Platforms in the akalche at E1 Mirador, Peten, Guatemala and their implications

Abstract

AbstractLate Preclassic Period platforms were surveyed and test‐excavated in a seasonal swamp or akalche, at the large ancient lowland Maya site of El Mirador in Peten, Guatemala. Pedological, hydrological, and archaeological evidence suggest that the climatic and hydrological regimes were drier than they are today to permit habitation and warrant the investment in labor. Nevertheless, observations of present conditions, including the clayey soils, indicate that the akalche was almost as inhospitable in antiquity as it is today, that it had the same extremely poor agricultural potentials and that intensive wetland cultivation would have necessitated sizeable investments in dams to dampen the extreme seasonal fluctuations in water levels. Dams are not observed, and evidence is elicited to indicate that they would be readily observable today had they been emplaced here in antiquity. We offer evidence suggesting that these platforms had domestic functions, but we are forced to conclude that intensive wetland cultivation did not sustain them nor this large regional center as a whole. We argue, instead, that these habitations constitute evidence for population pressures on urban upland resources, especially building sites and perhaps agricultural land. Akalche households appear to have sustained themselves, at least in part, by foraging for animal and plant foods, cordage products, building materials, and firewood. The data are inadequate to decide if these structures housed full or part time specialists, or if they were self‐sufficient in subsistence. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.