G Model

ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13

Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Anthropocene
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ancene

Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the Classic
Maya collapse
Douglas J. Kennett a,*, Timothy P. Beach b
a
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States
b
Science, Technology, and International Affairs, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, United States

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: The original formulation of the ‘‘Anthropocene’’ emphasized the global environmental change resulting
Received 18 June 2013 from expanding human populations and fossil fuel burning since the industrial revolution of the late
Received in revised form 8 December 2013 18th century. Politically, the message is that scientists and engineers should work toward an
Accepted 10 December 2013
internationally accepted sustainable future. This assumes, and is dependent upon, maintaining the
integrity of our increasingly interconnected social, economic, and political systems worldwide.
Keywords: Anthropogenic environmental change and degradation (e.g., global warming, sea-level rise, erosion)
Agriculture
within the context of the Anthropocene has the potential to displace populations, undermine food
Deforestation
security and human health, stimulate conflict, and destabilize social, economic and political systems.
Erosion
Climate change Ultimately, we do not know if our political systems could withstand these forces or whether degradation
Warfare would lead to increased war and further environmental degradation. We can, however, study the
Political failure complex processes of political collapse retrospectively in the archeological and historical records. In this
paper, we examine one such predecessor in world history, the widespread collapse of Classic Maya
polities within the context of anthropogenic and climate-driven environmental change between AD 600
and 1000. We conclude that the staggered collapse of inter-connected and rigidly organized political
centers ultimately resulted from multiple drivers including anthropogenic and climate-driven
environmental change. Any way one looks at Maya history suggests a precursor toward the
Anthropocene: greatly changed forests and soils, water management and food production, population
increase and aggregation, and even alteration of local hydrology and climate caused by deforestation and
wetland manipulation.
ß 2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Global warming and environmental change are unintended
consequences of fossil-fuel burning and large-scale landuse
change that have increased the concentration of ‘‘greenhouse’’
gases in the earth’s atmosphere (CO2 by 30%; CH4 by over 100%;
Crutzen, 2002). These atmospheric changes follow an upward
trend in anthropogenically induced CO2 and CH4 evident in polar
ice starting in the late 18th century that is coincident with
increased reliance on fossil fuels and rapidly expanding global
populations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) projects high confidence of global warming in the range of
1.5–4.5 8C based on a doubling of atmospheric CO2 (IPCC, 2013,
Working Group I) likely within the next century. There are many
likely negative impacts, such as sea-level rise. Increases in average
global temperatures are also linked to extremes in the earth’s
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 814 863 4575.
E-mail address: djk23@psu.edu (D.J. Kennett).
hydrological cycle (e.g., drought and floods) that undermine food
security and have major implications for human health, welfare,
and societal infrastructure (Patz et al., 2005; IPCC, 2007, Working
Group II), though we still do not know how global warming would
affect some of the big climate influences like hurricanes and ENSO.
The middle and upper ends of the range (the likely 4.5 8C and very
unlikely levels of 6 8C or above, IPCC, 2013) potentially put our
social, economic, and political systems at risk because they are
inter-connected and certainly vulnerable to economic and
environmental shocks. The ‘‘Anthropocene’’ – originally defined
as the last three centuries of human domination of earth’s
ecosystems (Crutzen, 2002) – brings focus to the acute nature of
these problems, the era’s rareness in the geological record, and the
need for collective political action to build a more environmen-
tally stable future.
Lessons from our past embedded in the archeological and
historical records indicate that the unintended consequences of
human action have influenced environmental productivity and
destabilized sociopolitical systems before. This does not reduce the
dire significance of the anthropogenic changes to the earth’s

2213-3054/$ – see front matter ß 2013 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002

Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
2 D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
atmosphere today or the importance of establishing policies that
mitigate these effects going into the future. Although the
importance of each example is contested (McAnany and Yoffee,
2010), we can point to a number of cases in the past where
anthropogenic environmental change has undermined the very
fabric of human society, reducing crop yields, increasing human
suffering and conflict and ultimately the collapse of economic,
social and political systems (e.g., Maya, Turner and Sabloff, 2012;
Chaco Canyon, English et al., 2001; Near East; Artzy and Hillel,
1988; Jacobsen and Adams, 1958). There are also success stories
indicating both environmental and sociopolitical resilience and
adaptation in the face of environmental change (McAnany and
Yoffee, 2010; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2012; Butzer, 2012). The
collapse or persistence of ancient states in the context of
unintended anthropogenic environmental change therefore pro-
vides a starting point for studying the complex socio-ecological
dynamics promoting societal sustainability or collapse under
changing conditions (Butzer, 2012). The complexity of these
interactions provides lessons for policy makers considering
anthropogenic global climate change today.
The staggered and widespread collapse of Classic Maya political
centers between AD 750 and 1000 provides a case in point. More
than 113 monument-bearing low density urban centers emerged
in the tropical lowlands at different times during the Classic
Period; each with populations ranging from 10,000 (e.g.,
Uxbenka; Prufer et al., 2011; Culleton, 2012) to 60,000 plus
(e.g., Tikal, Culbert and Rice, 1990) people. In addition, thousands
of smaller sites, many dating to this interval, dotted the landscape
between these larger population centers (Witschey and Brown,
2013). It is difficult, if not impossible, to estimate how many people
were living in the tropical Maya lowlands, but estimates range
between three (Culbert and Rice, 1990) and 10 million at AD 700
(Scarborough and Burnside, 2010). Stone monuments at 35
primary political centers during the Late Classic Period (AD 600–
900) show a complex network of antagonistic, diplomatic,
subordinate and kinship relationships (Munson and Macri,
2009). The collapse of Classic Maya political systems played out
over centuries starting with the first evidence for political
fragmentation in the Petexbatun region between AD 760 and
800 (Demarest, 2004a; O’Mansky and Dunning, 2004; Tourtellot
and González, 2004). A 50% reduction in the number of centers
with dated-stone monuments between AD 800 and 825 signaled
the widespread collapse of kingship and this important political
institution had largely disappeared in the central and southern
lowlands by AD 900.
Politically important centers shifted north to the Yucatan as
centers failed in the southern and central Maya lowlands (Sabloff,
2007), and depopulation took centuries and involved migration,
reorganization, and persistence in some regions (Laporte, 2004;
Webster et al., 2004). Political reintegration is also evident at a small
number of centers during the Postclassic Period (Chichen Itza; AD
900–1150, Andrews et al., 2003; Mayapan; AD 1100–1300; Peraza
Lope et al., 2006; Wild Cane Cay, McKillop, 1989, 2005) and Lamanai
was occupied into the 17th century (Graham et al., 1989). Maya
writing persisted along with a derivative calendrical system until
Spanish contact when both systems were lost and most books, save
four remaining examples, were burned (Stuart, 2011). A variety of
Maya languages persisted, and there has been a resurgence of Maya
speaking peoples throughout the region today.
Widespread economic and political collapse in the Terminal
Classic central lowlands resulted from complex socio-ecological
processes. These occurred within the context of expanding
populations and associated environmental impacts along with
climate change and adaptations favoring integration as well as
disintegration (Yaeger and Hodell, 2008; Scarborough and Burn-
side, 2010; Dunning et al., 2012). There is a large literature
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
characterizing or questioning societal collapses (Diamond, 2005;
McAnany and Yoffee, 2010) and how and why they may occur
(Yoffee and Cowgill, 1988; Tainter, 1988; Turchin, 2003).
Compared with many societal transformations recorded in the
archeological record, the Classic Maya collapse was dramatic,
involved an extended interval of conflict and war, was fraught with
human suffering or variance in well-being (sensu Wood, 1998),
resulted in population dislocation and decline, and instigated
major restructuring of political and economic systems. In our
discussion we consider the severity of these transformations using
the ‘‘rigidity trap’’ concept from resilience theory (Hegmon et al.,
2008) as a point of connection with the environmental transfor-
mations associated with the Anthropocene.
2. The interconnected Classic Maya World
Classic Maya (AD 300–900; Goodman-Martı́nez-Thompson
[GMT] correlation; Kennett et al., 2013) civic-ceremonial life
was centered upon the institution of kingship (Demarest, 2004b).
The city-states or polities (sensu Webster, 1997) governed by these
kings, with a small group of non-food producing elite, extended
across the Yucatan Peninsula and south through adjacent portions
of modern day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and
Honduras. Emblem glyphs associated with this office are known
from forty-four of the largest and most influential centers (Martin
and Grube, 2000; Fig. 1) and architecture and stone monuments at
many other centers suggest the existence of comparable royal
positions. These cities were dispersed or low-density urban centers
(6–12 people per hectare; Drennan, 1988, though up to 26–30 at
Chunchumil; Dahlin et al., 2005) as opposed to higher density
Mesoamerican cities such as Teotihuacan or Tenochtitlan (50–130
people per hectare; see Feinman and Nicholas, 2012). Events in the
lives of the most successful kings were commemorated with dated
hieroglyphic texts carved on stone monuments (stela) and wooden
lintel beams. The first dated monument comes from the important
center of Tikal (AD 292) and the tradition proliferated to more than
forty centers by AD 600 and 800 (Stuart, 1993). These provide a
remarkably well-dated chronicle of royal successions, ceremony,
war, and political interaction between these low-density urban
centers (Martin and Grube, 2000) that can be compared to
archeological, paleoecological, and climatic data through time (e.g.,
Kennett et al., 2012).
The basis of Classic Maya Kingship was political and economic
(Tourtellot and Sabloff, 1972; Graham, 1987; Rice, 1987; Marcus,
1993; McAnany, 1993; Scarborough and Valdez, 2009; Scarbor-
ough and Burnside, 2010), with backing from an elite fighting force
(Webster, 2002). Ritual and ideology, as reflected in art, architec-
ture and writing was used to display and reinforce this power
(Demarest, 2004b). The integrity of kingship had major economic
and social implications for people integrated into these polities.
Evidence from texts indicates that a defeat in war undermined the
office and put a polity into political or economic decline (e.g., Tikal
hiatus, AD 562–692; Caracol hiatus, AD 680–798; Martin and
Grube, 2000) followed by reinvigoration of the office and greater
prosperity under the rule of a different king. Key ritual
responsibilities of the king at each center were to appease the
gods and bring order to the universe through highly ritualized
public ceremonies dictated by the Maya calendar, astronomical
observations, and the agricultural cycle (Theatre-State; Demarest,
2004b). To influence the gods, kings would imbibe hallucinogens to
enter the spirit world, provide auto-sacrifice by perforating their
tongues or genitalia, or capture and sacrifice elite members of
competing groups (Martin and Grube, 2000). These traditions have
foundations in the Preclassic Period (1500 BC–AD 300; Friedel and
Schele, 1988; Estrada Belli, 2011; Inomata et al., 2013) and were
central to the ritual celebrations of the office of kingship. However,
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13

