Resilience and Vulnerability of Ancient Landscapes

Arlen F. Chase is a Mesoamerican archaeologist and is faculty member in the anthropology department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Previously, he served as the Departmental Chair at the University of Central Florida, noted for his work on exploring traces of Mayan civilization using lidar. Vernon L. Scarborough is the author of The Resilience and Vulnerability of Ancient Landscapes: Transforming Maya Archaeology through IHOPE, published by Wiley.

• Table of Contents  iii  Foreward v  INTRODUCTION  Chapter 1. Diversity, Resiliency, and IHOPE-Maya: Using the Past to Inform the Present Arlen F. Chase and Vernon Scarborough  1  Chapter 2. Tropical Landscapes and the Ancient Maya: Diversity in Time and Space Arlen F. Chase, Lisa J. Lucero, Vernon L. Scarborough, Diane Z. Chase, Rafael Cobos, Nicholas P. Dunning, Scott L. Fedick, Vilma Fialko, Joel D. Gunn, Michelle Hegmon, Gyles Iannone, David L. Lentz, Rodrigo Liendo, Keith Prufer, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Joseph A. Tainter, Fred Valdez Jr, and Sander E. van der Leeuw  11  Chapter 3. Water and Landscape: Ancient Maya Settlement Decisions Lisa J. Lucero, Scott L. Fedick, Nicholas P. Dunning, David L. Lentz, and Vernon L. Scarborough  30  CASE STUDIES  Chapter 4. Growth and Decline in Classic Maya Puuc Political Economies Christian Isendahl, Nicholas P. Dunning, and Jeremy A. Sabloff  43  Chapter 5. Ancient Climate and Archaeology: Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and Their Collapse at the End of the Terminal Classic Period Rafael Cobos, Guillermo de Anda Alanýs, and Roberto Garcýa Moll 56  Chapter 6. A Reassessment of Water and Soil Resources in the Flatlands of the Northern Maya Lowlands Scott L. Fedick  72  Chapter 7. Population Dynamics and Its Relation to Ancient Landscapes in the Northwestern Maya Lowlands: Evaluating Resilience and Vulnerability Rodrigo Liendo, Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo, Berenice Solis-Castillo, Sergei Sedov, and Arturo Ortiz-Perez  84  Chapter 8. Calakmul: Agent Risk and Sustainability in theWestern Maya Lowlands Joel D. Gunn, William J. Folan, Christian Isendahl, Mar´ýa del Rosario Dom´ýnguez Carrasco, Betty B. Faust,  and Beniamino Volta 101  Chapter 9. The Alternative Economy: Resilience in the Face of Complexity from the Eastern Lowlands Vernon L. Scarborough and Fred Valdez  124   Chapter 10. Path Dependency in the Rise and Denouement of a Classic Maya City: The Case of Caracol, Belize Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase  142  Chapter 11. Resilience and Vulnerability in the Maya Hinterlands Gyles Iannone, Keith Prufer, and Diane Z. Chase  155  COMPARATIVE STUDIES  Chapter 12. Transformative Relocation in the U.S. Southwest and Mesoamerica Ben A. Nelson, Adrian S. Z. Chase, and Michelle Hegmon  171  Chapter 13. Comparative Landscape Analysis: Contrasting the Middle East and Maya Regions T. J. Wilkinson  183  Chapter 14. Collapse and Sustainability: Rome, the Maya, and the Modern World Joseph A. Tainter  201  CONCLUSION  Chapter 15. Transforming Lessons from the Past into Lessons for the Future Sander E. van der Leeuw  215 List of Contributors  232