Anomalous ground patterns in the wetlands of northern Belize were first detected from the air. Here you see the northwestern edge of K'axob in an image taken from a tethered balloon at approximately 500 meter elevation. Note the linearity of the canals; the island fields are visible as clumps of trees. In the upper part of the image, one of Seņor Concepcion Campos' freshly cut sugar cane fields -- which are only planted in the uplands -- is visible. Our study of the wetlands includes the island fields and canals as well as the gently sloping land between the wetlands and the uplands. This intermediate zone (seen here as a broad band of forest) is argued by some to be a surface across which colluvium from the uplands was transported by natural erosional processes and then deposited in the fields and canals. By excavating in this intermediate area-where the uplands meet the wetlands -- we will either lend support to or refute this explanation.
Our plan of action is shown here overlain on the site map of K'axob. The long transects on the left side of the map contain excavation units spaced 25 meters apart and will serve to link the uplands with the wetlands and to determine whether significant erosion from the uplands occurred. Island fields and adjacent canals selected for excavation through a random sampling procedure are darkened.
The wetlands adjacent to K'axob drain into the New River, a slow moving deep river bordered by wetlands. Flowing from the New River lagoon into the Bay of Chetumal, the New River was a major corridor of transportation, colonization, and trade from the Formative period about 1000 B.C.) until well into the 20th Century when a system of roads replaced river travel. As you can see, dugout canoes still provide a popular vessel for fishing or just enjoying the river.
Back in the canals of K'axob, the presence of water lillies attests to the unpolluted state of the water. Water lillies are a popular symbol in Classic Maya iconography and have been interpreted as indicative of kingly control of water, kingly interests in wetlands and the resources available within them, or as the metaphorical use of a plant that grows on the watery meniscus that separates the world of the living from the underworld of Xibalba. On a pragmatic level, the availability of drinking water as indicated by the water lillies signals to hunters that delectable wild game such as peccaries, gibnut, or deer will be coming to drink. These watery places are frequented today by hunters who may burn off large tracts of the wetlands in order to drive game. This burning also promotes the growth of grasses and seedlings which are attractive sources of food for game. We think that this behavior has great antiquity and may explain some of the 2000 B.C. charcoal found in deep cores retrieved from wetland depressions.
In order to investigate the island fields, bridges of palmetto palms are built to span the canals. A shallow canal under the bridge is covered with a green cabbage-like plant; a wider and deeper canal is visible in the background to the right of the central island field. The processes responsible for the height and convex shape of the island fields is hotly contested in Maya wetlands archaeology. The presence of gypsum salts in the water of the wetlands has produced the domed top of the fields. Underneath the surface of the these fields, there is a layer of fill that is comparatively rich in artifacts and appears to have been deposited as part of a construction activity. In order to further examine this layer, we are excavating long trenches across the fields and collecting block samples of the sediments for microscopic analysis of the micro-stratigraphy.
Due to the high clay content of the sediments in the island fields, we are water-screening all deposits. This very wet job is undertaken here by Boston University graduate student Ben Thomas, undergraduate Christina Rollins, and local resident of San Jose, Belize, Elmer Pat.
The basal clay underlying the island fields can be very difficult to negotiate. Kim Berry, Boston University graduate student who is studying the wetlands for her dissertation research is "caught" here while setting up a level line in preparation for drawing a profile of the section wall of the Operation 28 excavation.
The "tunnel view" shows one of our transects (Brecha 4) that link the uplands with the wetlands in order to study patterns of erosion. Operation 25, a 1 x2 m trench midway down the transect, has been staked out in the foreground. This unit is followed down slope by other excavation units that are spaced at 25 meter intervals.
The last excavation unit along our transect called Brecha 4 is Operation 27, shown here in an opening shot. This unit was excavated to a depth of over 2 meters and included a "splotchy" lens of fill that physical geographer, Nicholas Dunning, hypothesizes originated from ancient excavation of the adjacent canal which is still visible in the background of this image.
Before the land owner of K'axob, Seņor Concepcion Campos, developed the land into fields of monocropped sugar cane, the uplands of K'axob were used for "making milpa." Milpa is a type of tropical farming that involves cutting high bush and burning it just before the onset of the rainy season (May or June in Belize). This photo of K'axob was taken by Peter D. Harrison in 1981 just after the field had been burned. In the center of the image you can see a farmer sowing maize kernels. He is using only a dibble stick to create a small hole in the ground. This type of farming is very effective when population levels are very low but since fields require long periods of fallow between cultivation, it is not a very good system for highly populous regions.
Well into the 1970s, many Maya archaeologists thought that this was the only type of farming available to the ancient Maya. This notion fit with incorrect ideas about the relative sparseness of ancient Maya farmers and that their political capitals were only ceremonial centers that lay vacant for most of the year. Both of these ideas have gone by the wayside as archaeologists have braved the snakes and poison wood to systematically survey the countryside around the big pyramids. We have found remains of house platforms nearly everywhere that you might think to look. Further study of the "ceremonial centers," moreover, have indicated that they were thriving political capitals occupied by royal families, minor nobility, their retainers, and, commoners. Some capitals grew as large or larger than 60,000 people!
Clearly, the ancient Maya must have developed some very sophisticated ways of farming in the tropics for they gleaned a high level of productivity and supported a growing population for just under 2000 years. Through our study, we hope to contribute information about the ways and means by which the ancient Maya utilized the wetlands in their fine-tuning of this tropical ecosystem.
