Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T09:24:03.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ridged Fields and Associated Features in Southern Campeche: New Perspectives on the Lowland Maya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alfred H. Siemens  and
Dennis E. Puleston
Alfred H. Siemens
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of British Columbia
Dennis E. Puleston
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prehistoric ridged fields and canals were recognized from the air in 1968 along the Candelaria River of Campeche, Mexico, in the vicinity of sites described by E. Willys Andrews in 1943. These remains were subsequently identified by Scholes and Roys as the settlements of Acalan, a native province along the route of the journey by Cortes to Honduras. Ground exploration in 1969 and 1970 has suggested that the fields were used over a considerable period of time under a system of diversified horticulture. The extensive canal system apparently provided access from the rivers to firm ground and allowed shortcuts and bypasses alongside the rivers themselves. The landscape suggests a considerable prehistoric population, vigorously engaged in major public works projects over a large area. It invites further integrated investigation of its past human ecology, particularly for information on variants of basic Lowland Maya subsistence patterns and the new perspectives this may give on the structure, success and demise of this civilization. An earlier version of this paper was read at the 39th International Congress of Americanists in Lima, 1970.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 1972 , pp. 228 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, E. W. 1943 The archaeology of southwestern Campeche. Carnegie Institution Contributions to American Anthropology and History 40.Google Scholar
Armillas, Pedro 1968 Review The aboriginal cultural geography of the Llanos de Majos of Bolivia, by Denevan, William M.. American Anthropologist 70:416–417.Google Scholar
Bronson, B. 1966 Roots and subsistence of the ancient Maya. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 22:251–279.Google Scholar
Chapman, A. C. 1957 Port of trade enclaves in Aztec and Maya civilization. In Trade and market in the early empires edited by Karl, Polanyi, pp. 114–153. Free Press, Glencoe.Google Scholar
Cardos de Mendez, Amalia 1959 El comercio de los Mayas antiquas. Acta Anthropological Epoca 2, Vol. 2, No. I. Escuela Nacional de Anthropologia e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Coe, M. D. 1964 The chinampas of Mexico. Scientific American 211:90–98.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. M. 1962 An agricultural study of the southern Maya lowlands. American Anthropologist 64:273–286.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. D. 1970 Aboriginal drained-field cultivation in the Americas. Science 169:647–654.Google Scholar
Diaz del Castillo, B. 1939 Historia verdadera.de la conquista de la Nueva Espafia. Editorial Pedro Robredo.Google Scholar
Lundell, C. L. 1934 Preliminary sketch of the phytogeography of the Yucatan Peninsula. Carnegie Institution, Publication 436, Contribution 8.Google Scholar
Puleston, D. E. 1968 Brosimum alicastrum as a subsistence alternative for the Classic Maya of the central southern lowlands. Unpublished M. A. thesis. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. J., and Denevan, W. D. 1967 Pre-Columbian ridged fields. Scientific American 217:93–100.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T., and Price, B. J. 1968 Mesoamerica: the evolution of a civilization. Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Scholes, F. V., and Roys, R. L. 1968 The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Secretaria de Recursos Hidraulicos (Mexico) 1962 Direccion de hidrologia: region del sureste. Bole tin Hidrologico 17.Google Scholar
Siemens, A. H. 1966 New agricultural settlement along Mexico’s Candelaria River. Inter-American Economic Affairs 20:23–39.Google Scholar
Stevens, R. L. 1964 The soils of Middle America and their relation to Indian peoples and cultures. In Handbook of Middle American Indians 1:265–315, edited by Wauchope, R. and West, R. C.. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Swinnerton, A. C. 1942 Hydrology of limestone terranes. In Hydrology, edited by Meinzer, O. F., pp. 656–677. Dover, New York.Google Scholar
West, R. C. 1950 Las chinampas de Mexico. Cuadernos Americanos 9:165–185.Google Scholar
Wilken, G. C. 1969 Drained-field agriculture: an intensive farming system in Tlaxcala, Mexico. The Geographical Review 59:215–241.Google Scholar
Wolf, E. 1959 Sons of the shaking earth. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar