Research Article

Paleoecology and Geoarchaeology at El Palmar and the El Zotz

Region, Guatemala
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach,1 ,* Timothy Beach,1 Thomas Garrison,2 Stephen Houston,3 James Doyle,4
Edwin Román,5 Steven Bozarth,6 Richard Terry,7 Samantha Krause,1 and Jonathan Flood1
1
Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
2
Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
3
Department of Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
4
Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
5
Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
6
R.L McGregor Herbarium, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
7
Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

Correspondence A new paleoecology record from the El Palmar Cival adds to the emerging
* Corresponding author; geoarchaeological record of El Zotz, Guatemala. El Palmar’s 3 m stratigraphic
E-mail: slbeach@austin.utexas.edu
record began in the Archaic period before 1500 B.C. at or just before initial
Received Maya impacts. From the lowest level, Late Archaic organic deposition, with
8 February 2015 evidence for diverse tropical forest and a steady water table, transitioned to
Revised Early Preclassic clay deposition, decreased forest taxa, three known food taxa,
9 May 2016 and more economic species. Clay deposition continued through the Preclassic,
Accepted with occasional organic and high charcoal deposition, increasing maize, and
9 May 2016
other possible economic pollen. Classic El Palmar saw a new land use type
Scientific editing by Arlene Rosen
with continued disturbance evidence but diverse and greater forest cover. Hu-
man impacts continued, leaving high amounts of disturbance taxa, charcoal,
Published online in Wiley Online Library and the highest maize pollen level, concomitant with lower deposition rates,
(wileyonlinelibrary.com). δ 13 C evidence of increased, diverse tropical forest taxa and organic sediments.
El Zotz Aguada’s Early Classic to Postclassic sediment record overlaps this, with
doi 10.1002/gea.21587
maize and squash pollen evidence changing to Classic period copal tree pollen
dominance. Both records indicate the maximum quantity of C4 taxa derived
organic matter was about 40%, leaving at least half from C3 taxa such as trop-
ical forest species. 
C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

INTRODUCTION documented elsewhere in the central Maya lowlands

About 20 km west of the colossus of Tikal, Guatemala
lie the cities of the El Zotz region, in the structural Bue-
navista Valley at the foot of the imposing northern Petén
escarpment (Figure 1) (Doyle et al., 2011, 2012; Hous-
ton et al., 2011; Doyle, 2012, 2013; Doyle, Garrison, &
Houston, 2012; Flood et al., 2012; Garrison & Garrido
López, 2012; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2013; Beach et al.,
2015a,b). This study initiated environmental research in
the El Zotz region of Guatemala to explore the base-
line resources and evidence for environmental change
during the Maya occupation from ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D.
1000. Although there is a complicated assortment of an-
cient Maya resource niches, the principal environmen-
tal resources for El Zotz are similar to those we have
since the early 1990s, in the Petexbatun (Beach & Dun-
ning, 1995; Beach, 1998; Dunning et al., 1998a,b), Can-
cuen (Kovacevich, Cook, & Beach, 2004; Beach et al.,
2006; Cook et al., 2006), and Northwestern Belize
(Beach et al., 2002, 2003, 2008, 2015b; Dunning et al.,
2002; Luzzadder-Beach & Beach, 2008, 2009; Luzzadder-
Beach, Beach, & Dunning, 2012). This paper presents
a new paleoecology record of the cival (grassy wetland
depression; Beach et al., 2015a: 259) at El Palmar and
synthesizes and augments previous studies of soils, ge-
omorphology, hydrology, and paleoecology. We focused
the soil and geomorphology work on depressions that
store sedimentary records, including the civals at El Pal-
mar and Bejucal, the aguadas at El Zotz, Bejucal, and El
Diablo, and the paleoecological record for El Zotz (Beach

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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
Figure 1 Regional map by Tom Garrison, Tim Murtha, and Samantha Krause. This map shows the regional El Zotz sites, Tikal, and its wall. Boxes outline
sites shown in Figures 2–10.
et al., 2011, 2015a). With water quality studies, we sam-
pled a broader area attempting to capture the range of
regional water quality, likely little changed since Maya
times. We report in more detail on water quality find-
ings in Beach et al. (2015a). Based on a robust range
and number of paleoproxy data, we present an environ-
mental history that dates back to 1730–1510 B.C. or near
the end of the Archaic, which is about 1200 B.C. for this
region. We show two general findings that parallel the
well-studied surrounding regions. First, the little dis-
turbed Archaic tropical forests became altered by the Pre-
classic period, and the organic deposition of the Archaic
was inundated by “Maya Clays” from the Preclassic and
into the Classic period. Second, regional habitation mi-
grated from the reflexively evolved concave wetlands at
El Palmar in the Preclassic to the convex, actively water-
managed and defensible locations at El Zotz and possi-
bly Bejucal (Scarborough, 1993; Beach et al., 2015a,b;
Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2016).
BACKGROUND
Geographic Area
Geoarchaeological research on origins and diffusion of
water and land management innovations follows the
lead of Butzer et al. (1985) in the Mediterranean and
Butzer (2002) in North America, and Turner (1974) and
Scarborough (1993), among many others, in Mesoamer-
ica (Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2016). Paleoecology is
a well-developed field for the Maya Region (Beach
et al., 2015b; Douglas, Brenner, & Curtis, 2015; Dun-
ning et al., 2015), though our work in this paper and
Beach et al. (2015a) is the first in the El Zotz re-
gion of the Guatemalan Petén. Other paleoecological and
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LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.
geoarchaeological studies ring this region, with the ma-
jority around the Central Petén lakes (Deevey et al., 1979;
Islebe et al., 1996; Leyden, 2002; Anselmetti et al., 2007;
Mueller et al., 2010a,b), several civals and aguadas in the
northeastern Petén (Wahl et al., 2006, 2007; Wahl, An-
derson, & Byrne, 2014) and the Petexbatun (Dunning,
Beach, & Rue, 1997; Dunning et al., 1998a), and at La-
guna Tuspan, near ancient Maya La Joyanca in northwest
Petén (Fleury et al., 2014).
Environments
The annual migration of the intertropical convergence
zone (ITCZ) with its belt of instability and convectional
storms produces a tropical wet and dry climate in this re-
gion (Luzzadder-Beach, Beach, & Dunning, 2012). The
ITCZ produces wide variations in annual rainfall, aver-
aging about 1500 mm per year largely during the May
to December wet season. The dry season, from January
through May, has a considerable shortfall in moisture,
especially in the latter months because of rising tem-
peratures and declining soil moisture. The other main
precipitation drivers are extratropical cyclones that oc-
casionally penetrate southward into Central America in
winter and tropical storms such as hurricanes, which
from June to December occasionally produce copious
rainfall in the central Petén despite its 160 km distance
from the Caribbean (Boose et al., 2003).
Several lines of evidence from pollen, geochemical
variations in microfossils and speleothems, tree rings,
and modeling evidence indicate significant regional cli-
mate change over the Late Pleistocene and Holocene in
Mesoamerica. Regional climate since the late glacial max-
imum mainly supported moist, temperate forests, to dryer
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LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.
savannas in the dry interstadials such as the Younger
Dryas (Mueller et al., 2010b). The early Holocene experi-
enced the “thermal maximum,” greater moistness (Haug
et al., 2001), and the rise of tropical forest. After about
5000–4000 years ago, the climate dried and fluctuated
and pollen records show that the region’s tropical forests
included more grasses, charcoal, and the earliest evidence
of maize (Islebe et al., 1996; Fleury et al., 2014; Wahl,
Anderson, & Byrne, 2014). The Late Preclassic (400 B.C.
to A.D. 250) experienced more drying, followed by stabil-
ity in the Classic (A.D. 250–800), and drying in the Late
and Terminal Classic (especially from A.D. 700 to 900),
Postclassic, and Little Ice Age (Luzzadder-Beach, Beach,
& Dunning, 2012; Beach et al., 2015b; Medina-Elizalde
et al., 2016). Research is still fine tuning our understand-
ing of how global scale drivers of climate such as the
El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscil-
lation, solar cycles, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning
Circulation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and stochastic
variation may be associated with climatic variation.
El Zotz lies at the edge of a lowland corridor that arcs
through the Yucatán from Chetumal Bay westward to the
Bay of Campeche, bisecting the high, north–south back-
bone of the Petén (Figure 1). Along the northern side of
the El Zotz region, structural geology has produced the
largest escarpment of the Petén that rises to nearly 400
m above sea level (asl) in places. Regional lithology is
largely Cretaceous-Tertiary carbonate rocks faulted into
ridges and valleys separated by sharp and irregular scarps.
The upland ridges are karst landscapes of mogotes, sink-
holes, and myriad solution features such as caves (Miller,
1996; Alvarado & Herrera, 2001). The region lies between
the headwaters of four main Maya rivers and their multi-
ple ancient Maya cities and varied natural resources: the
Three Rivers basin to the northeast, the Belize River to
the Southeast, the Pasión to the south, and the San Pe-
dro River to the West. The large structural valley that El
Zotz and El Palmar occupy would have made a natural
passage connecting the Gulf and Caribbean Sea.
Wagner (1964) described the region’s vegetation as
tropical rain forest, but others have described it as tropi-
cal semideciduous forest (Pennington & Sarukhan, 1968),
moist semitropical forest (Holdridge, Grenke, & Hathe-
way, 1971), and evergreen tropical forest (Rzedowski,
1978; Greller, 2000). Regional vegetation varies from tall,
upland forests about 10–25 m high, to savannas and wet-
lands. Upland forests have several grades depending on
moisture and edaphic factors including mesic “caobal” or
mahagony (Swietenia spp.) forests in upland ravines, drier
“ramonals” of Brosimum alicastrum on rocky outcrops,
drier zapotal forests (Lundell, 1937), cohune palm (Attalea
cohune) groves in areas with deep soils, foot slope forests
with more and less sabal palm (Sabal mauritiiformis),
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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
wetland interface forests, and scrubby, seasonally dry
“bajo” ecosystems of logwood (Haematoxylum campechi-
anum) and other scrubby trees (Schulze & Whitacre,
1999).
Maya interactions with wetlands occurred over 3000
years and in multifarious ways (Beach & Luzzadder-
Beach, 2013). Natural wetlands form in a variety of de-
pressions such as dolines and civals that occur in ex-
pansive bajos or smaller depressions. Aguadas such as
those at El Zotz, El Diablo, and Bejucal (Figure 1) are
smaller depressions sometimes altered to be reservoirs by
the Maya from convenient local depressions (Luzzadder-
Beach et al., 2016). Civals are a local term for grassy wet-
lands (Wahl et al., 2006) and the cival at El Palmar is a
large expanse of water during wet periods and herba-
ceous wetland with invading pioneer trees like trumpet
trees (Cecropia spp) during dry periods. All types of de-
pressions fill with eroded sediment once their drainage
outlets become plugged, with many depressions in the
El Zotz region filling with “Maya Clays” during the Maya
period of accelerated erosion (Beach et al., 2003; Ansel-
metti et al., 2007). This period of sedimentation may have
both blocked downward percolation of surface water and
upward penetration of groundwater, thus substantially
altering wetland hydrology (Dunning and Beach, 1994;
Dunning et al., 2002; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2016).
DATA AND METHODS
We used a series of excavations and cores to gather pa-
leoecological data to understand Maya environmental in-
teraction, described elsewhere in more detail: Beach et al.
(2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011) and Luzzadder-
Beach and Beach (2009) for soils, and Bozarth and
Guderjan (2004) for phytoliths and pollen (cf. Jones,
1994).
Paleoecology and Soil Methods
Soil analyses included a series of geochemical, physi-
cal, stratigraphic, and chronological approaches to char-
acterize chronologies and qualities of soil layers. All of
the research started with field investigations of sedi-
ment sequences, where we measured HCl reaction, Mun-
sell color, field texture, structure, pH, consistence, mag-
netic susceptibility (MS), preliminary stratigraphy and
horizons, and other physical parameters of soils (Soil
Survey Staff, 1993, 2003). To develop chronologies for
our sequences, we collected artifacts and radiocarbon
samples systematically. Team members measured MS
every 5–10 cm along soil profiles (with a GF Instru-
ments Magnetic Susceptibility Meter SM-20). The Soil
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Table I Calibrated AMS 14 C dates for El Palmar and El Zotz.