D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx 3

Fig. 1. Map showing the distribution of Classic Period Maya centers with emblem glyphs and other archeological and environmental sequences mentioned in text.
Environmental sequences are shown with an asterisk as: 1, San Andrés, Tabasco (Pope et al., 2001); 2, Cob Swamp (Pohl et al., 1996); 3, Pulltrowser swamp (Pohl et al., 1996);
4, Cob Swamp (Jones, 1994); 5, Northern Petén (Wahl et al., 2006); 6, Petén Lakes region (Anselmetti et al., 2007); 7, Piedras Negras (Fernandez et al., 2005); 8, Pasion region
(Beach et al., 2006); 9, Quirigua (Ashmore, 2007); 10, Lake Yojoa (Rue, 1987); 11, Chunchucmil (Dunning and Beach, 2010); 12, Yalahau (Fedick and Morrison, 2004); 13,
Eastern Yucatan (Sedov et al., 2008); 14, Copan Valley region (Rue, 1987; McNeil et al., 2010); 15, Pulltrowser Swamp (Turner and Harrison, 1981); 16, Rio Bravo Region
(Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2012). Figure drafted by T. Harper. Drawings of emblem glyphs by R. Van Rossman.

the success or failure of a king was best monitored by the economic
and political integrity of each polity and the impact on the agrarian
population via the agricultural cycle and associated prosperity or
human suffering.
Political centers were nodes within overlapping and interacting
economic and sociopolitical networks. These networks served as
communication and trade conduits that changed through the
Classic Period as kings negotiated antagonistic and cooperative
relationships with kings and queens from other polities. Linkages
extended across the peninsula, and commerce and contact were
primarily via foot along paths, elevated causeways near political
centers (e.g., Shaw, 2008; Dahlin et al., 2010; Chase et al., 2011) and
rivers. Shared ceramic styles across the region in the Early Classic
(AD 300–600) suggest a broad cultural identity that appears to
break down and become more regionalized in the Late Classic (Ball,
1993). Within this network, kings legitimized their rulership and
attracted followers via status rivalry, warfare, and elaborate ritual
displays. A variety of antagonistic, diplomatic, and lineage-based
networks are evident in historical texts (Munson and Macri, 2009)
and economic linkages are evident in the archeological record with
patterned distributions of exotic materials (e.g., obsidian, McKil-
lop, 1996a; Braswell et al., 2000; Nazaroff et al., 2010; Golitko et al.,
2012; Moholy-Nagy et al., 2013). Polities were largely autonomous
entities (e.g., peer-polities; Schele and Freidel, 1990; Carmean and
Sabloff, 1996; Webster, 1997), but subordinate relationships
between centers became more frequent in the Late Classic (e.g.,
Calakmul’s subordination of multiple centers, see yellow lines in
Fig. 2) and some have argued for a small number of strongly
centralized states by this time (Marcus, 1976; Chase and Chase,
1996; Martin and Grube, 1995, 2000). Texts indicate that status
rivalry and warfare played a critical role in the rise and fall of
individual political centers (Martin and Grube, 2000), and the
reverberating effects of political failure were experienced most
strongly by other polities nearby. In the central portions of the
Maya lowlands (e.g., Central Petén, Belize, Yucatan, and Usuma-
cinta-Pasion) densely aggregated political centers were tightly
packed (25–30 km spacing) and interconnected as a result of
economic spacing of Maya cities.
Dynastic succession was largely, but not entirely, patrilineal
(see Schele and Freidel, 1990 for examples), and the most

Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13

4 D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

Fig. 2. Map showing antagonistic, diplomatic, lineage based and subordinate relationships between major Classic Maya centers based on written texts (Munson and Macri,
2009). Distribution of sites with dated monuments is based on Kennett et al. (2012) and other Maya site locations are based on The Electronic Atlas of Ancient Maya Sites
(Witschey and Brown, http://mayagis.smv.org/).

successful dynasties persisted for centuries once they were
established (most between AD 300 and 500), but started to fail
in rapid succession after AD 750. Dated stone monument
production, a proxy for the voracity of kingship dropped
precipitously at several large centers between AD 780 and 800
(see Fig. 4). This was followed by a 50% drop (from 40 to 20) in the
number of centers producing monuments between AD 800 and
820 and continued to decline into the early part of the 10th
century. Building campaigns ceased at these locations and
associated populations dispersed. Some regions were depopulated
rapidly (e.g., inland southern Belize), whereas some populations
persisted into the Early Postclassic (until AD 1000–1100) and
even into the historic period (e.g., Lamanai, Graham et al., 1989;
Wild Cane Cay, McKillop, 1989, 2005). There was an overall shift
toward peri-coastal settlement and seaborne transport (Turner
and Sabloff, 2012) during the Postclassic Period. Classic Period
economic, social and political networks failed within 100 years
during the 9th century across much of the southern and central
Maya Lowlands and did not recover (Turner, 1990; Turner and
Sabloff, 2012).
3. Agricultural foundations of Classic Maya polities
Classic Maya polities were founded upon a diverse array of food
production systems that developed in response to regional
differences in topography, geology, and hydrology (Fedick and
Ford, 1990; Dunning et al., 2002; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2012).
This occurred through human–environment interactions that
started with climatic amelioration and increased atmospheric
CO2 content during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (Richerson
et al., 2001; Piperno and Pearsall, 1998). Culturally this corre-
sponds to the Archaic Period (7000–2000/1000 BC; Flannery,
1986; Kennett, 2012; Voorhies, 2004) in Mesoamerica, a long
transitional period between the presumed and poorly defined big-
game hunting traditions of the Late Pleistocene and the rise and
proliferation of agricultural villages during the middle and late
Holocene. The primary Mesoamerican cultigens (Zea mays [maize],
Cucurbita pepo/Cucurbita argyrosperma [squash], and Phaseolus
vulgaris [common bean]) were not domesticated in the Maya
Lowlands (Smith, 1997; Piperno et al., 2009; Kaplan and Lynch,
1999; Piperno and Smith, 2012), but were introduced from
elsewhere in Mesoamerica during the Archaic Period. Each has
its own domestication history and eventually they were grown
together in fields to obtain symbiotic effects of fertilization
(Flannery, 1973). Changes in the size and character of these
domesticates (e.g., maize cob size) have continually changed
through time as a product of human selection. The earliest
evidence for squash (C. pepo) comes from the central Mexican
highlands (8000 BC; Smith, 1997) and C. argyroperma is also found
within the Neotropical lowlands early in time (Piperno and
Pearsall, 1998). Molecular evidence places the domestication of
beans (P. vularis) in the early Holocene (7000 BC; Sonnante et al.,

Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
1994), but the earliest macrofossils come from the highlands of
Mexico (1300 BC, Tehuacan Valley; Kaplan and Lynch, 1999). A
wide range of other seed and vegetable crops, trees, roots,
succulents, condiments, and industrial plants (e.g., cotton) were
also domesticated in Mesoamerica (Piperno and Pearsall, 1998;
Piperno and Smith, 2012). The Classic Maya probably grew many
of these in house gardens, but most of these plant species are
pollinated by animals, rather than wind dispersal, so they are
less likely to accumulate in paleoecological records (Fedick,
2010). Chile pepper, avocado and chocolate are the best known
of these crops. Manioc was also an important early crop in the
Maya Lowlands (Pohl et al., 1996; Pope et al., 2001; Sheets et al.,
2012), but was domesticated in South America (Piperno and
Smith, 2012).
Domesticated animals played a limited role in Mesoamerican
subsistence economies (Piperno and Smith, 2012). Only three
domesticated animal species, dog (Canis canis), turkey (Meleagris
gallopavo gallopavo), and the muscovy duck (Cairina moschata),
played a significant role in the Mesoamerican household economy.
Domesticated dogs likely entered the Americas with colonizing
human populations from Asia (Leonard et al., 2002). The turkey
was domesticated in Mesoamerica sometime during the middle or
late Holocene (Speller et al., 2010). Herd animals similar to the Old
World context (e.g., sheep, goats and cows) were absent.
Z. mays (maize) ultimately became the most important source
of calories in Mesoamerica, particularly when combined with
beans to create a critical protein source given the lack of animal
protein. Maize is also the most visible cultigen in the paleoecolog-
ical record. Molecular evidence puts the domestication of maize in
the central Balsas of Mexico 7000 BC (Matsuoka et al., 2002) and
maize microfossils (starch and phytoliths) from Xihuatoxtal
Shelter in this region indicate domestication, along with squash
(likely C. argyrosperma), by 6700 BC (Piperno et al., 2009). Maize
pollen and phytoliths in lake sediments and peri-coastal wetlands,
suggest widespread dispersal through the lowland Neotropics of
Mesoamerica between 5600 and 4500 BC (Pope et al., 2001; Pohl
et al., 2007, Kennett et al., 2010).
The first appearance of maize pollen and phytoliths in
paleoecological records from lakes and wetlands in the lowland
Neotropics is coincident with increased charcoal flux, a reduction
in tree pollen and the appearance of disturbance plant taxa (Jones,
1994; Pohl et al., 1996; Pope et al., 2001; Neff et al., 2006; Kennett
et al., 2010). Investments in niche construction (e.g., forest
clearance; Smith, 2007) suggest that slash-and-burn farming
contributed significantly to the diet (Kennett et al., 2010). This
occurs by 5200 BC along the western periphery of the Maya region
(Tabasco; Pope et al., 2001; Pohl et al., 2007) and is evident in the
peri-coastal fringe of the eastern lowlands by 2000 BC (Pohl et al.,
1996). Slash-and-burn farming is well suited to the high net
primary productivity and rapid regrowth of secondary forest in
lowland tropical forests. The agricultural cycle tracks changes in
rainfall linked to the position of the Inter-Tropical Convergence
Zone (ITCZ; Haug et al., 2001). Forest plots are cleared and burned
during the dry season (December–May) and maize is planted along
with other crops (squash, gourd, pumpkin) just prior to the rains in
May/June (Wilk, 1991). This primary crop is generally harvested in
September. Second and even third crops can be planted in
persistently moist soils along wetland margins or in relict river
channels closer to the water table, and a mulching technique is
sometimes used to produce a second crop in drier areas
(matambre = hunger crop; Culleton, 2012) to hedge against
potential shortfalls in the primary harvest. All of these techniques
are methods of agricultural intensification that would be very hard
to detect archeologically or within the paleoecological record.
Long-term storage of grain is not an option in the Neotropics and
cannot be used to reduce year-to-year variations in crop yield
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
5
(Webster, 1985). Dry conditions or unpredictable rains undermine
food production.
The Classic Maya also used a range of other crops and landesque
cultivation systems (e.g., terraces, raised fields) in a complex
agrarian mosaic linked to topographic, geological and hydrological
variation across the region (Fedick and Ford, 1990; Fedick, 1996;
Beach et al., 2002, 2009). Modern house gardens, founded upon the
earliest forms of door-yard food production (Piperno and Smith,
2012), produce a wide range of edible and medicinal plants, along
with condiments. There is evidence from some regions for Classic
Period house gardens with soils augmented to increase productiv-
ity (Fedick and Morrison, 2004). Economically valuable tree crops
(e.g., chocolate, avocado) were also grown in these gardens. The
forest itself was an important source of subsistence resources and
provided a range of other ecosystem services, including building
materials and fuel. Tree cropping occurred (McKillop, 1994, 1996b;
Puleston, 1978), and there is some evidence for forest management
at the largest Maya centers (e.g., Tikal, Lentz and Hockaday, 2009;
Copan, McNeil et al., 2010). In the most populated parts of the
Maya World there was a trade-off between land clearance for
staple crop production (maize) and the reduction of forest
ecosystem services.
Terraces were used to stabilize the landscape in well-drained
karst upland environments as forest was removed across the
lowlands (Fig. 3; Murtha, 2002; Beach et al., 2002; Beach and
Dunning, 1995). These include contour terraces and check dams to
capture sediments in drainages. Extensive terracing is known from
the Becan region and surrounding Caracol (Belize, Chase et al.,
2011). The earliest known terraces come from the late Preclassic/
Early Classic Period (AD 250; Beach et al., 2002) and they became
more frequent during the Classic Period when more land was put
into agricultural production to feed the growing population. In
some locales (e.g., Caracol) extensive terrace systems were
constructed by the middle of the Classic Period (AD 500–600)
and used until abandonment in the ninth century (Murtha, 2002).
The Maya also benefited from natural terrace systems caused by
fractures and diking in bedrock geology (Culleton, 2012). It is
difficult to determine the extent of terrace systems in the Maya
region because they are shrouded with primary and secondary
vegetation. The remarkable extent of Caracol’s terrace systems,
both natural and human made, was only revealed with remote
sensing technology that penetrates forest canopy (LIDAR; Chase
et al., 2011). Terracing in most parts of the Maya world, however,
does not appear to be as extensive based on traditional land-based
survey.
The Maya also used wetland agricultural systems (Beach et al.,
2009; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2012; Beach and Luzzadder-Beach,
2013). Coastal wetlands and mangrove forest fringe much of the
region, and in areas where rivers flow to the coast, broad
floodplains developed and flooded during the wet season (June–
December). Large and small karst depressions (bajos) in the Maya
lowlands (Fig. 3) were transformed through erosion from perennial
wetlands and lakes to seasonal swamps between 400 BC and AD
250 (Dunning et al., 2002). Within the context of slash-and-burn
farming the margins of these wetlands provided an opportunity for
agricultural intensification because a second crop could be planted
in the moist soils as the margins of the wetlands receded in the dry
season. Settlements clustered around wetlands for their early
importance as water sources (Dunning et al., 2002) and then later
when more intensified forms of agriculture were needed (Fedick
and Morrison, 2004). Raised fields were also constructed in
seasonally and perennially flooded zones to reclaim land and
control water flow to create more optimal conditions for intensive
farming regimes. The first raised fields were identified by Siemens
in the Candalaria region of Campeche, Mexico (1982; also see
Siemens and Puleston, 1972), but some of the clearest examples of
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13

6 D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

Fig. 3. Map showing seasonal and perennial wetlands along with evidence for Preclassic and Classic Maya landesque capital (terraces, hydrological engineering, and wetland
alteration including raised fields) mentioned in text. Figure drafted by T. Harper.

Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
these rectilinear field systems come from northern Belize (Siemens
and Puleston, 1972; Turner, 1974; Turner and Harrison, 1981;
Beach et al., 2009; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2012). Subsequent work
on the Belizean systems suggests that natural processes are
responsible for some of these distinctive rectilinear features (Pohl
et al., 1996) and resulted from a combination of anthropogenic and
natural processes (Beach et al., 2009). The systems in northern
Belize and southern Campeche are the best studied, but others are
known from Mexico’s Bajo Morocoy of Quintana Roo (Gleissman
et al., 1983). Unique water control systems are also known from
the Yalahau region in the northern lowlands (Fedick and Morrison,
2004), Palenque in the western periphery of the Maya region
(French and Duffy, 2010; French et al., 2012), Tikal in the central
lowlands (Scarborough et al., 2012) and a number of other smaller
centers (Fig. 3).
Food, and by extension labor, provided the foundation for the
hierarchical structure of Classic Maya society. The hieroglyphic
writing, art, architecture, and science (engineering, astronomy and
mathematics) would not exist without food production systems
sufficient and stable enough to feed the population and the non-
food-producing elite. Kingship and the hierarchical structure of
Maya society added an additional burden to household food
production. This was particularly true in the Late Classic (AD 600–
800) when building campaigns and artistic achievement peaked
regionally, possibly indicating weaknesses in the overall sociopo-
litical system (Stuart, 1993), and created additional demands on
labor and production. The labor demands of slash-and-burn
farming make it difficult for subsistence farmers to produce great
surpluses and long-term storage of grain in the lowland tropics is
limited (Webster, 1985). More intensive agricultural systems
evident in some parts of the Maya world (e.g., terraces and raised
fields) alleviated this to a certain extent, but Maya kings were
limited to only minimal labor or food taxes (perhaps 10%
maximum, Webster, 1985). During the best years a 10% tax on
food surplus or labor would be relatively easy for farmers to
absorb, but taxation at this level may have become more
burdensome with deteriorating agro-ecological systems caused
by anthropogenic or climate-driven environmental change. Given
the instabilities inherent in this complex socioeconomic system,
even modest changes in climate impacting agricultural productiv-
ity could have undermined the economic and political foundations
of Maya society (e.g., Medina-Elizalde and Rohling, 2012).
4. Unanticipated environmental consequences of agriculture
The transition to agriculture was a fundamental turning point in
the environmental history of Mesoamerica. Paleoecological
records from the lowland Neotropics indicate that the cultivation
of maize and other crops (e.g., squash, manioc) within slash-and-
burn farming systems had major environmental impacts. The
spread of these systems was transformative, both creating the
subsistence base that sustained growing human populations in
tropical forest environments and the deforestation and environ-
mental impacts associated with the expansion of more intensive
agricultural systems. These early farmers carved out niches from
the forest to serve their own needs, and initially this would have
had little impact on other ecosystem services. However, reduction
in the abundance of tree pollen and increases in disturbance plant
taxa (e.g., Poacea) increased through time and occurred simulta-
neously with increases in maize pollen and phytoliths (Neff et al.,
2006; Pope et al., 2001; Kennett et al., 2010). Pulses of erosion were
also unintended by-products of land clearance and agriculture
(sensu Hooke, 2000; Brown et al., 2013) and became more
persistent after 1500 BC leading to large-scale landscape transfor-
mation in some parts of Mesoamerica (Goman et al., 2005).
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
7
Agriculture provided the necessary foundation for unprece-
dented population growth and the stable caloric output needed to
support the aggregation of people into larger settlements and
ultimately into low-density urban centers (e.g., logistics of feeding
cities, see Zeder, 1991). Adaptations to expanding human
populations and associated agricultural systems included terracing
to stabilize erosion and reclamation of lands not initially suitable
for agricultural systems (e.g., lakes, wetlands). Large-scale building
projects in urban centers (temples, palaces, pyramids, ballcourts,
causeways) developed with the ratcheting effects of population
increase and agricultural intensification (e.g., Malthus-Boserup
ratchet; Woods 1998) and the emergence and solidification of
Classic Period political hierarchies. People in the Maya region
therefore became important geomorphic agents (Beach et al.,
2008) in the complex interplay between environmental change,
societal resilience and political integration or collapse.
Environmental alterations associated with expanding agricul-
tural populations in the Maya lowlands were highly varied
spatially and temporally, as were the adaptive responses to
mediate these impacts. The first evidence for forest clearing
appears along the western periphery of the Maya lowlands (San
Andrés; Pope et al., 2001; Pohl et al., 2007) and occurs
simultaneously with the appearance of cultivated maize pollen
and phytoliths at 5100 BC. Forest clearance is indicated by an
increase in charcoal and disturbance plant taxa from the family
Poaceae. By 5000 BC, larger maize pollen grains, more consistent
with domesticated varieties, appear in the record and land
clearance associated with slash-and-burn farming was well under
way by 4800 BC. Manioc pollen appears by 4600 BC when forest
burning and clearing peaked. Other domesticated plants appear in
the record after 2600 BC (Sunflower [Helianthus annuus] and
Cotton [Gossypium]). Deforestation is also evident in the eastern
Maya lowlands (northern Belize) by 2500 BC, approximately 900
years after the initial influx of maize and manioc pollen into these
sediments (3360 and 3400 BC respectively; Pohl et al., 1996).
Slash-and-burn maize cultivation expanded after 2500 BC. At this
time Moraceae pollen (mostly from trees) declined, charcoal flux
increased and disturbance vegetation became more common (e.g.,
Poaceae, Asteraceas). Paleoecological data from Cobweb swamp is
consistent with expanding slash-and-burn farming between 2500
and 2000 BC (Jones, 1994) and the number of aceramic (Late
Archaic) archeological sites increased in the area (Hester and
Shafer, 1984; Iceland, 1997; Rosenswig and Masson, 2001;
Rosenswig et al., 2014).
Tropical forest covered much of the Maya lowlands and its
spatial and temporal extent is controlled mostly by climate,
specifically the position of the ITCZ and subtropical high (Mueller
et al., 2009), and soil, fire, and the management by human
populations. Tropical forest provided a wide range of ecosystem
services (animal and plant foods, building material, medicine, fuel;
Puleston, 1978; Ford, 2008; Fedick, 2010) that were reduced by
agricultural expansion associated with growing human popula-
tions and the aggregation of people into cities. Deforested lands
were more susceptible to erosion (Anselmetti et al., 2007; Beach
et al., 2008; see below), and reductions in soil moisture content
favoring grasses and other disturbance taxa reduced native species
important for ecosystem sustainability (e.g., leguminous species
that help fix nitrogen in soils; Flores and Carvajal, 1994; Dunning
et al., 2012). Nutrient levels in soils are also compromised by
deforestation because the canopy serves to recycle nutrients and
capture airborne particulates that enrich the soil (e.g., ash;
Tankersley et al., 2011). Extensive forest clearance and the
establishment of cityscapes can also serve as an amplifier of
drought (Shaw, 2003; Oglesby et al., 2010; Cook et al., 2012) due to
surface albedo increasing reflection of solar radiation (Cook et al.,
2012). We should note that in some places like Chunchucmil
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
8 D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
(Beach, 1998) and Amazonia with terra preta the longer net effect
of archeological sites was to increase soil fertility through middens
and plaster.
Paleoecological sequences from the Petén Lakes district
(Northern Guatemala; see Fig. 1) indicate the maximal extent of
tropical moist forest taxa (e.g., Brosimum, Ficus, Manilkara,
Thouinia, Sapium) occurred during the Middle Holocene thermal
maximum (6000–2500 BC; Hodell et al., 1991; Haug et al., 2001;
Leyden, 2002; Mueller et al., 2009). Reduction in forest extent after
2500 BC was not uniform, but a complex process related to
changing climatic conditions; human population expansion;
contraction and redistribution; and the success or failure of the
Maya to manage the deleterious effects of deforestation as cities
swelled and more land was put into agricultural production at the
expense of forest habitat. Farming systems expanded along the
eastern coastal margins of the Maya lowlands after 2500 BC
(Guderjan et al., 2009), and deforestation is clearly associated with
pioneer farmers cultivating maize and moving farther into the
interior of northern Guatemala (Mirador Basin; Wahl et al., 2006).
Forest reduction is also evident in western Honduras by 2500 BC
and linked to the expansion of agricultural systems (Rue, 1987).
The picture appears to be more complicated in the Petén Lakes
region where reductions in forest cover precede the appearance of
Z. mays and more closely tracks climate drying between 2500 and
1000 BC (Mueller et al., 2009). By 1000 BC multiple records across
the Maya lowlands indicate forest clearance associated with the
cultivation of maize and probably many other crops (Petén Lakes –
Deevey et al., 1979; Binford et al., 1987; Rosenmeier et al., 2002;
Anselmetti et al., 2007; Mueller et al., 2009; Western Honduras –
Rue, 1987; McNeil et al., 2010; Mirador Basin – Wahl et al., 2006;
Northern Belize – Jones, 1994; Guderjan et al., 2009). During the
Classic Period (AD 300–900), there is evidence for both forest
management and the cultivation of tree crops near major
population centers (Copan – McNeil et al., 2010; Tikal – Lentz
and Hockaday, 2009; El Pilar – Ford, 2008; Petexbatun – Dunning
et al., 1997) and the persistence or expansion of maize cultivation
and associated forest clearance. Population expansion at major
centers also placed additional demands on the forest for cooking
fuel and for building materials (Turner and Sabloff, 2012). Building
campaigns in the Late Classic (AD 600–800) also intensified and
increased the demand for firewood to produce white lime plaster
that was used extensively to cover plaza floors and buildings
(Schreiner, 2002); though sascab (degraded limestone bedrock)
may require much less firing to be used for lime. Attempts to
manage certain tree species at Tikal (Manilkara) failed under the
strain of peak populations (Lentz and Hockaday, 2009). Along the
northern shore of nearby Lake Petén Itza, the forests rebounded
quickly (80–260 years) as the agricultural population decreased
within the catchment at the end of the Classic Period (Mueller
et al., 2010). These examples show the complexities of managing
forests and the likelihood of persisting forest refugia in the context
of changing agricultural populations.
Soil loss associated with deforestation and erosion was one of
the most consequential environmental impacts associated with
population expansion in the Maya lowlands. Excavations in over
100 localities (e.g., karst depressions, lakes) indicate increased
erosion regionally between 1000 BC and AD 250 (Preclassic Period)
and again between AD 550 and 900 (Late Classic; Beach et al.,
2006). Increased erosion in lake basins of the Petén between 1000
BC and AD 900 is represented by a massive detrital unit designated
the ‘‘Maya Clay’’ (Deevey et al., 1979; Anselmetti et al., 2007;
Mueller et al., 2009) that is highly reflective seismically and
distinctive from sediments (organic-rich gyttja) above and below
(Anselmetti et al., 2007). Sedimentation rates were high through-
out this interval and highest between 700 BC and AD 250
(Anselmetti et al., 2007; Mueller et al., 2009). Terraces were used
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
throughout the region to mitigate erosion (Fig. 3) and stabilized
some areas prior to the Late Classic Period (Caracol, Murtha, 2002).
It is during this period (400 BC–AD 250) that increased
sedimentation rates transformed many of the perennial wetlands
and shallow lakes into seasonal swamps across the Maya lowlands
(Dunning et al., 2002). Many of these hydrological changes were
detrimental because they altered recharge and increased eutro-
phication in shallow seasonal wetlands (Dunning et al., 2012), but
deeper and moister soils along the margins of wetlands and rivers
provided opportunities for agricultural intensification during the
Classic Period, as did floodplain sediments once sea-level stabilized
and facilitated the expansion of wetland field agricultural systems
(Beach et al., 2009; Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2012; Siemens and
Puleston, 1972; Turner, 1974; Turner and Harrison, 1981) or
modest alteration of naturally occurring dry locations in peri-
coastal wetlands (Antonie et al., 1982; Pohl et al., 1996).
5. Maya synthesis
The widespread collapse of Classic Maya polities between AD
800 and 1000 was messy and multicausal. There are no simple
explanations, and the complex processes involved require analysis
as a coupled natural and human system (Scarborough and
Burnside, 2010; Dunning et al., 2012). Indeed, the ‘‘collapse’’
may be better characterized as a major societal reorganization
(McAnany and Gallareta Negrón, 2010), because Maya populations
and some cultural traditions (e.g., writing and a derivative
calendar) persisted through the Postclassic Period and conquest
(AD 1000–1520). The Classic Maya collapse was first and foremost
a political failure with initial effects on the elite sector (kings and
their courts) that ultimately undermined the economy and
stimulated the decentralization of Maya civic-ceremonial centers
and the reorganization of regional populations. This occurred in
multiple stages over hundreds of years (Webster, 2002; Demarest
et al., 2004; Laporte, 2004; Rice et al., 2004; Rice and Rice, 2004;
Webster et al., 2004). The long-term decline of kingship as a
political institution during the Late Classic Period (starting AD
600–650) presaged the asynchronous disintegration of urban
centers starting as early as AD 750. This culminated in widespread
network failure and more rapid decline in the southern lowlands
during the 9th century. Populations persisted in some interior
regions into the Postclassic Period (e.g., Copan – Webster et al.,
2004; Zotz – Kingsley and Cambranes, 2011; Garrison, 2007; Petén
– Laporte, 2004, Rice and Rice, 2004; some parts of the Pasion;
Johnston et al., 2001), but most of the interior portions of the
southern lowlands were depopulated by AD 1000–1100 (Turner
and Sabloff, 2012). Population centers near the coast and along
rivers were more likely to persist into the Postclassic Period
(McKillop, 1989, 2005; Sabloff, 2007; Turner and Sabloff, 2012),
but these areas were not entirely immune and wetland field
agriculture went into decline at the end of the Classic Period in
spite of its plentiful water resources (Luzzadder-Beach et al., 2012).
There are clear linkages between military defeat and economic
decline that influenced the size and integrity of individual polities
(e.g., Caracol or Tikal hiatuses; Martin and Grube, 2000). The
stability of Classic Period Maya polities was therefore dependent
upon reasonably stable and productive agricultural systems and
the lack of widespread human suffering due to starvation or war. In
turn, agricultural systems across the Maya lowlands were highly
adapted to the wet and dry climatic regime and seasonal changes
in rainfall linked to the position of the ITCZ and subtropical high
(Haug et al., 2001). Decisions to clear, burn, and plant are
dependent upon an extended dry season followed by predictably
wet conditions. Crops fail if the wet season does not start
predictably or if extended droughts occur during the growing
season, though crops grown in wet environments or that used
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13

D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx 9

Fig. 4. Rainfall record for the Maya region (Kennett et al., 2012) shown relative to the timing of hydrological engineering projects (Scarborough et al., 2012) and deforestation/
erosion (Anselmetti et al., 2007) in the Petén Lakes region. This is shown relative to the changing frequency of monument production and warfare throughout the Maya
lowlands (see Kennett et al., 2012 for data and details). Figure drafted by T. Harper.

Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
10 D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
water harvesting such as mulching and fan terracing may provide
temporary cover. Small-scale engineering projects involving water
management started in the Late Preclassic and expanded
dramatically during the Classic Period (Scarborough and Burnside,
2010). These projects altered the biophysical environment to
contend with the unpredictability of rainfall, provided clean water,
and to extract more energy from these lowland tropical environ-
ments. A climate reconstruction for the Maya region indicates that
remarkably high rainfall occurred during the Early Classic to Late
Classic Periods (AD 440–660) and favored stable agricultural
production along with population expansion and aggregation
(Kennett et al., 2012). Populations expanded during this time and
polities proliferated under these favorable conditions. This was
followed by a drying trend AD 660–1000 and increased climatic
variability that would have periodically reduced agricultural
productivity and contributed to economic and political instability
of competing polities. Hierarchical differences within Maya society
were increasingly emphasized in a top-down structure that made
the society more vulnerable to collapse (Scarborough and Burn-
side, 2010).
Deforestation and erosion in the Maya lowlands results from a
combination of climate drying and forest reduction related to
increased demands for fuel, construction material, and agricultural
land associated with population expansion and aggregation. Pulses
of deforestation and erosion varied spatially during the Preclassic
and Classic Periods. Some studies suggest that this was most acute
during the Late Preclassic Period and continued through the Classic
Period (e.g., Petén Lakes; Anselmetti et al., 2007). Other records
indicate an uptick in deforestation and erosion during the Late
Classic (AD 600–900; Cancuen, Beach et al., 2006). At the regional
level, it appears that erosion accelerated in many locales between
1000 BC and AD 250 and again between AD 550 and 900 (Beach
et al., 2006). In some cases, this was mitigated with terraces
constructed during the early and late Classic (Murtha, 2002; Beach
et al., 2002, 2008; Chase et al., 2011) that helped stabilize
landscapes. Attempts to manage forests may have stabilized
landscapes in some regions (e.g., Copan, McNeil et al., 2010; but see
Abrams and Rue, 1988; Webster et al., 2000), but climate drying in
the Late Classic would have exacerbated deforestation related to
population increase and agricultural expansion/intensification
(Boserup, 1965). This resulted in lowering the Malthusian ceiling
and contributed to increased human suffering and greater variance
in well-being amplified during extended drought periods that
undermined the influence and authority of kings. This is supported
by some evidence for a high degree of nutritional stress in some
populations dating to the Late/Terminal Classic (Copan, Storey
et al., 2002) or a high health burden generally in the Classic Period
with no clear increase in the Late/Terminal Classic (Pasión region,
Wright, 2006). Local attempts to invest in landesque capital (e.g.,
terraces and raised fields) were too hit-and-miss to mitigate these
problems and the transportation networks necessary to subsidize
areas most heavily impacted by environmental degradation and
drought were not sufficient or were compromised by conflict.
The primary response of kings to environmental stress and
instability of the Late Classic (AD 600–900) was to go to war. There
was an increase in the number of war events recorded on stone
monuments between AD 650 and 900 when compared to the
previous 300 years (Fig. 4). This is also the case when war-events
are normalized relative to other recorded events (e.g., marriages,
accessions, etc., Fig. 4, warfare index; Kennett et al., 2012). War
was embedded within a broader system of status-rivalry to attract
followers, a strategy that kings used to build their economic and
political base. Alliances were formed between polities and
hierarchical relationships developed between centers were more
frequent during the Late Classic (Marcus, 1993; Martin and Grube,
1995, 2000), but these larger polities were highly unstable. One
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
potential explanation for political collapse was the failure of
leaders to find creative ways to maintain network stability either
through hierarchical integration or cooperation (Cioffi-Revilla and
Landman, 1999). Instead, kings of the largest polities succumbed to
immediate self-interest and attempted to obtain greater hege-
monic control (Scarborough and Burnside, 2010). Polities defeated
in war went into decline and less effort was invested in
maintaining economic and political networks. The frequency
and magnitude of war served to destabilize the sociopolitical and
economic fabric of the Maya world and, along with environmental
degradation and drought, further undermined the institution of
kingship.
Finally, we return to the concept of rigidity from resilience
theory and the character of the classic Maya collapse. Hegmon et al.
(2008) compared three societal transformations in the American
Southwest (Mimbres, Hohokam, Mesa Verde) using this concept
and with respect to the scale of demographic change and
population displacement, degree of cultural change, and physical
suffering. They used rigidity measures of integration, hierarchy
and conformity and found that more rigidly organized societies
were more prone to severe transformations that involved human
suffering, population decline and displacement, and major cultural
changes (evident in both Mesa Verde and Hohokam cases). Data
from the Maya region are consistent with these observations. The
Maya collapse was far more severe when compared with these
examples from the American Southwest. Many more people were
involved and there is evidence for sustained conflict and war over
several centuries. Evidence for declining health in the skeletal
record is consistent with human suffering and the collapse of each
polity was associated ultimately with population decline and
dispersal. In the Maya case the rigidity trap was imposed largely by
the hierarchical structure of Maya society that was amplified as the
landscape was transformed and impacted during the Classic Period
(Scarborough and Burnside, 2010). This came at a time when
environmental shocks in the form of decadal-scale droughts
became more frequent and severe (Kennett et al., 2012). Even in
the face of these changes the culturally conservative institution of
kingship persisted for centuries, and its rigidity likely contributed
to the suppression of innovation in the face of environmental
change and instability.
6. Concluding remarks
Archeologists and earth scientists provide a unique perspective
on the cumulative history of anthropogenic environmental change
and its potential for destabilizing our society. Political stability and
international cooperation are essential for engineering a more
sustainable future for our increasingly inter-connected global
community. The most politically unstable countries today are also
places where environmental degradation undermines food pro-
duction and human suffering is high. Historically and economically
important linkages with these countries serve to destabilize global
economic networks. Both conflict and cooperation are used to
shore-up these networks and mitigate these negative effects. In the
Maya case, the proliferation of war for political and economic gain
created a sociopolitical and environmental ‘‘risk spiral’’ (Dunning
et al., 2012) that ultimately resulted in the widespread fragmen-
tation and asynchronous collapse of polities and ultimately the
Classic Period socioeconomic network. The more stable political
systems that favored all the trappings of Maya civilization (art,
architecture, writing, science) were reduced and reorganized. In
forging the links with this human past, the modern world will
require creative and adaptive leadership, informed by the success
and failure of our predecessors, to provide a way forward as we
confront the unprecedented magnitude of environmental change
in the Anthropocene.
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
Acknowledgments
Funding for this work was provided by the National Science
Foundation (HSD-0827305 [Kennett], BCS-0940744 [Kennett]).
We thank Jon Erlandson and Todd Braje for inviting us to
participate in this landmark special issue and for editing our
manuscript. We also thank David Webster, Keith Prufer, James
Kennett, Valorie Aquino and two anonymous reviewers for
valuable conversations, comments and information that have
helped us improve the manuscript.
References
Abrams, E., Rue, D., 1988. The causes and consequences of deforestation among the
prehistoric Maya. Human Ecology 16, 377–395.
Andrews, A.P., Andrews, E.W., Robles Castellanos, F., 2003. The northern Maya
collapse and its aftermath. Ancient Mesoamerica 14, 151–156.
Anselmetti, F.S., Hodell, D.A., Ariztegui, D., Brenner, M., Rosenmeier, M.F., 2007.
Quantification of soil erosion rates related to ancient Maya deforestation.
Geology 35, 915–918.
Antonie, P., Skarie, R.L., Bloom, P.R., 1982. The origin of raised fields near San
Antonio, Belize: an alternative hypothesis. In: Flannery, K. (Ed.), Maya Subsis-
tence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston. Academic Press, New York, pp.
227–238.
Artzy, M., Hillel, D., 1988. Defense of the theory of progressive soil salinization in
ancient Southern Mesopotamia. Geoarchaeology 3, 235–238.
Ashmore, W., 2007. Settlement Archaeology at Quiriguá, Guatemala. University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.
Ball, J.W., 1993. Pottery, potters, palaces, and polities: some socioeconomic and
political implications of Late Classic Maya ceramic industries. In: Sabloff, J.A.,
Henderson, J.S. (Eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D.
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 243–272.
Beach, T., 1998. Soil constraints on northwest Yucatan, Mexico: pedoarchaeology
and Maya subsistence at Chunchucmil. Geoarchaeology 13, 759–791.
Beach, T., Dunning, N.P., 1995. Ancient Maya terracing and modern conservation in
the Petén Rain Forest of Guatemala. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 50,
138–145.
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Dunning, N.P., Hageman, J., Lohse, J., 2002. Upland
agriculture in the Maya lowlands: ancient conservation in Northwestern Belize.
Geographical Review 92, 372–397.
Beach, T., Dunning, N., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Cook, D.E., Lohse, J., 2006. Impacts of the
ancient Maya on soils and soil erosion in the central Maya lowlands. Catena 65,
166–178.
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Dunning, N., Cook, D., 2008. Human and natural
impacts on fluvial and karst depressions of the Maya lowlands. Geomorphology
101, 308–331.
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Dunning, N., Jones, J., Lohse, J., Guderjan, T., Bozarth,
S., Millspaugh, S., Bhattacharya, T., 2009. A review of human and natural
changes in Maya lowland wetlands over the Holocene. Quaternary Science
Reviews 28, 1710–1724.
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., 2013. Precolumbian people and the wetlands in
Central and South America. In: Menotti, F., O’Sullivan, A. (Eds.), The Oxford
Handbook of Wetland Archaeology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp.
83–103.
Binford, M.W., Brenner, M., Whitmore, T.J., Higuera-Gundy, A., Deevey, E.S., Leyden,
B., 1987. Ecosystems, paleoecology and human disturbance in subtropical and
tropical America. Quaternary Science Reviews 6, 115–128.
Boserup, E., 1965. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of
Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. Aldine/Allen & Unwin, Chicago/
London.
Braswell, G.E., Clark, J.E., Aoyama, K., McKillop, H.I., Glascock, M.D., 2000. Deter-
mining the geological provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Maya region.
Latin American Antiquity 11, 269–282.
Brown, A., Toms, P., Carey, C., Rhodes, E., 2013. Geomorphology of the Anthro-
pocene: time-transgressive human-induced alluviation. Anthropocene 1, 3–13.
Butzer, K.W., 2012. Collapse, environment, and society. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109, 3632–3639.
Crutzen, P.J., 2002. Geology of mankind. Nature 415, 23.
Carmean, K., Sabloff, J.A., 1996. Political decentralization in the Puuc region,
Yucatan, Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Research 52, 317–330.
Chase, A.J., Chase, D.Z., 1996. More than kin and king: centralized political
organization among the Late Classic Maya. Current Anthropology 37,
803–830.
Chase, A.F., Chase, D.Z., Weishampel, J.F., Drake, J.B., Shrestha, R.L., Clint Slatton, K.,
Awe, J.J., Carter, W.E., 2011. Airborne LiDAR, archaeology, and ancient Maya
landscape at Caracol, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 387–398.
Cioffi-Revilla, C., Landman, T., 1999. Evolution of Maya polities in the Ancient
Mesoamerican System. International Studies Quarterly 43, 559–598.
Cook, B.I., Anchukaitis, K.J., Kaplan, J.O., Puma, M.J., Kelley, M., Gueyffier, D., 2012.
Pre-Columbian deforestation as an amplifier of drought. Geophysical Research
Letters 39, L16706.
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
11
Culbert, T.P., Rice, D.S. (Eds.), 1990. Precolumbian Population History in the Maya
Lowlands,. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Culleton, B.J., 2012. Human ecology, agricultural intensification and landscape
transformation at the Ancient Maya Polity of Uxbenká, Southern Belize.
(unpublished Ph.D. dissertation)University of Oregon, Eugene.
Dahlin, B., Bair, D., Beach, T., Moriarty, M., Terry, R., 2010. The dirt on food: ancient
feasts and markets among the lowland Maya. In: Staller, J.E., Carrasco, M. (Eds.),
Pre-Columbian Foodways: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Feasting, and
Festivals in Ancient Mesoamerica. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 191–234.
Dahlin, B.H., Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Hixson, D.R., Hutson, S.R., Aline
Magnoni, A., Mansell, E.B., Mazeau, D.E., 2005. Reconstructing agricultural
self-sufficiency at Chunchucmil, Yucatán, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 16,
1–19.
Deevey, E.S., Rice, D.S., Rice, P.M., Vaughan, H.H., Brenner, M., Flannery, M.S., 1979.
Mayan urbanism: impact on a tropical karst environment. Science 206, 298–
306.
Demarest, A., 2004a. After the maelstrom: collapse of the Maya kingdoms and the
Terminal Classic in the Western Petén. In: Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S.
(Eds.), The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and
Transformation. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, pp. 102–124.
Demarest, A., 2004b. Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S. (Eds.), 2004. The Terminal Classic in the Maya
Lowlands: Collapse, Transition and Transformation. University Press of Color-
ado, Boulder.
Diamond, J., 2005. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Viking, New
York.
Drennan, R.D., 1988. Household location and compact versus dispersed settlement
in prehispanic Mesoamerica. In: Wilk, R.R., Ashmore, W. (Eds.), Household and
Community in the Mesoamerican Past. University of New Mexico Press, Albu-
querque, NM, pp. 273–293.
Dunning, N., Beach, T., 2010. Farms and Forests: Spatial and Temporal Perspectives
on Ancient Maya Landscapes. In: Martini, I.P., Chesworth, W. (Eds.), Landscapes
and Societies. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 369–390.
Dunning, N., Beach, T., Rue, D., 1997. The paleoecology and ancient settlement of the
Petexbatun region, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 8, 255–266.
Dunning, N.P., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Beach, T., Jones, J.G., Scarborough, B., Culbert,
T.P., 2002. Arising from the Bajos: the evolution of a Neotropical landscape and
the rise of Maya civilization. Annals of the Association of American Geographers
92, 267–283.
Dunning, N.P., Beach, T.P., Luzzadder-Beach, S., 2012. Kax and kol: collapse and
resilience in lowland Maya civilization. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America 109, 3652–3657.
English, N.B., Betancourt, J.L., Dean, J.S., Quade, J., 2001. Strontium isotopes reveal
distant sources of architectural timber in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Proceed-
ings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98,
11891–11896.
Estrada Belli, F., 2011. The First Maya Civilization: Ritual and Power Before the
Classic Period. Routledge, London.
Fedick, S.L. (Ed.), 1996. The Managed Mosaic: Ancient Maya Agriculture and
Resource Use. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Fedick, S.L., 2010. The Maya forest: destroyed or cultivated by the ancient Maya?
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
107, 953–954.
Fedick, S.L., Ford, A., 1990. The prehistoric agricultural landscape of the central Maya
lowlands: an examination of local variability in a regional context. World
Archaeology 22, 18–33.
Fedick, S.L., Morrison, B.A., 2004. Ancient use and manipulation of landscape in the
Yalahau region of the northern Maya lowlands. Agriculture and Human Values
21, 207–219.
Feinman, G., Nicholas, L.M., 2012. Compact versus dispersed settlement in Pre-
Hispanic Mesoamerica: the role of neighborhood organization and collective
action. In: Arnauld, M.C., Manzanilla, L.R., Smith, M.E. (Eds.), The Neighbour-
hood as a Social and Spatial Unit in Mesoamerican Cities. The University of
Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, pp. 132–155.
Fernandez, F.G., Johnson, K.D., Terry, R.E., Nelson, S., Webster, D., 2005. Soil
resources of the ancient Maya at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Soil Science Society
of America Journal 69, 2020–2032.
Flannery, K.V., 1973. The origins of agriculture. Annual Review of Anthropology 2,
271–310.
Flannery, K.V. (Ed.), 1986. Guilá Naquitz. Academic Press, Orlando.
Flores, J.S., Carvajal, I.E., 1994. Tipos de vegetación de la Peninsula de Yucatán.
Etnoflora Yucatanese No. 3 Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, MX.
Friedel, D.A., Schele, L., 1988. Kingship in the Late Preclassic Maya lowlands:
the instruments and places of ritual power. American Anthropologist 90,
547–567.
French, K.D., Duffy, C.J., 2010. Prehispanic water pressure: a new world first. Journal
of Archaeological Science 37, 1027–1032.
French, K.D., Duffy, C.J., Bhatt, G., 2012. The hydroarchaeological method: a case
study at the Maya sites of Palenque. Latin American Antiquity 23, 29–50.
Ford, A., 2008. Dominant plants of the Maya forest and gardens of El Pilar:
implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Journal of Ethnobiology
28, 179–199.
Garrison, T., 2007. Ancient Maya territories, adaptive regions, and alliances: con-
textualizing the San Bartolo-Xultun Intersite Survey. (unpublished Ph.D. dis-
sertation)Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
12 D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
Gleissman, S., Turner II, B., Rosado May, F., Amador, M., 1983. Ancient raised field
agriculture in the Maya lowlands of southeastern Mexico. In: Darch, J. (Ed.),
Drained Field Agriculture in Central and South America. BAR International
Series, No. 189. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, pp. 91–110.
Golitko, M., Meierhoff, J., Feinman, G.M., Williams, P.R., 2012. Complexities of
collapse: the evidence of Maya obsidian as revealed by social network graphical
analysis. Antiquity 86, 507–523.
Goman, M., Joyce, A., Mueller, R., 2005. Stratigraphic evidence for anthropogenically
induced coastal environmental change from Oaxaca, Mexico. Quaternary Re-
search 63, 250–260.
Graham, E., 1987. Resource diversity in Belize and its implications for models of
lowland trade. American Antiquity 52, 753–767.
Graham, E., Pendergast, D.M., Jones, G.D., 1989. On the fringes of conquest: Maya-
Spanish contact in Early Belize. Science 246, 1254–1259.
Guderjan, T., Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Bozarth, S., 2009. Understanding the
causes of abandonment in the Maya lowlands. Archaeological Review from
Cambridge 24, 99–121.
Haug, G.H., Hughen, K.A., Sigman, D.M., Peterson, L.C., Röhl, U., 2001. Southward
migration of the intertropical convergence zone through the Holocene. Science
293, 1304–1308.
Hegmon, M., Peeples, M.A., Kinzig, A.P., Kulow, S., Meegan, C.M., Nelson, M.C., 2008.
Social transformation and its human costs in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest.
American Anthropologist 110, 313–324.
Hester, T.R., Shafer, H.J., 1984. Exploitation of chert resources by the ancient Maya of
northern Belize, Central America. World Archaeology 16, 157–173.
