Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jul 24, 2023
Urban adaptation to climate change is a global challenge requiring a broad response that can be i... more Urban adaptation to climate change is a global challenge requiring a broad response that can be informed by how urban societies in the past responded to environmental shocks. Yet, interdisciplinary efforts to leverage insights from the urban past have been stymied by disciplinary silos and entrenched misconceptions regarding the nature and diversity of premodern human settlements and institutions, especially in the case of prehispanic Mesoamerica. Long recognized as a distinct cultural region, prehispanic Mesoamerica was the setting for one of the world’s original urbanization episodes despite the impediments to communication and resource extraction due to the lack of beasts of burden and wheeled transport, and the limited and relatively late use of metal implements. Our knowledge of prehispanic urbanism in Mesoamerica has been significantly enhanced over the past two decades due to significant advances in excavating, analyzing, and contextualizing archaeological materials. We now understand that Mesoamerican urbanism was as much a story about resilience and adaptation to environmental change as it was about collapse. Here we call for a dialogue among Mesoamerican urban archaeologists, sustainability scientists, and researchers interested in urban adaptation to climate change through a synthetic perspective on the organizational diversity of urbanism. Such a dialogue, seeking insights into what facilitates and hinders urban adaptation to environmental change, can be animated by shifting the long-held emphasis on failure and collapse to a more empirically grounded account of resilience and the factors that fostered adaptation and sustainability.
The use of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in western Belize, Central America, has r... more The use of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in western Belize, Central America, has revolutionized our understanding of the spatial dynamics of the ancient Maya. This technology has enabled researchers to successfully demonstrate the large-scale human modifications made to the ancient tropical landscape, providing insight on broader regional settlement. Before the advent of this laser-based technology, heavily forested cover prevented full coverage and documentation of Maya sites. Mayanists could not fully recover or document the extent of ancient occupation and could never be sure how representative their mapped and excavated samples were relative to ancient settlement. Employing LiDAR in tropical and subtropical environments, like that of the Maya, effectively provides ground, as well as forest cover information, leading to a much fuller documentation of the complexities involved in the ancient human-nature interface. Airborne LiDAR was first flown over a 200 km 2 area of the archaeological site of Caracol, Belize,
This article reviews archaeological evidence on the development of Maya civilization in the south... more This article reviews archaeological evidence on the development of Maya civilization in the southern lowlands. The evolution of sociopolitical complexity in the southern Maya lowlands is much discussed but as yet is incompletely resolved. Considerations are hampered by the fact that most early archaeological materials lie deeply buried beneath later human construction activity, making it difficult to locate remains that are directly relevant to questions bearing on the rise of complexity. Even should such remains be located, the overlying constructions usually make a real exposure of the earlier materials difficult. Nevertheless, sufficient evidence exists to posit a trajectory of complexity developing from Preclassic villages to Early Classic states to Late Classic attempts at creating hegemonic empires.
... Arlen Chase and Diane Chase position of the vessel on axis to and in the rock core of the bui... more ... Arlen Chase and Diane Chase position of the vessel on axis to and in the rock core of the building clearly suggests a Terminal Classic ... 012 cm 7 Figure 4. Tripod redware bowls/plates with distinctive feet are used as temporal markers for identifying Postclassic Period remains. ...
Chase, Arlen F. and Chase, Diane Z. (1987) Glimmers of a Forgotten Realm Maya Archaeology at Cara... more Chase, Arlen F. and Chase, Diane Z. (1987) Glimmers of a Forgotten Realm Maya Archaeology at Caracol, Belize. University of Central Florida, Orlando. ... Full text not available from this online repository. Hard copy is available at the ERI. ... ERI Publication Repository is powered by ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jul 24, 2023
Urban adaptation to climate change is a global challenge requiring a broad response that can be i... more Urban adaptation to climate change is a global challenge requiring a broad response that can be informed by how urban societies in the past responded to environmental shocks. Yet, interdisciplinary efforts to leverage insights from the urban past have been stymied by disciplinary silos and entrenched misconceptions regarding the nature and diversity of premodern human settlements and institutions, especially in the case of prehispanic Mesoamerica. Long recognized as a distinct cultural region, prehispanic Mesoamerica was the setting for one of the world’s original urbanization episodes despite the impediments to communication and resource extraction due to the lack of beasts of burden and wheeled transport, and the limited and relatively late use of metal implements. Our knowledge of prehispanic urbanism in Mesoamerica has been significantly enhanced over the past two decades due to significant advances in excavating, analyzing, and contextualizing archaeological materials. We now understand that Mesoamerican urbanism was as much a story about resilience and adaptation to environmental change as it was about collapse. Here we call for a dialogue among Mesoamerican urban archaeologists, sustainability scientists, and researchers interested in urban adaptation to climate change through a synthetic perspective on the organizational diversity of urbanism. Such a dialogue, seeking insights into what facilitates and hinders urban adaptation to environmental change, can be animated by shifting the long-held emphasis on failure and collapse to a more empirically grounded account of resilience and the factors that fostered adaptation and sustainability.
The use of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in western Belize, Central America, has r... more The use of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in western Belize, Central America, has revolutionized our understanding of the spatial dynamics of the ancient Maya. This technology has enabled researchers to successfully demonstrate the large-scale human modifications made to the ancient tropical landscape, providing insight on broader regional settlement. Before the advent of this laser-based technology, heavily forested cover prevented full coverage and documentation of Maya sites. Mayanists could not fully recover or document the extent of ancient occupation and could never be sure how representative their mapped and excavated samples were relative to ancient settlement. Employing LiDAR in tropical and subtropical environments, like that of the Maya, effectively provides ground, as well as forest cover information, leading to a much fuller documentation of the complexities involved in the ancient human-nature interface. Airborne LiDAR was first flown over a 200 km 2 area of the archaeological site of Caracol, Belize,
This article reviews archaeological evidence on the development of Maya civilization in the south... more This article reviews archaeological evidence on the development of Maya civilization in the southern lowlands. The evolution of sociopolitical complexity in the southern Maya lowlands is much discussed but as yet is incompletely resolved. Considerations are hampered by the fact that most early archaeological materials lie deeply buried beneath later human construction activity, making it difficult to locate remains that are directly relevant to questions bearing on the rise of complexity. Even should such remains be located, the overlying constructions usually make a real exposure of the earlier materials difficult. Nevertheless, sufficient evidence exists to posit a trajectory of complexity developing from Preclassic villages to Early Classic states to Late Classic attempts at creating hegemonic empires.
... Arlen Chase and Diane Chase position of the vessel on axis to and in the rock core of the bui... more ... Arlen Chase and Diane Chase position of the vessel on axis to and in the rock core of the building clearly suggests a Terminal Classic ... 012 cm 7 Figure 4. Tripod redware bowls/plates with distinctive feet are used as temporal markers for identifying Postclassic Period remains. ...
Chase, Arlen F. and Chase, Diane Z. (1987) Glimmers of a Forgotten Realm Maya Archaeology at Cara... more Chase, Arlen F. and Chase, Diane Z. (1987) Glimmers of a Forgotten Realm Maya Archaeology at Caracol, Belize. University of Central Florida, Orlando. ... Full text not available from this online repository. Hard copy is available at the ERI. ... ERI Publication Repository is powered by ...
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