Ancient Maya Reservoirs and their Role in the Abandonment of Tikal, Guatemala: A Multi-Proxy ...

175 Pages·2013·2.86 MB·English

Ancient Maya Reservoirs and their Role in the Abandonment of Tikal, Guatemala:
A Multi-Proxy Investigation of Solid Sediment Cores.

A thesis submitted to the

Division of Graduate Studies and Advanced Research
of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

In the Department of Anthropology
of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences
2013

By
Anthony T. Tamberino
B.A., University of Cincinnati 2011
A.A.S., Community College of the Air Force 2010

Committee: Dr. Vernon L. Scarborough (Chair)
Dr. Kenneth Barnett Tankersley
Abstract

The Temple-Palace-Hidden Reservoir complex at Tikal, Guatemala provides insights into human
adaptation to fluctuations in water resource availability for almost three thousand years. This
thesis examines the question of why the ancient Maya city-state of Tikal was abandoned. Two
hypotheses associated with Tikal’s reservoir system address possible reasons for abandonment of
Tikal. Both hypotheses address a Late Holocene drought, which would have led to insufficient
recharge in anthropogenic and natural water features of Tikal. A multi-proxy investigation of
solid sediment cores extracted from these features will be used to evaluate the hypotheses.
Evidence of a Late Holocene drought at Tikal comes from environmental, paleoclimatic,
and paleoenvironmental proxies. A review of the history and geography of the Maya Area is
provided to determine, in part, if the reservoirs at Tikal remained undisturbed since the Classic
Maya abandonment and a geographic visualization of past monumental architecture within the
relevant Temple-Palace-Hidden Reservoir system drainage basin is presented to establish the
possible sources of anthropogenic, volcanogenic, and non-volcanic reservoir sediments.
Reservoir sediments are dated to using ceramic chronology and AMS radiocarbon dating.
An integration of environmental proxies including magnetic susceptibility, sediment sort,
Munsell color, and particle size analysis are used to illustrate varying shifts from cold and dry to
warm and wet climatic periods. At least one of the cold and dry climatic period, possibly
occurring during the Terminal Classic (A.D. 800 – 925) at Tikal, was both AMS radiocarbon
dated and relatively dated from reservoir sediments.

i
ii
Acknowledgements

First, I would like to say thank you to Dr. Vernon L. Scarborough and Dr. Kenneth Barnett
Tankersley for their encouragement, guidance, and for allowing me to take part in their research.
Also for providing the necessary equipment and samples to make this investigation possible.
Thank you to Dr. Nicholas Dunning for providing the necessary instruction to understand soil
genesis and classification from his class and field trips. Thank you to Christopher Carr for his
help and for sharing the rectified GIS maps he digitized from the original Carr and Hazard
surveys of Tikal. Thank you to the other students that had a hand in laboratory processing of the
sub-soil sediment probe cores, specifically Leslie Neal and Andras Nagy for his advice and
guidance with any GIS related questions. Thank you to my other fellow undergraduate and
graduate students for any other previous work and for eagerly providing support whenever
needed. Thank you Dr. Mark Brenner for providing up-to-date articles regarding
paleolimnological studies in the Petén region. Thank you to the librarians at the University of
Pittsburgh (Hillman) and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (Oakland) for helping me track
down the numerous historical, exploration, and excavation reports regarding Tikal. Studies like
this are not possible without the recording and sharing of information, thank you to all the other
archaeologists and researchers that had a hand in the data utilized to support my arguments.
Finally most of all, I would like to thank my loving wife Marcela for her help verifying
translations on Spanish texts and for putting up with me and my long hours of obsessive research
on this work.
iii
Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Abandonment of Tikal, Guatemala and Thesis ........................................................................... 2
Chapter 2: Maya Cultural Background and Study Area ................................................................. 6
Regional Geology. ................................................................................................................... 9
Regional Soils. ....................................................................................................................... 12
Present and Past Regional Climate and Environment. .......................................................... 15
Chapter 3: Recorded History and Geography of the Maya Area .................................................. 20
European Contact and Spanish Conquest.................................................................................. 20
Post-Spanish Conquest. ......................................................................................................... 25
Regional Independence from Spain. ...................................................................................... 25
Republicá de Yucatán and the War of the Castes. ................................................................. 26
Guatemala and El Petén. ........................................................................................................ 28
iv
Investigations of the Maya Ruins at Tikal. ............................................................................ 30
History of the Maya at Tikal, Guatemala through Archaeological Investigations .................... 39
Water Catchment System at Tikal. ........................................................................................ 47
Temple Reservoir. ................................................................................................................. 50
Palace Reservoir. ................................................................................................................... 51
Hidden Reservoir. .................................................................................................................. 51
Inscriptions Reservoir. ........................................................................................................... 51
Perdido Reservoir. ................................................................................................................. 52
Corriental Reservoir. ............................................................................................................. 52
Tikal Reservoir. ..................................................................................................................... 53
Geographic Visualization .......................................................................................................... 53
Chapter 4: 2009 and 2010 Field Season Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala .................................. 56
Excavations ............................................................................................................................... 56
Radiocarbon Dates .................................................................................................................... 74
Ceramic Sherd Analysis from Temple and Palace Reservoirs Excavations ............................. 78
Environmentalist’s Sub-Soil Probe ........................................................................................... 82
Sediment Core Locations....................................................................................................... 85
Chapter 5: Laboratory Theory, Methodology, and Results .......................................................... 88
Magnetic Susceptibility ............................................................................................................. 91
Results. ................................................................................................................................ 101
v
Munsell color and Sort ............................................................................................................ 101
Results. ................................................................................................................................ 105
Particle Size Analysis .............................................................................................................. 116
Results. ................................................................................................................................ 117
Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 123
Temple Reservoir Main Tank (TR22). ................................................................................ 124
Temple Reservoir Silting Tank (TR23). .............................................................................. 126
Palace Reservoir (PA1). ...................................................................................................... 128
Inscriptions Reservoir (IR20). ............................................................................................. 129
Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusions ...................................................................................... 132
References Cited ......................................................................................................................... 137
Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 156
Appendix A: Operation 6-J Excavation Description............................................................... 156
Appendix B: Operation 7-C Excavation Description. ............................................................. 160
Appendix C: Drought Indicative Proxy Measures. ................................................................. 162

