From Calakmul to the sea: The historical ecology of a classic Maya city that controlled the Candelaria/Champoton watersheds

Abstract

The Candelaria River watershed of Campeche, Mexico, and Peten, Guatemala, has shaped millennia of Maya, perhaps from their beginnings and generations of archaeologists. This chapter reviews efforts to understand Candelaria historical ecology over the past four decades, mostly in the northern branch, the Candelaria-El Caribe-Tomatillal system, as it relates to the cities of Calakmul and Uxul. Additional investigations stem from the river system farther north, the Champoton-Desempeno watershed, which also approaches Calakmul at its headwaters. Four other projects (Oxpemul, Yaxnohcah, Naachtun, Uxul) have emerged in the southern branches of the Candelaria and Desempeno in recent years, in addition to a long-standing project at El Mirador. Methods utilized range over global-local climate teleconnections, geology, ethnoecology, soil formation and transformation, geochemistry, pollen, and phytolith sampling. Brief but key statements of results for each method are reported as they contribute to a holistic perspective on the evolution and the death of Calakmul. Key interests that guided the research are the commercial location of the city and watershed in the Maya urban system, the way the watershed shaped the human settlement pattern in the west central Maya Lowlands, the socio-ecological adaptations over time, and its utility as a middle-level unit of study in links between human and Earth system changes. Finally, a nutrient flow model unifies the results into a concept that may yield deeper insights into the narrative and simulation modelling of Maya social evolution.