◌္ းအျမစသV ံ◌0◌းခ်မႈမ်ားအား ◌ျပ@Wည္ေ◌ဖာ◌္ထ0တXန ္ အဓိကရY7Xယ8ါသည္။ အဆိ0ပါ ေ◌ရရွည္ သ0ေ◌တသန စီမံကိန္◌း ေ◌လ့လာေ◌ရးအား ဗဟ0ိအခ်ကV ခ်ာ◌ျဖစ္ေ◌သာ ပ0ဂံၿမိေဳ႕ဟာင္◌း၏ ေအရွေ႕တာငက` ္ ၁၁ကီလ0ိမီတာေ ◌ဝး4ကာေ◌သာ တ0ရင္ ◌ႏ◌ွင◌္ ့ သကbိcးေ◌တာင္ ဧရိယာမွ စတငWcပ္ေ◌ဆာငပeဲ ့ ါသည္။ေ ၎တာငgန္◌းဧရိယာသည္ ပ0ဂံရာဇဝ9ငgင္ ေအနာ◌္ရထာမင္◌းႀကီး ၁၀၄၄-၁၀၇၇ AD) အဓိဠာန္◌ျပဳ၍ လႊတW ိcက္ေ◌သာ ဗ0ဒၶျမYတbယ္ေ◌တာ◌ ္ တင္ေ◌ဆာငqည္◌ ့ ဆင္◌ျဖဴေ◌တာ◌္ကိန္◌းဝပXာ ငါးေ◌နရာ4တင္ တစecအပါအဝင္◌ျဖစqည္◌ ့ ထငာX းs ေအရးပါသည◌္ ့ ေ◌နရာလဲ ◌ျဖစ8ါသည္။ မ်ားြစာေ◌သာ ၁၃ရာစ0 ပ0ဂံေ◌ခတ္
သာသနကိ ေအဆာကVအံ◌0 မ်ားလည္◌း တ0ရင္ေ◌တာင္ေ◌ၾကာ တစ္ေ◌လ်ာက္ တည္ေ◌ဆာက:ား ၾကသည္။ အဆိ0ပါေ◌တာငgန္◌း4တင္ လေကgလာ စLးစမ္◌းရွာေ◌ြဖမႈ သ7Wည္◌း သမ0ိင္◌းတ@vိcးအရ သာသနကိ ေအဆာကVအံ◌0မ်ား ကဲ့သ0ိ႔ေအရးပါေ◌သာ သကbိcးေ◌တာင္၏ ေအရွ႕ဖကV ြစန္◌း4တင္ တ7Xိေs◌သာ ေ◌က်က္ေ◌ရက@ာV း
အထLး◌ျပဳေ◌လ့လာ◌ျခင္◌း◌ျဖစqည္။ ေ◌ဒသခံ wxာသLwxာသားမ်ားက ေ၎က်ာက္ေ◌ရက@Vား နတ္ေ◌ရက@yc ေ◌ခၚဆိ0မႈအရ ေ၎ေရလွာင{@|ကီးသည္ ကနဦး ေ◌ရစ0ေ◌ဆာင္◌း သိ0ေ◌လွာင~ပီးေ◌နာက္ ပ0ဂံ4လင္◌ျပင္ တစ္ေ◌လ်ာကXိ s ေ◌ေရလွာင@{ ာ်A း တLးေ◌◌ျမာင္◌းမ်ားႏ◌ွင◌္ ့ ဆကqယ္၍ ေ◌xျပ@Wည ္ ◌ျဖန္ေ႔ေဝပးယံ◌0သာ မကဘ ဲ 4ထင္◌းထ0ထားေ◌သာ ႐0ပWံ◌0◌း႐0ပ္◌ႂ4ကမ်ားသ7Wည္◌း ကန္ေ◌ရအား ဒ0မဂၤလ သန္႔ရွင္◌းစငက ယAႈေသဘာေ◌ဆာင္၍ ◌ျဖန္ေ႔ဝျခင္◌း◌ျဖင္◌ ့ ပ0ဂံၿမိ႕ဳအနးီ တဝ0ိက္ ၎ကန္ေ◌ရရာရွိရာ ေ◌နရာေ◌ဒသမ်ား သာယာစ78င ္ ြဖံ႔ၿဖိးေဳ ◌အာင ္ ◌ျပဳလ0ပမbီ ံထားသ7yc မွတ ရပါသည္။ ဂႏ◌ဝၲ ငc8 ဂံ ေ◌ခတV 4တင္◌း ထငာX းs ခ့ေဲ ◌သာ နတ္ေ◌ရကန္◌ႏ◌ွင္◌ ့
ပတqတက္◌ႏြ◌ယ္ေ◌ေနသာ စီးြပားေ◌ရး၊ ◌ႏ◌ိ◌0ငGံေ◌ရး၊ ဘာသာေ◌ရး
စသည္◌ေ့ သဘာတရားေ◌ရးရာ အဆင◌္ ဆ့ င္◌အ့ ား နားလည္ေ◌စရန္
ေ◌ရအရင္◌းအျမစVသံ◌0◌းခ်သိပၸံပညာ၊ ေ◌ရွးေ◌ဟာင္◌းသ0ေ◌တသန တLးေ◌ဖာ◌္မႈ ◌ႏ◌ွင္◌အ့ တL ႐0ပWံ◌◌0 း႐0ပ◌္ ေႂ 4ကလ့လာမႈ ◌ႏ◌ွင္◌ ့ ေ◌က်ာကbာ စိစစ္ေ◌4တ႕ရွိခ်ကA်ားအား အသံ◌0◌း◌ျပဳ ေ◌လ့လာ တင္◌ျပ4သားပါမည္။
Lidar ha sido revolucionario para la comprensión de los paisajes antropogénicos de la Antigua Maya. Esto ha sido evidente en el oeste de Belice, donde la escala y la resolución de estas imágenes han identificado enormes redes de sistemas de terrazas agrícolas, revelando su verdadero alcance y densidad. Este estudio va más allá de la identificación inicial de la distribución de terrazas utilizando imágenes lidar en combinación con los modelos digitales de elevación (DEM) y programas de mapas hidrológicos (Arco Hydro) para explorar las cuencas de drenaje asociadas con terrazas agrícolas en el antiguo sitio maya Waybil, un centro menor dentro del sistema Minaha en la Meseta Vaca Norte. Específicamente explicamos cómo los constructores de estas reliquias agrícolas trabajaron con la topografía natural para manipular y crear más eficaces, rutas de captación y el drenaje. Resultados de modelación hidrológica describen cómo terrazas crearon pequeñas cuencas de drenaje por aumento de niveles de acumulación de flujo y redirigir rutas lateralmente a través de la topografía. Más de una década de investigación dentro de esta sub-región nos provee los estudios, las excavaciones y los conjuntos de datos cronológicos para evaluar con precisión la eficacia de esta combinación de métodos al analizar el drenaje de terrazas de reliquia.