Beta Number Depth (cm) Material Measured 14 C yr B.P. δ13 C (‰) Conventional 14 C yr B.P. 2σ Calibrated Ages

Palmar Core 1
292997 42 Peat 1350 ± 30 –24.4 1360 ± 30 A.D. 640–680
262058 49 Charred material 1810 ± 40 –26.3 1790 ± 40 A.D. 130–340
Palmar Core 2
284410 118 Charred material 1980 ± 40 –25.2 1980 ± 40 50 B.C. to A.D. 90
284409 245 Charred material 2280 ± 40 –24.7 2280 ± 40 400–350 B.C./300–210 B.C.
284408 295 Charred material 3350 ± 40 –26.2 3330 ± 40 1730–1720 B.C./1690–1510 B.C.
Palmar Ravine
262061 Charred material 2340 ± 40 –25.1 2340 ± 40 490–460 B.C./420–370 B.C.
El Zotz Aguada
262056 87 Charred material 1310 ± 50 –26.0 1290 ± 50 A.D. 650–870
262055 105 Charred material 1310 ± 40 –26.7 1280 ± 40 A.D. 660–810
289493 Above lower floor Organic sediment 1780 ± 30 –23.0 1810 ± 30 A.D. 130–310
El Diablo Aguada
262059 95 Charred material 1640 ± 40 –23.0 1670 ± 40 A.D. 260–300/A.D. 310–430
262060 130 Charred material 1520 ± 50 –9.0 1780 ± 50 A.D. 120–390

Laboratory at Brigham Young University (BYU) used
a Finnigan Delta Plus isotope-ratio mass spectrometer
along with a Costech elemental analyzer (EAIRMS) to
measure δ 13 C (stable carbon isotope ratios) in the resid-
ual humin fraction of the soil organic matter (Webb et al.,
2007; Sweetwood et al., 2009; Wright, Terry, & Eberyl,
2009; Beach et al., 2011). We sampled young wood, peat,
or charcoal in distinct layers to provide material for ra-
diocarbon dating by Beta Analytic using Accelerator Mass
Spectrometry (AMS). Beta Analytic ran AMS on all of our
radiocarbon samples, and we report these as calibrated
(by INTCAL98 Radiocarbon Age Calibration) at the two
sigma (95% probability) level (Table I) (Stuiver, Reiner, &
Braziunas, 1998).
For pollen, phytoliths, and charcoal at El Palmar, Dr. S.
Bozarth carefully sampled sequences every 2 cm from 30
to 300 cm for pollen, and identified and counted pollen
morphs and charcoal fragments for 22 samples. He cat-
egorized the small charcoal from 10 to 80 μm and large
charcoal as above 80 μm (Beach et al., 2008). We avoided
samples from the topsoils of both study sites because of
the bioturbation associated with topsoil formation.
Carbon Isotope Ratios
Profiles of carbon isotopic ratios through soil sequences
provide insight into past changes in vegetation, if it has
changed between C4 and C3 species (Beach et al., 2011).
Atmospheric CO2 passes into cell membranes via stomata,
and photosynthesis discriminates in favor of the lighter
12
CO2 in photosynthesis, thus depleting the ratio of 13 C
in plants compared with the atmospheric CO2 . Species
using the C4 photosynthetic pathways such as maize will
have carbon isotopic ratios of −12‰, whereas C3 species
such as tropical trees will have carbon isotopic ratios of ca.
−30‰. Plant litter creates humus near the surface and in
the root zone, and new vegetation over time will replace
soil humus and change carbon isotopic ratios (Boutton,
1996; Boutton et al., 1998; Webb, Schwarcz, & Healy,
2004). Soil microbial diagenesis of soil organic matter,
however, produces isotopic fractionation that may in-
crease the δ 13 C by 1–2.5% in deeper soil zones and by
3–4% in some tropical soils, which makes changes at or
below 3–4% equivocal (Ehleringer, 1991; Ágren, Bosatta,
& Balesdent, 1996; Boutton, 1996; Martinelli et al., 1996;
Liu, Clapp, & Cheng, 1997). We used the soil humin frac-
tion of organic matter because it is the oldest humic sub-
stance and best reflects C4 plants (Webb, Schwarcz, &
Healy, 2004). Identifying δ 13 C in profiles is particularly
relevant in aggrading sequences because organic matter
of each layer will be representative of the species that
were contributing to the surface and root layers, and
the anaerobic and low bioturbation of buried soils should
improve humus preservation and decrease fractionation.
Several studies have used the following equation to es-
timate the percentage of soil organic carbon (SOC) de-
rived from C4 plants (Nordt, 2001: 423; Wright, Terry, &
Eberyl, 2009; Beach et al., 2011):
 
% SOC obtained from C4 vegetation CC4 =
100×(δ 13 Csoc − δ 13 CC3 )/(δ 13 CC4 − δ 13 CC3 ).
Based on Wright, Terry, and Eberyl (2009) in the same
region, we used −27‰ for δ 13 CC3 and −12‰ for δ 13 CC4
to calculate the percent of the soil’s SOC from C4 .

