Soils and Land-Use in an Urban Context - Past, Present and Future: Lamanai, Belize from 1600 B.C. to A.D. 1990
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Institute of Archaeology
Abstract
The project aims to investigate over two millennia of human-environment interactions at the Maya site of Lamanai, Belize, with a focus on understanding land use in an urban context and its impact on soils.
Past land use continues to influence socio-ecological systems today. At the interface of these human activities, past and present, lie soils. Anthropic urban soils and sediments associated with ancient cities - that is, the soils and sediments that formed within past settlements influenced by human activities (Lehmann and Stahr 2007: 248-249) (e.g. building activities, production, waste disposal, urban agriculture and cultivation) - are legacies of past human-environment interactions, retaining the physical and chemical traces of past land use, whilst also being active constituents of current socio-ecological interactions.
The site of Lamanai, northern Belize, provides the rare opportunity to study human-environment interaction within an urban Maya context over a period of 3,000 years. Occupation and land use can be traced from ca. 1,600 B.C. (Hanna et al. 2016; Rushton et al. 2020) to the time the site was made a reserve in A.D. 1990. It stood as an urban and commercial centre from about 300 B.C. to about a century before the Spanish conquest in the 1530s and notably, remained so during the Maya collapse (~A.D.800-950), when other cities in the region experienced socio-political collapse and abandonment.
The built environment at Lamanai is extensive, but three civic-administrative epicentres representing (largely but not entirely) Preclassic, Classic/ Postclassic, and colonial period occupations have been mapped and excavated (e.g. Graham 2004; Pendergast 1981). Land use in the different zones of the site will be examined through excavation and study of soil catenas, focusing on soil profiles as sequenced archives of land-use change. Samples from selected profiles will be analysed for their physical and chemical properties using a range of techniques (particle size analysis, magnetic susceptibility, soil chemistry, micromorphological analysis, microfossil analysis) to determine the nature of past land use; the resources and materials associated with different land uses; and the formation processes and properties of associated urban soils. The study of the sedimentary history in each zone, expanding to peri-urban zones, will allow the following lines of inquiry to be explored:
(1) Given what is known about the built environment at Lamanai (civic-ceremonial building zones, residences, plazas, roads [sacbes]), what is the relationship between the built environment (covered space) and open space (kitchen gardens, urban farming, middens) over time? Did the urban landscape change during periods of regional societal instability?
(2) Can the formation and properties of soils and sediments be linked to past human activity and the decay of associated materials (mineral-based construction, timber, household waste, ash, charcoal, human remains)? What are the properties of soils and sediments associated with different land-use contexts (built and open/'green')? How do the characteristics and impact of urban agriculture differ from those of agriculture carried out in the hinterland?
(3) What are the effects of past urban land use on the formation and properties of modern surface and sub-surface soils? How might this knowledge be used to inform discussions relating to urban land-use management to promote soil health and ecosystem services?
Findings will bear on debates surrounding the character of Maya urbanism and will allow for the assessment of both soil enrichment and landscape degradation resulting from different forms of urban land use and resources/ materials used. Results will contribute to the development of urban land-use strategies to promote soil health and environmentally sustainable cities. The research will also be used to raise public awareness of, and engagement with, society's relationship with soils.
Past land use continues to influence socio-ecological systems today. At the interface of these human activities, past and present, lie soils. Anthropic urban soils and sediments associated with ancient cities - that is, the soils and sediments that formed within past settlements influenced by human activities (Lehmann and Stahr 2007: 248-249) (e.g. building activities, production, waste disposal, urban agriculture and cultivation) - are legacies of past human-environment interactions, retaining the physical and chemical traces of past land use, whilst also being active constituents of current socio-ecological interactions.
The site of Lamanai, northern Belize, provides the rare opportunity to study human-environment interaction within an urban Maya context over a period of 3,000 years. Occupation and land use can be traced from ca. 1,600 B.C. (Hanna et al. 2016; Rushton et al. 2020) to the time the site was made a reserve in A.D. 1990. It stood as an urban and commercial centre from about 300 B.C. to about a century before the Spanish conquest in the 1530s and notably, remained so during the Maya collapse (~A.D.800-950), when other cities in the region experienced socio-political collapse and abandonment.
The built environment at Lamanai is extensive, but three civic-administrative epicentres representing (largely but not entirely) Preclassic, Classic/ Postclassic, and colonial period occupations have been mapped and excavated (e.g. Graham 2004; Pendergast 1981). Land use in the different zones of the site will be examined through excavation and study of soil catenas, focusing on soil profiles as sequenced archives of land-use change. Samples from selected profiles will be analysed for their physical and chemical properties using a range of techniques (particle size analysis, magnetic susceptibility, soil chemistry, micromorphological analysis, microfossil analysis) to determine the nature of past land use; the resources and materials associated with different land uses; and the formation processes and properties of associated urban soils. The study of the sedimentary history in each zone, expanding to peri-urban zones, will allow the following lines of inquiry to be explored:
(1) Given what is known about the built environment at Lamanai (civic-ceremonial building zones, residences, plazas, roads [sacbes]), what is the relationship between the built environment (covered space) and open space (kitchen gardens, urban farming, middens) over time? Did the urban landscape change during periods of regional societal instability?
(2) Can the formation and properties of soils and sediments be linked to past human activity and the decay of associated materials (mineral-based construction, timber, household waste, ash, charcoal, human remains)? What are the properties of soils and sediments associated with different land-use contexts (built and open/'green')? How do the characteristics and impact of urban agriculture differ from those of agriculture carried out in the hinterland?
(3) What are the effects of past urban land use on the formation and properties of modern surface and sub-surface soils? How might this knowledge be used to inform discussions relating to urban land-use management to promote soil health and ecosystem services?
Findings will bear on debates surrounding the character of Maya urbanism and will allow for the assessment of both soil enrichment and landscape degradation resulting from different forms of urban land use and resources/ materials used. Results will contribute to the development of urban land-use strategies to promote soil health and environmentally sustainable cities. The research will also be used to raise public awareness of, and engagement with, society's relationship with soils.