vi
List of Figures

Figure 1. Maya Area (Coe 2005) on the Yucatán Peninsula Map. ................................................. 6
Figure 2. Yucatán Showing Regional Tectonic Plate Boundaries (modified from Estrada-
Carmona et. al. 2009:245, includes Transect A-B and B-C for Figure 3). ..................................... 9
Figure 3. Generalized Cross section of Regional Geological Formations (modified from Peterson
1983:11). ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 4. Map of the Distribution of Soils in Guatemala. ............................................................ 13
Figure 5. Map of Soils in Tikal Region in Guatemala. ................................................................. 15
Figure 6. Map for the location of Guanaja, Honduras. ................................................................. 21
Figure 7. Map for the Location of Cape Cotoch. .......................................................................... 23
Figure 8. Map for the Location of Tayasal, the Petén Lakes, and Tikal. ...................................... 24
Figure 9. Map of the Early Mexican Departments and Other Political Boundaries. .................... 26
Figure 10. Current Political Boundaries with Maya Area (Coe 2005). ........................................ 29
Figure 11. Map of Guatemala and Departments. .......................................................................... 30
Figure 12. Maudslay’s Photograph Taken from Atop Temple I Showing in Front Temple II, Back
Left Temple III, and Back Right Temple IV. The Red Arrow Points to the Temple Reservoir
Location (with permission from the Trustees of the British Museum 2013). ............................... 34
Figure 13. Ruins of Tikal Mapped by University of Pennsylvania Surveyors and Excavators
(Carr and Hazard 1961). ............................................................................................................... 46
Figure 14.Tikal's Reservoir Catchment Areas with Red Identifying Temple, Palace, and
Inscriptions Reservoirs (modified from Scarborough and Gallopin 1991:659). .......................... 49
vii
Figure 15. Geo-Visualization of the Landscape Evolution of the Lost World Pyramid Complex,
Plaza of the Seven Temples, and the Temple-Palace-Hidden Reservoir System correlated with
the Tikal Ceramic Complexes (Base Map from Carr and Hazard 1961). ..................................... 55
Figure 16. Palace Reservoir Operation 6 Sub-Operation Locations (courtesy of V. L.
Scarborough). ................................................................................................................................ 63
Figure 17. Soil Profile of Operation 6-J West Wall from Palace Reservoir (courtesy of V. L.
Scarborough). ................................................................................................................................ 64
Figure 18. Op. 6-J with Bench (courtesy of V. L. Scarborough). ................................................. 68
Figure 19. Temple Reservoir Operation 7 Locations (courtesy of V. L. Scarborough). .............. 69
Figure 20. Op 7-A in Temple Reservoir Silting Tank (April 2009) with fault spring seep activity
(7.5 liters/hour) 1.6 meters below the surface (courtesy of V. L. Scarborough). ......................... 70
Figure 21. Op 7-A Temple Reservoir Silting Tank Excavation Profile (courtesy of V. L.
Scarborough). ................................................................................................................................ 71
Figure 22. Temple Reservoir Main Tank Profile OP 7-C East Wall Main Tank with Four
Radiocarbon Dates (Scarborough et al. 2012, courtesy of V. L. Scarborough). .......................... 72
Figure 23. Temple-Palace-Hidden Reservoir System with Postulated Ancient Arroyo Path in
Blue (modified from Scarborough et al. 2012). ............................................................................ 74
Figure 24. Temple Reservoir Silting Tank Ceramic Sherd Pie Chart........................................... 80
Figure 25. Temple Reservoir Main Tank Ceramic Sherd Pie Chart. ............................................ 81
Figure 26. Palace Reservoir Ceramic Sherd Pie Chart. ................................................................ 82
Figure 27. Dr. Scarborough utilizing the Environmental Sub-Soil Probe (courtesy of V. L.
Scarborough). ................................................................................................................................ 83
Figure 28. Soil Core Sample Sealed with Caps. ........................................................................... 84
viii