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LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.
Figure 2 Location and topographic profiles of the El Palmar ravine and
cival soil profiles.
RESULTS
El Palmar
El Palmar, occupied primarily during the Middle and Late
Preclassic period (Doyle, 2013), lies between El Zotz and
Tikal along the edge of a large cival (Figure 1). Our main
foci at El Palmar were excavations and cores in the cival
to analyze the paleoecology, soil characteristics, and wa-
ter quality. We placed soil pits strategically to understand
sediment connectivity from El Palmar to the edge of the
large cival. The two main soil units include a unit between
two residential areas of El Palmar and a wetland unit near
the edge of the El Palmar Cival. We continued the cival
edge excavation with a core down to 3 m, 2 m below the
late dry season water table, into lacustrine sediments. We
stopped at 3 m depth because we encountered an artesian
aquifer that that blocked further entry. We also compare
the 3 m excavation and core with a core just offshore
in 2 m of water to understand the upper levels from the
Early Classic onward.
El Palmar Ravine
We excavated a soil profile (unit MA-3A-1, Figures 2 and
3) to bedrock at 130 cm depth to study sediment flux
over time in a ravine between the main pyramids and
larger platforms at the southern extent of the El Palmar
ceremonial center. The Rendoll (tropical Mollisol) soil
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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
has a 32 cm thick, mollic, organic-rich (5–10% organic
carbon) A-horizon that is very dark brown (10YR 2/1)
and has well developed, granular structured clay, though
the lowest percentage of clay texture in our study sites
(Table II). The A-horizon lay above Bk and Ck hori-
zons in a matrix that increases from 25% to 50% lime-
stone gravel and cobbles to 55 cm. From 55 cm to
120 cm are a series of boulders in a line that are
covered by a clayey, carbonate-rich, gray Ck horizon.
It seems likely that the boulder alignment served as
some kind of terrace structure in the Preclassic based
on an AMS charcoal date between the boulders (490–
370 B.C.). The soil is almost 100% calcium carbonate
with strong HCl reaction in all horizons, which means
it has altered minimally from the bedrock and plaster
that buried the soil. MS is low throughout but peaks in
the A horizon and in a small clay layer we interpreted
as a remnant paleosol at 110 cm below the boulders
(Figure 3). The carbon isotopic ratio for this soil pro-
file ranged from −28.7‰ at its surface to −25.8‰ at ca.
100 cm in its Preclassic dated sediments, a range asso-
ciated with insignificant input of C4 taxa. This sequence
shows that a Rendoll soil with a thick topsoil and com-
posed of about 50% clay texture can form in this CaCO3 -
rich soil landscape in 2500 years and that slopes were
eroding during the Preclassic city’s lifetime.
Toeslope Soil at Cival Edge
We excavated the second major soil profile (MA-3A-2) in
a seasonally flooded area along the edge of the cival, be-
tween the ceremonial center and a large platform group
to the south (Figures 2 and 4). This Aquoll soil had strong
HCl reaction and high quantities of CaCO3 throughout
its profile (Table II). The soil also had a mollic, granular
structured, clay topsoil with ca. 6% organic carbon over
the top 30 cm of very dark brown (10YR 2/1) A horizon.
Lighter colored Cgk horizons lie wedged between thin,
very dark gray (10YR 3/1), highly organic (ca. 10% or-
ganic carbon) Ab horizons from 50 to 62 cm and 83 to
90 cm. At 100 cm a major paleosol runs down to the
unit’s bottom at 155 cm, which coincided with the water
table at the end of the Dry Season in 2010. This anthro-
pogenic paleosol represents a large profile change since it
has scores of artifacts (lithics, burned ceramics, and ob-
sidian), up to 42% sand, and in the Cg horizon down to
155 cm were human-placed, aligned boulders, perhaps
acting as a platform or berm near the water’s edge. None
of the artifacts could be securely dated, but an AMS 14 C
date of 50 B.C. to A.D. 90 at 118 cm on charred organic
material came from near the bottom of the Ab horizon.
This paleosol is highly organic (8–12% organic carbon)
and black (N2/0) to gray (N4/0). From 120 to 155 cm
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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.

Figure 3 Photo of the El Palmar ravine soil profile, showing the modern soil and buried terrace boulders that date to the Preclassic, and the magnetic
susceptibility and δ13 C isotope profiles. Depths on graph scaled to depth in soil profile photo.

runs a Cg horizon with gleyed colors of N5/0 and 4/0, stand of the cival and sedimentation (Maya Clay) from
which in turn lies on top of lacustrine, faintly laminated accelerated erosion aggraded the water’s edge, though it
sediments. It is possible the terrestrial wetland environ- is clear the cival continued to be a fluctuating wetland
ment above 155 cm started as reclamation during a low above the paleosol. The MS of the soils varies by a factor

Figure 4 El Palmar Cival margin excavation with magnetic susceptibility and δ13 C isotope profiles. Depths on graphs scaled to depth in soil profile photo.

