84 Geoarchaeology of Sites to Landscapes: Current Research on Long-Term Water and Soil Management and Maladaptation, Part I

This session brings together geoarchaeological projects from around the world that study ancient water and soil or agricultural management. This session will compare techniques, timing, and evidence for adaptation to past and present environmental changes.

Monday, 20 October 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
HBGCC, 214D

Water Resources Management in Ancient Maya Wetland Fields through Hydrological Modeling and Geoarchaeological Applications

Paper number: 84-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:25 AM – 8:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

 Our research investigates water and soil management features of the ancient Maya site ‘Birds of Paradise’ (BOP) in Northwestern Belize, including wetland fields, canals, and reservoirs in the BOP area. BOP is the largest known well studied wetland field complex in the Maya world, but much is still unknown such as water sourcing, flow quantities, and flow routes through its 5 square kms and numerous main and secondary canals.  We correlate the system’s construction and its use over two millennia to regional paleoclimate reconstructions through geochemistry, remote sensing, extensive radiocarbon dating, and hydrologic modeling to understand system organization and strategies for water resources management and adaptation in this region. 

     Assumptions about the trajectory of the Maya is often correlated to drought and “collapse” narratives and although these have been investigated through methods such as paleoproxy analysis and direct excavation, remote sensing may also be used to put the spatial pieces together and better comprehend the complex human-environment interactions that occurred at the landscape scale in these wetland environments. 

     Regional scale hydrologic modeling using GIS methodology is performed in this paper, to complement geochemistry and paleoproxy reconstruction for my 2023 and 2024 excavations and coring in select BOP hydrologic features, to investigate the use and adaptive strategies in ancient Maya wetland field management. These methods may reveal underlying connections to the basis and motivations for the earliest canal construction in this region of the ancient Maya lowlands

 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414314

© Copyright 2025 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.