El aspecto arqueológico más visible del colapso Maya Clásico es el abandono de las cortes reales monumentales. Sin embargo, en algunos casos, poblaciones que no pertenecían a la élite vivieron por siglos en centros Mayas Clásicos sin la presencia de gobernantes. Los procesos de abandono de la gente común durante el periodo Clásico pueden ser discernibles y reflejar sus propias prácticas rituales y sociales, las cuales fueron distintas de la élite. En este artículo estudiamos el contexto de abandono y la cronología de tres grupos domésticos del Valle de Contreras, los cuales formaron parte de una comunidad agrícola ubicada en los alrededores del centro Maya Clásico de Minanha, Belice. Varios conjuntos de artefactos fueron depositados durante el abandono de este valle, los cuales representan rituales de terminación. Este estudio va más allá de las dimensiones ideológicas para examinar cómo estas ceremonias transformaron la identidad de los grupos sociales que estuvieron a punto de abandonar sus casas. Exploramos cómo estos últimos habitantes de un paisaje prácticamente abandonado vivieron este proceso de despoblación gradual. Además, evaluamos explicaciones potenciales para los procesos arqueológicos responsables de la presencia o ausencia de rituales de terminación en diferentes grupos residenciales.
Drawing on case studies from the Americas, Africa, and Asia, the volume explores how relationships between ancient peoples and the places they lived were transformed as they migrated elsewhere. Contributors focus on social structure, ecology, and ideology to study how people and places both disentangled from each other and remained tied together during this process. From Huron-Wendat villages and Classic Maya palaces to historical villages in Togo and the great Southeast Asian Medieval capital of Bagan, specific cultural, historical, and environmental factors led ancient peoples to detach from their homes and embark on migrations that altered social memory and cultural identity—as evidenced in the archaeological record.
Detachment from Place provides new insights into transfigurations of community identity, political organization, social and economic relations, religion, warfare, and agricultural practices and will be of interest to landscape archaeologists as well as researchers focused on collective memory, population movement, migratory patterns, and interaction.
Contributors: Tomas Q. Barrientos, Jennifer Birch, Eduardo José Bustamante Luna, Catherine M. Cameron, Marcello A. Canuto, Jeffrey H. Cohen, Michael D. Danti, Phillip de Barros, Pete Demarte, Donna M. Glowacki, Gyles Iannone, Louis Lesage, Patricia A. McAnany, Asa R. Randall, Kenneth E. Sassaman
Concepts drawn from resilience theory conceptualize and explain significant transitional periods within the development, extensification, and eventual abandonment of the agricultural terrace systems at Waybil. Results present the emergent properties of agricultural terraces in relation to hydrological flow and erosion as well as their ability to increase land suitability for production by decreasing variation in the face of climatic fluctuations. The increased stability of production allowed the Waybil community, and subsequently the Minanha polity, to develop the capital necessary to negotiate their socio-political and socio-economic positon outside of the traditional hierarchical polity system.
Authors not found on Academia:
Torben Rick, Tim Denham, Jonathan Driver, Heather Thakar, Amber L. Johnson, R. Alan Covey, Jason Herrmann, Carrie Hritz, Catherine Kearns, Dan Lawrence, Michael Morrison, Robert J. Speakman, Martina L. Steffen, Keir M. Strickland, M. Cemre Ustunkaya, Jeremy Powell, Alexa Thornton.