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LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.
of more than 2 with the topsoil and main paleosol about
twice as high as the intervening horizons. Increased MS
(Figure 4) at the current and former topsoil levels may
reflect elevated metals, surface stability, oxidizing con-
ditions, and more burning (Luzzadder-Beach & Beach,
2008).
Four pollen samples through this zone at 155, 147,
98, and 60 cm came from highly organic, distinct layers
(Figure 5). All four samples had low counts of pollen
(14–90 pollen grains), no cultigens, and mostly just high
spine Asteraceae pollen and more fern pollen than other
samples, which may indicate pioneer species succession,
or reflect variations in the degree of preservation and
robustness of the pollen of different species.
The carbon isotopic ratio (δ 13 C) profile (Figure 4)
through this zone indicates swings from Late Preclassic
through the present, indicating fluctuations in sources of
organic matter with significant inputs of C4 plant mate-
rials in the Late Preclassic paleosol and Early Classic but
three episodes of forest or C3 plant recovery. The paleosol
did have copious visible and microscopic charcoal and
an elevated carbon isotopic ratio of −23.4‰ at 110 cm,
reflective of elevated C4 species by 24%.
El Palmar Cores
After reaching the water table in our excavation, we
cored the bottom of the excavation through lacustrine
and paludal or wetland sediments from 155 to 300 cm.
We supplemented the subexcavation core with a 60 cm
surface core through lacustrine and paludal sediments
near the excavation in 2 m of water. We identify four
stratigraphic zones and three main food cultigens in this
sequence: maize (Zea mays), squash (Cucurbita), and ar-
rowroot (Maranta arundinacea). Maize pollen ranged from
as high as 5.6% of all the pollen and showed up from
280 cm to 39 cm, from near an Archaic AMS 14 C date
and to a Late Classic AMS 14 C date (Figure 5).
Zone 1: Late Archaic
The AMS 14 C date for Zone 1 is 1730–1510 B.C. or the
Late Archaic at 295 m. The lowest pollen level also at 300
cm coincides with a peat layer with the least evidence
for human modification because of the high tree diver-
sity and the lowest charcoal quantities. The sedimenta-
tion rate was low based on the formation of a fibrous peat
layer with little mineral sediment, like the Postclassic Pe-
riod, but we lack a lower boundary sample to check for
earlier disturbance. The fibrous peat layer and a perched,
artesian flow within it blocked further penetration of the
core, but it reached a transition point from low to higher
human disturbance because Z. mays is present in lacus-
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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
trine sediments by 280 cm, 20 cm above the Archaic AMS
14
C dated peat. The lowest peat layer has no Z. mays, very
low Asteraceae, the lowest amount of particulate charcoal
(though still on par with the Classic Period El Zotz Aguada
quantities), the highest frequency (9.4%) Nymphaea (wa-
ter lily) pollen (demonstrating constant water), and the
greatest arboreal pollen diversity with at least 11 differ-
ent taxa. This layer still has some signs of disturbance
in its relatively high frequency (34.8%) of cheno-am
pollen, which together with the charcoal may indicate
Archaic human disturbance of this wetland, forest edge
community.
Zone 2: Late Archaic to Late Preclassic
Zone 2 ranges from above 300 cm (1730–1510 B.C.)
to 245 cm (400–210 B.C.). This zone of the Archaic-
Preclassic transition has considerable human disturbance
in effect by 280 cm (20 cm below the Late Archaic date)
since low-spine Asteraceae totals 53.5% of the pollen
and small charcoal rises 20-fold to almost 300,000 and
large charcoal to more than 22,000 counts. For compari-
son, these charcoal levels are one-to-two orders of mag-
nitude greater than levels in the El Zotz Aguada dur-
ing the Early Classic period. Zea mays pollen rose from
0.8% to 1.4% through this zone and Ambrosia (ragweed)
pollen rose from 0.4% to 5.1%. Balick, Nee, and Atha
(2000) note that both Ambrosia species (A. hispida and A.
peruviana) that occur in Belize have medicinal qualities,
though may simply be disturbance indicators. Nymphaea
(water lily) declined though this level and Typha (cattails)
rose and fell perhaps in reaction to fluxes of sedimenta-
tion and nutrients from erosion and burning. Despite the
evidence for disturbance, the deposition rate was low, ca.
0.04 mm yr−1 of limnic organic clay from the lowest level
at 295 cm (1730–1510 B.C.) to 245 cm (400–210 B.C.).
Zone 3: Late Preclassic
The large-scale disturbance, which started in the Late
Archaic, increased in pulses after the Late Preclassic from
the 400 to 210 B.C. AMS 14 C date at 245–155 cm. The
upper part of this zone transitions upward to the paleosol
that has an AMS 14 C date of 50 B.C. to A.D. 90 at 118 cm.
Since the zone ranges from 400 B.C. to A.D. 90, it spans
much of the Late Preclassic and thus offers a picture of
this major period of occupation at El Palmar. This zone
sees Z. mays reach its second highest level of 4.4% of the
total pollen at 217–219 cm. Just below this at 227–229 cm
is the only occurrence of arrowroot (M. arundinacea) and
the highest levels of small charcoal (690,962) and large
charcoal (131,045). The sample from 244 to 241 cm
for the first time had both Chrysophyllum and Simarouba
7
PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.

Table II Soil physical and chemical properties.

Depth Texture Total Total Organic Carbonate CCEa δ13 C Change In

Location (cm) Clay (%) Class N (%) C (%) C (%) C (%) (%) (‰) δ13 C (%)

Palmar Ravine (2009) 5 52 Clay 0.41 21.9 10.3 11.6 96.4 –28.7 2.9
30 51 Clay — — — — — –28.3
50 49 Clay 0.18 16.6 4.6 12.0 100.0 –27.4
70 50 Clay 0.16 18.0 6.0 12.0 100.0 –26.1
100 45 Clay 0.16 17.3 5.3 12.0 100.0 –25.8
Palmar Cival (2010) 13 100 Clay 0.45 6.2 6.0 0.2 1.7 –27.7 4.3
30 100 Clay 0.28 5.7 4.4 1.3 10.8 –26.0
40 85 Clay 0.14 11.7 5.8 5.9 49.5 –26.2
55 89 Clay 0.15 9.5 5.0 4.5 37.7 –27.2
72 83 Clay 0.16 9.4 5.4 4.0 33.1 –23.6
85 88 Clay 0.13 8.0 4.0 4.0 33.3 –24.8
98 91 Clay 0.12 8.6 4.3 4.3 35.9 –26.8
110 68 Clay 0.13 12.4 6.1 6.3 52.4 –23.4
118 48 Clay 0.12 9.0 4.4 4.6 37.9 –23.8
134 80 Clay 0.14 9.4 4.8 4.6 38.0 –23.7
Zotz Aguada (2009) 5 80 Clay 1.29 27.3 26.2 1.1 8.8 –30.2 4.8
20-33 89 Clay 0.31 8.3 4.3 4.0 33.1 –29.0
50-55 85 Clay 0.16 10.8 3.8 7.0 58.4 –26.0
90-95 79 Clay 0.13 12.3 4.4 7.9 65.6 –25.4
105-115 40 Clay 0.18 17.5 5.5 12.0 100.0 –25.7
115-135 85 Clay 0.15 10.8 3.6 7.2 60.4 –25.9
155-160 83 Clay 0.14 10.8 3.9 6.9 57.1 –26.2
200 82 Clay 0.18 12.4 4.4 8.0 66.3 –26.0
230 75 Clay 0.16 12.5 3.9 8.6 71.4 –25.2
Zotz Berm (2010) 5 75 Clay 0.71 20.1 15.4 4.7 39.3 –23.7
20 74 Clay 0.39 15.0 9.3 5.7 47.6 –29.8 6.9
40 72 Clay 0.20 16.1 8.2 7.9 65.5 –22.9
70 73 Clay 0.16 13.9 7.1 6.8 57.1 –23.8
90 79 Clay 0.16 12.6 6.2 6.4 53.6 –28.4
105 58 Clay 0.11 16.0 6.2 9.8 81.9 –27.2
230 80 Clay 0.11 11.8 5.5 6.3 52.1 –25.6
280 79 Clay 0.12 11.7 5.3 6.4 53.0 –24.5
Diablo Aguada (2009) 10 72 Clay 0.80 17.3 13.2 4.1 34.1 –29.3 3.1
25 68 Clay 0.54 15.5 9.3 6.2 51.9 –28.8
50 69 Clay 0.32 14.8 6.4 8.4 70.0 –27.0
70 70 Clay 0.24 14.4 4.8 9.6 80.0 –26.7
90 73 Clay 0.21 13.6 5.2 8.4 70.2 –26.5
105 57 Clay 0.23 16.5 5.9 10.6 88.4 –26.3
Bejucal Cival (2010) 5 87 Clay 0.42 12.2 9.0 3.2 26.8 –24.7 2.0
30 79 Clay 0.22 13.2 7.5 5.7 47.3 –22.8
50 78 Clay 0.19 10.9 6.0 4.9 40.5 –23.5
80 75 Clay 0.16 12.5 6.6 5.9 49.0 –22.7
105 82 Clay 0.15 8.6 4.5 4.1 34.2 –24.8
Bejucal Aguada (2010) 10 91 Clay 0.84 19.6 19.4 0.2 1.4 –22.0 1.0
40 100 Clay 0.17 2.9 2.3 0.5 4.2 –23.0
90 — — 0.19 4.8 3.3 1.5 12.7 –22.7
130 — — 0.18 4.3 3.2 1.1 9.2 –22.8
160 97 Clay 0.21 6.4 4.1 2.3 18.8 –22.9
215 — — 0.19 6.6 4.3 2.3 18.9 –22.7
a
Calcium carbonate equivalent.

