The Resilience and Vulnerability of Ancient Landscapes

This volume represents the concerted efforts of a group of Maya archaeologists to employ a different approach to their archaeological data that is consistent with an effort called IHOPE: Integrated History and Future of People on Earth. IHOPE is a global network of scientists and researchers that seeks to use a wide range of data to examine how changes in the Earth's systems of the past have been correlated with changes in the coupled human-biophysical environment (Costanza et al. 2007). “The specific objectives for IHOPE are to identify slow and rapidly moving features of complex social-ecological systems, on local to continental spatial scales, which induce resilience, stress, or collapse in linked systems of humans and nature. These objectives will be reached by exploring innovative ways of conducting inter and trans-disciplinary science, including theory, case studies, and integrated modeling” (Costanza et al. 2012:1). The integration of these data, a large portion of which are derived from archaeology, is seen as an important contribution to the accurate and applicable information base for addressing both short- and long-term planning issues facing modern populations.

Table of Contents  iii   Foreward v   INTRODUCTION   Chapter 1. Diversity, Resiliency, and IHOPE-Maya: Using the Past to Inform the Present  Arlen F. Chase and Vernon Scarborough  1   Chapter 2. Tropical Landscapes and the Ancient Maya: Diversity in Time and Space  Arlen F. Chase, Lisa J. Lucero, Vernon L. Scarborough, Diane Z. Chase, Rafael Cobos, Nicholas P. Dunning, Scott L. Fedick, Vilma Fialko, Joel D. Gunn, Michelle Hegmon, Gyles Iannone, David L. Lentz, Rodrigo Liendo, Keith Prufer, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Joseph A. Tainter, Fred Valdez Jr, and Sander E. van der Leeuw  11   Chapter 3. Water and Landscape: Ancient Maya Settlement Decisions  Lisa J. Lucero, Scott L. Fedick, Nicholas P. Dunning, David L. Lentz, and Vernon L. Scarborough  30   CASE STUDIES   Chapter 4. Growth and Decline in Classic Maya Puuc Political Economies  Christian Isendahl, Nicholas P. Dunning, and Jeremy A. Sabloff  43   Chapter 5. Ancient Climate and Archaeology: Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and Their Collapse at the End  of the Terminal Classic Period  Rafael Cobos, Guillermo de Anda Alanýs, and Roberto Garcýa Moll 56   Chapter 6. A Reassessment of Water and Soil Resources in the Flatlands of the Northern Maya Lowlands  Scott L. Fedick  72   Chapter 7. Population Dynamics and Its Relation to Ancient Landscapes in the Northwestern  Maya Lowlands: Evaluating Resilience and Vulnerability  Rodrigo Liendo, Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo, Berenice Solis-Castillo, Sergei Sedov, and Arturo Ortiz-Perez  84   Chapter 8. Calakmul: Agent Risk and Sustainability in theWestern Maya Lowlands  Joel D. Gunn, William J. Folan, Christian Isendahl, Mar´ýa del Rosario Dom´ýnguez Carrasco, Betty B. Faust,  and Beniamino Volta 101   Chapter 9. The Alternative Economy: Resilience in the Face of Complexity from the Eastern Lowlands  Vernon L. Scarborough and Fred Valdez  124    Chapter 10. Path Dependency in the Rise and Denouement of a Classic Maya City: The Case  of Caracol, Belize  Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase  142   Chapter 11. Resilience and Vulnerability in the Maya Hinterlands  Gyles Iannone, Keith Prufer, and Diane Z. Chase  155   COMPARATIVE STUDIES   Chapter 12. Transformative Relocation in the U.S. Southwest and Mesoamerica  Ben A. Nelson, Adrian S. Z. Chase, and Michelle Hegmon  171   Chapter 13. Comparative Landscape Analysis: Contrasting the Middle East and Maya Regions  T. J. Wilkinson  183   Chapter 14. Collapse and Sustainability: Rome, the Maya, and the Modern World  Joseph A. Tainter  201   CONCLUSION   Chapter 15. Transforming Lessons from the Past into Lessons for the Future  Sander E. van der Leeuw  215 List of Contributors  232