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Jones, G.A., Higuera-Gundy, A., Brenner, M., Binford, M.W.,
Dorsey, K.T., 1991. Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past
10,500 years. Nature 352, 790–793.
Hooke, R.L., 2000. On the history of humans as geomporphic agents. Geology 28,
843–846.
Iceland, H.B., 1997. The Preceramic origins of the Maya. Results of the Colha
Preceramic project in Northern Belize (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation)Depart-
ment of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.
Inomata, T., Triadan, D., Aoyama, K., Castillo, V., Yonenobu, H., 2013. Early ceremo-
nial constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the origins of lowland Maya
civilization. Science 340, 467–471.
Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, 2013. Climate Change 2013: The
Physical Science Basis: Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment
Report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, 2007. Climate Change 2007: Impacts,
Adaptation, and Vulnerability: Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth
Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Jacobsen, T., Adams, R.M., 1958. Salt and silt in Ancient Mesopotamian agriculture.
Science 128, 1251–1258.
Johnston, K.J., Breckenbridge, A.J., Hansen, B.C., 2001. Paleoecological evidence of an
early postclassic occupation in the Southwestern Maya lowlands: Laguna Las
Pozas, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 12, 149–166.
Jones, J.G., 1994. Pollen evidence for early settlement and agriculture in Northern
Belize. Palynology 18, 205–211.
Kaplan, L., Lynch, T.F., 1999. Phaseolus (Fabaceae) in archaeology: AMS radiocarbon
dates and their significance for Pre-Columbian agriculture. Economic Botany 53,
262–272.
Kennett, D.J., 2012. Archaic-period foragers and farmers in Mesoamerica. In:
Nichols, D.L., Pool, C.A. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archae-
ology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 141–150.
Kennett, D.J., Piperno, D., Jones, J., Neff, H., Voorhies, B., Walsh, M., Culleton, B., 2010.
Pre-pottery farmers on the Pacific Coast of southern Mexico. Journal of Archae-
ological Science 37, 3401–3411.
Kennett, D.J., Hajdas, I., Culleton, B.J., Belmecheri, S., Martin, S., Neff, H., Awe, J.,
Graham, H.V., Freeman, K.H., Newsom, L., Lentz, D.L., Anselmetti, F.S., Robinson,
M., Marwan, N., Southon, J., Hodell, D.A., Haug, G.H., 2013. Correlating the
ancient Maya and modern European calendars with high-precision AMS 14C
dating. Scientific Reports 3, 1597–1601.
Kennett, D.J., Breitenbach, S.F.M., Aquino, V.V., Asmersom, Y., Awe, J., Baldini, J.U.L.,
Bartlein, P., Culleton, B.J., Ebert, C., Jazwa, C., Macri, M.J., Marwan, N., Polyak, V.,
Prufer, K.M., Ridley, H.E., Sodemann, H., Winterhalder, B., Haug, G.H., 2012.
Development and disintegration of Maya political systems in response to
climate change. Science 338, 788–791.
Kingsley, M., Cambranes, R., 2011. Excavaciones en el Grupo Sur de El Zotz
(Operación 6). In: Garrido López, J.L., Houston, S.D., Román, E. (Eds.), Proyecto
Arqueológico ‘‘El Zotz’’: Informe No. 5. Temporada 2010. Informe entregado a la
Dirección General del Patrimonio Cultural y Natural de Guatemala, pp. 67–116.
Laporte, J.P., 2004. Terminal classic settlement and polity in the Mopan Valley,
Petén, Guatemala. In: Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S. (Eds.), The Terminal
Classic in the Maya Lowlands. University of Colorado Press, Boulder, pp. 195–
230.
Leonard, J.A., Wayne, R.K., Wheeler, J., Valadez, R., Guillen, S., Vila, C., 2002. Ancient
DNA evidence for Old World origin of New World dogs. Science 298, 1613–
1616.
Lentz, D.L., Hockaday, B., 2009. Tikal timbers and temples: ancient Maya agrofor-
estry and the end of time. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 1342–1353.
Leyden, B.W., 2002. Pollen evidence for climatic variability and cultural disturbance
in the Maya lowlands. Ancient Mesoamerica 35, 85–101.
Luzzadder-Beach, S., Beach, T.P., Dunning, N.P., 2012. Wetland fields as mirrors of
drought and the Maya abandonment. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America 109, 3646–3651.
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
Marcus, J., 1976. Emblem and State in the Classic Maya Lowlands. Dumbarton Oaks,
Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, DC.
Marcus, J., 1993. Ancient Maya political organization. In: Sabloff, J.A., Henderson, J.S.
(Eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D. Dumbarton Oaks,
Washington, DC, pp. 111–183.
Martin, S., Grube, N., 1995. Maya superstates. Archaeology 48, 41–46.
Martin, S., Grube, N., 2000. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering
the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, New York.
Matsuoka, Y., Vigouroux, Y., Goodman, M.M., Sanchez, J., Buckler, E., Doebley, J.,
2002. A single domestication for maize shown by multilocus microsatellite
genotyping. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United
States of America 99, 6080–6084.
McAnany, P.A., 1993. The economics of social power and wealth among Eighth-
Century Maya households. In: Sabloff, J.A., Henderson, J.S. (Eds.), Lowland Maya
Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp.
65–89.
McAnany, P.A., Yoffee, N. (Eds.), 2010. Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience,
Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, UK.
McAnany, P.A., Gallareta Negrón, T., 2010. Bellicose rulers and climatological peril?
In: McAnany, P.A., Yoffee, N. (Eds.), Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience,
Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 142–175.
McKillop, H., 1989. Defining coastal Maya trade stations and transportation routes.
In: McKillop, H., Healy, P.F. (Eds.), Coastal Maya Trade, Occasional Paper 8.
Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada, pp.
91–110.
McKillop, H., 1994. Ancient Maya tree cropping: a viable subsistence adaptation for
the island Maya. Ancient Mesoamerica 5, 129–140.
McKillop, H., 1996a. Ancient Maya trading ports and integration of long-distance
and regional economies: Wild Cane Cay in South-Coastal Belize. Ancient
Mesoamerica 7, 49–62.
McKillop, H., 1996b. Prehistoric Maya use of native palms: archaeobotanical and
ethnobotanical evidence. In: Fedick, S. (Ed.), The Managed Mosaic: Ancient
Maya Agriculture and Resource Use. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp.
278–294.
McKillop, H., 2005. In Search of Maya Sea Traders. Texas A & M University Press,
College Station.
McNeil, C.L., Burney, B.A., Burney, L.P., 2010. Evidence disputing deforestation as the
cause for the collapse of the ancient Maya polity of Copan, Honduras. Proceed-
ings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107,
1017–1022.
Medina-Elizalde, M., Rohling, E.J., 2012. Collapse of Classic Maya civilization related
to modest reduction in precipitation. Science 335, 956–959.
Moholy-Nagy, H., Meierhoff, J., Golitko, M., Kestle, C., 2013. An analysis of pXRF
obsidian source attributions from Tikal, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity
24, 72–97.
Mueller, A.D., Islebe, G.A., Hillesheim, M.B., Grzesik, D.A., Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui,
D., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Hodell, D.A., Venz, K.A., 2009. Climate drying and
associated forest decline in the lowlands of northern Guatemala during the late
Holocene. Quaternary Research 71, 133–141.
Mueller, A.D., Islebe, G.A., Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., Brenner, M., Haug, G.H.,
Hodell, D.A., Kennett, D.J., 2010. Forest ecosystem recovery in the Guatemalan
lowlands after the disintegration of Classic Maya socio-political systems be-
tween AD 800 and 1000. Geology 38, 523–526.
Munson, J.L., Macri, M.J., 2009. Sociopolitical network interactions: a case
study of the Classic Maya. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28,
424–438.
Murtha, T., 2002. Land and labor: Classic Maya terraced agriculture at Caracol,
Belize. (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation)The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park.
Nazaroff, A.J., Prufer, K.M., Drake, B.L., 2010. Assessing the applicability of portable
X-ray fluorescence spectrometry for obsidian provenance research in the Maya
lowlands. Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (4) 885–895.
Neff, H., Pearsall, D.M., Jones, J.G., Arroyo, B., Collins, S.K., Freidel, D.E., 2006. Early
Maya adaptive patterns: mid-late Holocene paleoenvironmental evidence from
Pacific Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 17, 287–315.
Oglesby, R.J., Sever, T.L., Saturno, W., Erickson III, D.J., Srikishen, J., 2010. Collapse of
the Maya: could deforestation have contributed? Journal of Geophysical
Research 115, D12106.
O’Mansky, M., Dunning, N.P., 2004. Settlement and Late Classic disintegration in the
Petexbatun region, Guatemala. In: Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S. (Eds.),
The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transfor-
mation. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, pp. 83–101.
Patz, J.A., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Holloway, T., Foley, J.A., 2005. Impact of regional
climate change on human health. Nature 438, 310–317.
Peraza Lope, C., Masson, M.A., Hare, T.S., Candelario Delgado Kú, P., 2006. The
chronology of Mayapan: new radiocarbon evidence. Ancient Mesoamerica 17,
153–175.
Piperno, D.R., Pearsall, D.M., 1998. The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland
Neotropics. Academic Press, San Diego.
Piperno, D.R., Smith, B.D., 2012. The origins of food production in Mesoamerica. In:
Nichols, D.L., Pool, C.A. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archae-
ology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 151–164.
Piperno, D.R., Ranere, A.J., Holst, I., Iriarte, J., Dickau, R., 2009. Starch grain and
phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium BP maize from the central Balsas
G Model
ANCENE-22; No. of Pages 13
D.J. Kennett, T.P. Beach / Anthropocene xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
River Valley, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America 106, 5019–5024.
Pohl, M.D., Pope, K.O., Jones, J.G., Jacob, J.S., Piperno, D.R., deFrance, S.D., Lentz, D.L.,
Gifford, J.A., Danforth, M.E., Josserand, J.K., 1996. Early agriculture in the Maya
lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 7, 355–372.
Pohl, M.D., Piperno, D.R., Pope, K.O., Jones, J.G., 2007. Microfossil evidence for Pre-
Columbian maize dispersals in the Neotropics from San Andrés, Tabasco,
Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States
of America 104, 6870–6875.
Pope, K.O., Pohl, M.D., Jones, J.G., Lentz, D.L., Von Nagy, C., Vega, F.J., Quitmyer, I.R.,
2001. Origin and environmental setting of ancient agriculture in the lowlands of
Mesoamerica. Science 292, 1370–1373.
Prufer, Moyes, K.M.H., Culleton, B.J., Kindon, A., Kennett, D.J., 2011. Formation of a
complex polity on the eastern periphery of the Maya lowlands. Latin American
Antiquity 22 (2) 199–223.
Puleston, D., 1978. Terracing, raised fields, and tree cropping in the Maya lowlands:
a new perspective on the geography of power. In: Harrison, T., Turner, II, B.L.
(Eds.), Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque,
pp. 225–245.
Rice, P.M., 1987. Economic change in the lowland Maya Late Classic period. In:
Brumfiel, E.M., Earle, T.K. (Eds.), Specialization, Exchange and Complex Socie-
ties. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 125–139.
Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S., 2004. Late Classic to Postclassic transformations in the Petén
Lakes region, Guatemala. In: Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S. (Eds.), The
Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands. University of Colorado Press, Boulder,
pp. 231–259.
Rice, P.M., Demarest, A.A., Rice, D.S., 2004. The Terminal Classic and the ‘‘Classic
Maya Collapse’’ in perspective. In: Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S. (Eds.),
The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands. University of Colorado Press,
Boulder, pp. 1–11.
Richerson, P.J., Boyd, R., Bettinger, R.L., 2001. Was agriculture impossible during the
Pleistocene but mandatory during the Holocene? A climate change hypothesis.
American Antiquity 66, 387–411.
Rosenswig, R.M., Masson, M.A., 2001. Seven new Preceramic sites documented in
Northern Belize. Mexicon 23, 138–140.
Rosenswig, R.M., Pearsall, D.M., Masson, M.A., Culleton, B.J., Kennett, D.J., 2014.
Archaic period settlement and subsistence in the Maya lowlands: new starch
grain and lithic data from Freshwater Creek, Belize. Journal of Archaeological
Science 41, 308–321.
Rosenmeier, M.F., Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Guilderson, T.P., 2002. A
4000-year lacustrine record of environmental change in the southern Maya
lowlands, Petén, Guatemala. Quaternary Research 57, 183–190.
Rue, D.J., 1987. Early agriculture and early Postclassic Maya occupation in western
Honduras. Nature 326, 285–286.
Sabloff, J.A., 2007. It depends on how we look at things: new perspectives on the
Postclassic period in the northern Maya lowlands. Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society 151, 11–26.
Scarborough, V.L., Burnside, W.R., 2010. Complexity and sustainability: perspec-
tives from the Ancient Maya and the Modern Balinese. American Antiquity 75,
327–363.
Scarborough, V.L., Valdez Jr., F., 2009. An alternate order: the dualistic economies of
the Ancient Maya. Latin American Antiquity 20, 207–227.
Scarborough, V.L., Dunning, N.P., Tankersley, K.B., Carr, C., Weaver, E., Grazioso, L.,
Lane, B., Jones, J.G., Buttles, P., Valdez, F., Lentz, D.L., 2012. Water and sustainable
land use at the ancient tropical city of Tikal, Guatemala. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109, 12408–
12413.
Schele, L., Freidel, D., 1990. A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya.
William Morrow and Co., New York.
Schreiner, T., 2002. Traditional Maya lime production: environmental and cultural
implications of a Native American technology. (Ph.D. dissertation)Department
of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley.
Sedov, S., Solleiro-Rebolledo, E., Fedick, S.L., Pi-Puig, T., Vallejo-Gomez, E., Flores-
Delgadillo, M., . Micromorphology of a Soil Catena in Yucatan: Pedogenesis
and Geomorphological Processes in a Tropical Karst Landscape. In: Kapur, S.,
Stoops, G. (Eds.), New Trends in Soil Micromorphology, Springer, New York
pp. 19–37.
Shaw, J.M., 2003. Climate change and deforestation: implications for the Maya
collapse. Ancient Mesoamerica 14, 157–167.
Shaw, J.M., 2008. White Roads of the Yucatán: Changing Social Landscapes of the
Yucatec Maya. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Sheets, P., Lentz, D., Piperno, D., Jones, J., Dixon, C., Maloof, G., Hood, A., 2012.
Ancient manioc agriculture south of the Ceren village, El Salvador. Latin
American Antiquity 23, 259–281.
Siemens, A.H., Puleston, D., 1972. Ridged fields and associated features in southern
Campeche: new perspectives on the lowland Maya. American Antiquity 37,
228–239.
Please cite this article in press as: Kennett, D.J., Beach, T.P., Archeological and environmental lessons for the Anthropocene from the
Classic Maya collapse. Anthropocene (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.12.002
13
Smith, B.D., 1997. The initial domestication of Cucurbita pepo in the Americas 10,000
years ago. Science 276, 865–996.
Smith, B.D., 2007. Niche construction and the behavioral context of plant and
animal domestication. Evolutionary Anthropology 16, 188–199.
Sonnante, G., Stockton, T., Nadari, R.O., Velasquez, B., Gepts, P., 1994. Evolution of
genetic diversity during the domestication of the common-bean (Phaseolus
vulgaris L.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics 89, 629–635.
Speller, C.F., Kemp, B.M., Wyatt, S.D., Monroe, C., Lipe, W.D., Arndt, U.M., Yang, D.Y.,
2010. Ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals complexity of indigenous
North American turkey domestication. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America 107, 2807–2812.
Storey, R., Morfin, L.M., Smith, V., 2002. Social disruption and the Maya civilization
of Mesoamerica: a study of health and economy of the last thousand years. In:
Steckel, R.H., Rose, J.C. (Eds.), The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in
the Western Hemisphere. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Stuart, D., 1993. Historical inscriptions and the Maya Collapse. In: Sabloff, J.A.,
Henderson, J.S. (Eds.), Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D.
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, pp. 321–354.
Stuart, D., 2011. The Order of Days: The Maya World and the Truth About 2012.
Harmony Books, New York.
Tainter, J.A., 1988. The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, UK.
Tankersley, K.B., Scarborough, V.L., Dunning, N., Huff, W., Maynard, B., Gerke, T.L.,
2011. Evidence for volcanic ash fall in the Maya lowlands from a reservoir at
Tikal, Guatemala. Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 2925–2938.
Tourtellot, G., González, J.J., 2004. The last hurrah: continuity and transformation at
Seibal. In: Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S. (Eds.), The Terminal Classic in the
Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation. University Press of
Colorado, Boulder, pp. 60–82.
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J.A., 1972. Exchange systems among the ancient Maya.
American Antiquity 37, 126–135.
Turchin, P., 2003. Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall. Princeton Univer-
sity Press, Princeton.
Turner II, B.L., 1974. Prehistoric intensive agriculture in the Mayan lowlands.
Science 185, 118–124.
Turner II, B.L., 1990. The rise and fall of population and agriculture in the central
Maya lowlands: 300 BC to present. In: Newman, L.F. (Ed.), Hunger in History.
Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, pp. 178–212.
Turner II, B.L., Harrison, P.D., 1981. Prehistoric raised-field agriculture in the Maya
lowlands. Science 213, 399–405.
Turner, B.L., Sabloff II, J.A., 2012. Classic period collapse of the Central Maya
lowlands: insights about human–environment relationships for sustainability.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
109, 13908–13914.
Voorhies, B., 2004. Coastal Collectors in the Holocene: The Chantutu People of
Southwest Mexico. University of Florida, Gainesville.
Wahl, D., Byrne, B., Schreiner, T., Hansen, R., 2006. Holocene vegetation change in
the northern Peten and its implications for Maya prehistory. Quaternary
Research 65, 380–389.
Webster, D., 1985. Surplus, labor, and stress in Late Classic Maya society. Journal of
Anthropological Research 41, 375–399.
Webster, D., 1997. City-states of the Maya. In: Nichols, D.L., Charlton, T.H. (Eds.), The
Archaeology of City-States: Cross Cultural Perspectives. Smithsonian Institution
Press, Washington, pp. 135–154.
Webster, D., 2002. The Fall of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.
Webster, D., Freter, A., Gonlin, N., 2000. Copán: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Maya
Kingdom. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Webster, D., Freter, A., Storey, R., 2004. Dating Copán culture-history: implications
for the Terminal Classic and the collapse. In: Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M., Rice, D.S.
(Eds.), The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands. University of Colorado Press,
Boulder, pp. 231–259.
Wilk, R.R., 1991. Household Ecology: Economic Change and Domestic Life among
the Kekchi Maya in Belize. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Witschey, C.T., Brown, W.R.T., 2013. The Electronic Atlas of Ancient Maya Sites: A
Geographic Information System (GIS), http://mayagis.smv.org/.
Wood, J.W., 1998. A theory of preindustrial population dynamics: demography, econ-
omy, and well-being in Malthusian systems. Current Anthropology 39, 99–135.
Wright, L., 2006. Diet, Health, and Status Among the Pasión Maya: A Reappraisal of
the Collapse. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville.
Yaeger, J., Hodell, D., 2008. The collapse of the Maya civilization: assessing the
interaction of culture, climate, and environment. In: Sandweiss, D.H., Quilter, J.
(Eds.), El Nino, Catastrophism and Culture Change in Ancient America. Dum-
barton Oaks, Washington, DC.
Yoffee, N., Cowgill, G.L. (Eds.), 1988. The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations.
University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Zeder, M.A., 1991. Feeding Cities: Specialized Animal Economy in the Ancient Near
East. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.