glauca, which have edible fruit and medicinal qualities since the deposition rate rose by ca. 82–3.2 mm yr−1
(Balick, Nee, & Atha, 2000). There are two edible Chry- and this zone was largely clay between the core’s lower
sophyllum species in the study area (C. cainito and C. olivi- and upper organic-rich and peat layers from about 400–
forme) (Lundell, 1937). This zone represents “Maya Clay” 210 B.C. at 245 cm, to 50 B.C. through A.D. 90 at 118 cm.

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LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.
Figure 5 Cival pollen profile with phytolith and charcoal data.
The increased deposition rate and the significant presence
of cultigens support the interpretation of the archaeolog-
ical work at El Palmar that the population was greatest
during the Late Preclassic Period (see Doyle, 2013).
Zone 4: Late Preclassic to Classic
Since the upper portion of this core was a trench through
soil with emplaced stone and clay, we continue this se-
quence with a 60 cm core just offshore into 1.5 m of wa-
ter. In this zone, we obtained two AMS 14 C dates, one on
a discrete peat layer at 42 cm was A.D. 640–680, squarely
in the Late Classic, and a second on charred organics at
55-cm was A.D. 130–340 in the Late Preclassic to Early
Classic. Although only separated by 13 cm these are 400
years apart in time. The lower 10 cm reached into the
“Maya Clays” of the Late Preclassic occupation, which be-
came interbedded with peats upward through the Clas-
sic, post El Palmar city zone. Interestingly at Palmar, the
“Maya Clays” already decline in the Classic period. The
lower date of A.D. 130–340 is slightly later than the 50
B.C. to A.D. 90 date at 118 cm in the nearby paleosol,
and thus the 60 cm core may cover most of the deposi-
tional record from the Late Preclassic to present.
Near the base of the upper core at 56 cm, next to the
Late Preclassic to Early Classic date, there are Curcurbita
pollen and phyoliths, medicinals (e.g., Alteranthera, see
Balick, Nee, & Atha 2000), and copious cheno-ams. Here,
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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
Zea pollen reaches its highest concentration in the study
at 5.6%, and persists through this zone with 1.8% at
51 cm and 2.8% at 39 cm, 3 cm below the cal. yr A.D.
640–680 Late Classic date. The δ 13 C from the AMS 14 C
date on organic matter is also elevated to −24.7‰, which
correlates with the highest and most recent δ 13 C increase
in the adjacent soil sequence before tropical forest re-
covered. The clearly Late Classic level has substantial
disturbance based on a frequency of 47.4% of low-spine
Asteraceae. The high frequency of cattail pollen (9%) ac-
companies a sixfold increase in large particulate charcoal
indicative of local burning, as cattails may have increased
in the face of high nutrient runoff.
The highest pollen sample at 30 cm has no Zea but has
increased Sapotacea and has an unusually high frequency
(46.6%) of cheno-am pollen, which may suggest at least
one species of chenopodium/amaranthus perhaps for edible
greens/seeds, and continued large particulate charcoal.
This level is probably still Late Classic since the pollen
is similar to the Late Classic level below, though pine
and oak decline, perhaps indicating the forest is closing
and blocking long-distance pollen transport. Despite the
strong evidence for cultigens and charcoal through this
upper 60 cm core, more tree and shrub and aquatic plants
are present, and pollen concentration is very high. If we
assume the Classic period runs from 60 to 30 cm from
about A.D. 300–800, then sedimentation had decreased
to 0.6 mm yr−1 ; still an order of magnitude greater than
9
PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
Figure 6 El Zotz Aguada excavation photo showing dates and depths, location map, and cross-section, showing the ends of the transect (A, D), the Berm
(B), and the excavation (C).
Late Archaic rates but a fifth of Late Preclassic rates. The
Classic Period through this core is unlike any other part
of the core with abundant evidence for cultivation of food
and medicinal crops and localized burning but low ero-
sion and more biodiversity. Thus, although the main set-
tlement at El Palmar was no longer a locus of monu-
mental building or the home of substantial populations
(Doyle, 2013), this borderland between Tikal and El Zotz
had become more of a forest garden with Late Classic
Period agriculture and reforestation.
Discussion
Four nearby sinks provide context for the Palmar record,
which we review from Beach et al. (2015a) with new
data (Tables I and II; Figures 6–10). First, a series of
excavations (Figures 6 and 7) through the large aguada
(reservoir) and its surrounding berm within the city of El
Zotz provided multiple proxies: AMS 14 C dates (Table I),
sediments, δ 13 C profiles (Table II), and pollen, charcoal,
and biosilicates. The reservoir excavations found a 10-
cm-thick floor (made from cut stone, ceramics, and clay)
buried by up to 210 cm by organic clays and an upper
transient, gravel floor centered on 95 cm depth below the
surface (Figure 6). The AMS 14 C dates through these clays
range from A.D. 130–310 at 210 cm (just above the lower
floor) to A.D. 650–870 at 90 cm below the surface just
10
LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.
above the upper floor (Figure 6). This record thus over-
laps chronologically with the upper core at El Palmar,
but the sedimentation is entirely a Classic period phe-
nomenon at El Zotz and mostly a Preclassic one at El
Palmar, which reflects their settlement histories.
There are four major contrasts in the overlapping parts
of the El Palmar and El Zotz records in the Classic period:
environmental settings and the δ 13 C, pollen, and charcoal
profiles. First, Palmar is a natural wetland sink with re-
ducing conditions from the Archaic to present, whereas
the El Zotz aguada became a reducing natural sink only
after floor and berm construction and possibly dam and
holding tank construction in the Early Classic. Second,
two δ 13 C profiles through the Classic period reservoir sed-
iments and the berm show a substantial change from the
surface soil downward, whereas the δ 13 C profile in the
Palmar excavations show little change (through Classic
period sediments though a similar magnitude of change
in Preclassic levels). The reservoir sequence (360 cm deep
unit EZ-13A-3) ranged from a modern tropical forest soil
carbon isotopic ratio (−26.9‰), rising 5.9‰ to as high as
−21.0‰ and producing levels of −23.2‰ near the Late
Classic floor and −22.9‰ near the Early Classic floor
(Figure 7). The berm unit extends through the built-up
ring around the aguada showing a δ 13 C rise from −30‰
to −22.9‰ (Figure 7). As estimated by equation 1, the
berm area around the terrace had as much as 27% of its
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LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL. PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA

Figure 7 Photos of El Zotz Aguada (L. photo) and Berm (R. photo) excavations, and comparative magnetic susceptibility and δ13 C isotope (center) profiles.
Depths on graphs scaled to depths in soil profile photos.

SOC from C4 plants; the aguada unit had up to 40% of

its SOC from C4 vegetation. The δ 13 C evidence thus sug-
gests that the reservoir’s sources of organic matter always
had more than half of their origin in C3 or forest species,
registering strong C3 plant inputs mixed with C4 plants
through Maya times.
Third, pollen evidence from the Classical period reser-
voir sediments also indicate a mixture of C4 plants like
Z. mays and other economic species. But there is much
greater Z. mays pollen in the Palmar record than the
El Zotz record. This indicates again both high inputs of
Z. mays and a mix of vegetation with mostly C3 vegeta-
tion contributing to SOC from both the Classic city of El
Zotz and the Classic hinterland of Palmar.
The fourth contrast between El Zotz and El Palmar is
that the smaller city of Palmar had so much more large
and small charcoal than the El Zotz Aguada even though
the aguada was nestled in the heart of the El Zotz. The El
Zotz Maya must have confined fire to few places and used
mainly pruning and cutting to keep back forest incursion.
Perhaps also El Palmar was a region of more intensive
agriculture and that its wide open lake body was an ideal
locale for trapping regional charcoal from greater Tikal
less than 20 km due east and upwind in this dominantly
Easterly Trade wind belt.
The remaining depressions produced mixed δ 13 C re-
sults (Table II). Two excavations in the small aguada at
El Diablo on a steep promontory above El Zotz (Figures Figure 8 Locations and topography of the El Diablo site, and the Bejucal
8 and 9) produced only Early Classic ceramics down to Cival and Aguada soil profile sites.
160 cm and two Early Classic AMS 14 C dates at 130 cm
(A.D. 120–390) and at 95 cm (A.D. 260–430) (Beach

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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.

Figure 9 El Diablo Aguada Mollisol soil profile photo, and its magnetic susceptibility and δ13 C isotope profiles. Depth on graph scaled to depths in soil
profile photo.

et al., 2015a). As expected in a nonagricultural set-
ting high on a ridge, the δ 13 C profile here rises only to
−26.3‰, which like the Palmar Ravine reflects largely
C3 vegetation throughout its sediments. Unlike the Pal-
mar Ravine with its low MS throughout, the El Diablo
sequence produced the highest MS readings of all sites
perhaps indicative of heavy burning in these Early Classic
sediments.
Similarly, two more excavations near the city of
Bejucal produced uncertain evidence of environmen-
tal change: the Bejucal Cival, 0.5 km ESE of Bejucal
and the Los Bocutes Aguada, 1.42 km to the NNW
(Figures 8 and 10). One piece of evidence from the
cival was interesting: the δ 13 C was as high as −22‰,
indicative of 29% C4 vegetation, within the convo-
luted Vertisol soil profile. The sequence also showed the
characteristic decrease in δ 13 C toward C3 species near
the surface and deeper in the profile, though the over-
all change was only 2‰. Despite evidence of argilloturba-
tion such as the upward thrusting of CaCO3 -rich sascab
or weather limestone (Figure 10), MS variation was low
and little changing through the profile.
The Los Bocutes Aguada unit (Figure 10) held a more
promising depositional record because of the great depth
of sediment accumulation over a hard stone bottom at
234 cm, which is the approximate depth of the dressed

Figure 10 Location and photos of the Bejucal Cival Vertisol (left column) and Aguada Mollisol (right column) soil profiles, and a comparison of their
respective δ13 C isotope and magnetic susceptibility profiles. Depths on magnetic susceptibility graphs scaled to soil profile photos.

