Thomas Guderjan
I am an archaeologist with research themes that include agricultural production, trade and urban organization of the ancient Maya. I direct an annual field project in Central America that trains more than 100 students annually and has more than 25 years. I am the chair of the Department of Social Sciences at UT-Tyler which houses anthropology, criminal justice, economics, geography, public administration, and sociology. I also direct the Center for Social Science Research which is dedicated to supporting the university's mission through faculty-based and client-based research. I serve on the editorial board of the German journal, Mexicon and as the Vice-President and immediate Past President of the Board of Directors of the Camp Tyler Foundation which operates a kids' camp and outdoor school in Smith County, Texas.
Phone: 9035667418
Address: Department of Social Sciences
University of Texas at Tyler
3900 University Blvd
Tyler, Texas 75799
Phone: 9035667418
Address: Department of Social Sciences
University of Texas at Tyler
3900 University Blvd
Tyler, Texas 75799
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in Belize, Central America, based on airborne lidar survey coupled
with multiple proxies and radiocarbon dates that reveal ancient
field uses and chronology. The lidar survey indicated four main areas
of wetland complexes, including the Birds of Paradise wetland field
complex that is five times larger than earlier remote and ground
survey had indicated, and revealed a previously unknown wetland
field complex that is even larger. The field systems date mainly to
the Maya Late and Terminal Classic (∼1,400–1,000 y ago), but with
evidence from as early as the Late Preclassic (∼1,800 y ago) and as
late as the Early Postclassic (∼900 y ago). Previous study showed
that these were polycultural systems that grew typical ancient
Maya crops including maize, arrowroot, squash, avocado, and other
fruits and harvested fauna. The wetland fields were active at a time
of population expansion, landscape alteration, and droughts and
could have been adaptations to all of these major shifts in Maya
civilization. These wetland-farming systems add to the evidence for
early and extensive human impacts on the global tropics. Broader
evidence suggests a wide distribution of wetland agroecosystems
across the Maya Lowlands and Americas, and we hypothesize the
increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane from burning,
preparing, and maintaining these field systems contributed to the
Early Anthropocene.