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LUZZADDER-BEACH ET AL.
stone floor at El Zotz. Moreover, this is near the city of Be-
jucal, which El Zotz elites settled in the Early Classic (Gar-
rison et al., in press). The surface Aquoll soil sequence
was built on highly organic clay with the lowest CaCO3
content in the study indicative of eroded, weathered soils
(Table II). Below 165 cm the sediments had preserved
laminations with increased sand, silt, and visible organ-
ics indicative of higher energy deposition without biotur-
bation. These layers are comparable to the Early Classic
sediment layers that bury the El Zotz Aguada’s floor at
similar depths. Neither the MS nor δ 13 C profiles change
with depth, but the δ 13 C profile was consistently −22‰,
indicative of 29% C4 vegetation (Figure 10).
The El Zotz and El Diablo Aguadas at El Zotz like the
city itself start mainly in the Early Classic and may have
made habitation possible by providing a water supply
on the edge of the escarpment far from perennial wa-
ter. A possible push factor for habitation into areas of
controlled water storage may be dry conditions in the
Late Preclassic in the broader Maya region (Beach et al.,
2015b; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2016; Medina-Elizalde
et al., 2016). Indeed, the El Palmar record indicates fewer
aquatic taxa like Nymphaea through the Late Preclassic,
which could be due to drought. Droughts could have
dried up the El Palmar Cival as they do today, which
precedes reservoir construction at El Zotz and El Diablo.
Beach et al. (2015a) estimated the El Zotz reservoir could
provide enough drinking water for 48,000–120,000 peo-
ple based on estimates of water use per day of ca. 2–
5 liters (McAnany, 1990: 269; Brewer, 2007; Akpinar-
Ferrand et al., 2012) This estimate range is well above
what archaeologists have estimated to be the city’s an-
cient population. Sediment deposition has a similar depth
at the Los Bocutes Aguada near Bejucal, and this reser-
voir may also have facilitated a similar Early Classic pe-
riod growth and its connection to El Zotz (Garrison et al.,
in press).
CONCLUSIONS
The El Palmar paleoecology record is significant in sev-
eral ways. First, the sequence preserved a glimpse of the
predisturbance Petén landscape with its low charcoal and
sedimentation rate, lack of cultigens, organic deposition,
and its high tree and aquatic pollen diversity. Second, the
core shows a long and steady record of agricultural dis-
turbance from the Archaic to Late Classic based on mul-
tiple economic species including Z. mays, many distur-
bance taxa, high amounts of charcoal, variable rates of
sedimentation including a Late Preclassic glut of “Maya
Clay,” varying aquatic and arboreal taxa, and changing
evidence for C4 taxa in carbon isotopic ratios. Zea mays
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PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
pollen rose from the Late Archaic into the Late Preclas-
sic, from 0.8% to 4.4%, but continued to rise to a peak
in the Classic period after El Palmar’s Late Preclassic flu-
orescence. Likewise, disturbance taxa like Asters, cheno-
ams, and charcoal rose to Late Preclassic peaks but both
again remained high through the Late Classic. Sedimen-
tation rates accelerated in the Late Preclassic, but rates
decline in the Classic period, which is similar to other
findings in the Petén (Anselmetti et al., 2007) and sur-
rounding areas (Beach et al., 2008). Aquatic taxa de-
crease through the Late Preclassic, and one bellwether
aquatic taxa, Nymphaea, appears only in the least dis-
turbed periods in the Archaic and Postclassic. Arboreal
taxa also decline through the Late Preclassic but increase
along with cultigens in the Classic period. Evidence from
carbon isotopic ratios shows high C4 species in the Late
Preclassic and spikes in the Early and Late Classic. These
and spikes in charcoal, MS, and Z. mays may suggest the
evolution of a “forest garden” and agricultural volatility
in this zone halfway between El Zotz and the Tikal wall
(see Webster et al., 2007).
The other soil units produced evidence for erosion, dis-
turbance, changes in relative quantities of C4 species, and
Z. mays and Curcurbita pollen and phytoliths from the El
Zotz Aguada. Clearly, this landscape shows evidence for
large-scale disturbance and more C4 taxa from the Late
Archaic to the Late Classic. Forest diversity declined and
sedimentation increased, especially in the Late Preclas-
sic at El Palmar. But based on the carbon isotopic ra-
tios, the amount of C4 taxa never reached 50% in this
region, which indicates that C3 taxa were still dominant
during the Maya Preclassic and Classic periods, perhaps
further evidence for regional forest preservation greater
than 40% (Lentz et al., 2015).
Deposition rates in the sinks at El Palmar and El Zotz
reflect their histories with high rates in the Preclassic at El
Palmar and high rates in the Classic at El Zotz. But these
records also indicate Maya forest management. For ex-
ample, there is a steady record of copal pollen at El Zotz
throughout its occupation, while there was none at El
Palmar. This may indicate some urban, ritual importance
of this incense source. Likewise, the El Palmar record in-
cludes fruit trees and increased tree diversity during the
period of highest maize and squash pollen in the Late
Classic, after the city’s fluorescence.
The Early Classic population contraction at Palmar and
expansion at El Zotz and Bejucal coincide with the build-
ing of the reservoir at El Zotz and its prodigious water
storage capacity. We need more information about the
construction of the El Zotz reservoir such as whether
a dam exists and whether holding ponds exist that
could have managed water quality, especially as water
dwindled in the dry season and during droughts. We also
13
PALEOECOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY, GUATAMALA
need to know the dating and construction of the Los
Bocutes Aguada and other regional aguadas, but its con-
nections with El Zotz suggest an Early Classic start as well.
In any case, the El Zotz reservoir followed on the heels of
intense Late Preclassic droughts in the broader Maya re-
gion, and would have helped to minimize risk through
droughts in the Late Classic and Postclassic. What we
have learned from these studies may help address on-
going questions in Maya geoarchaeology, including pa-
leoecological trends, crop agriculture, and water man-
agement. One central conclusion from this research was
correlation between the transition of regional habita-
tion from the reflexively evolved concave wetlands at El
Palmar in the Preclassic to the convex, actively water-
managed and defensible location of Classic period El Zotz.
We offer our deep gratitude to Dr. Karl W. Butzer for his vision,
mentoring, inspiration, and support for generations of geoar-
chaeologists everywhere. We thank the support from the Na-
tional Science Foundation (grant number 0840930, SH and TG),
the National Endowment for the Humanities (grant number RZ-
50680-07, SH), the University of Texas at Austin College of Lib-
eral Arts, the C.B. Smith, Sr., Centennial Chair in U.S.-Mexico
Relations (TB and SL-B), Georgetown University, the Instituto
de Anthropologia e Historia de Guatemala, and the community
of Cruce Dos Aguadas near El Zotz for their help with fieldwork.
We thank the reviewers, Carlos Cordova and Arlene Rosen,
guest editors, and Jamie Woodward and Gary Huckleberry,
Geoarchaeology co-editors, for their many helpful suggestions.
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