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Science 25 September 1981:
Vol. 213. no. 4515, pp. 1457 - 1468
DOI: 10.1126/science.213.4515.1457
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Articles

Radar Mapping, Archeology, and Ancient Maya Land Use

R. E. W. Adams 1, W. E. Brown Jr. 2, and T. Patrick Culbert 3

1 Professor of anthropology, University of Texas, San Antonio 78285
2 Senior radar scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91103
3 Professor of anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721.

A severe incongruity has long existed between the well-known complexity of ancient Maya civilization and the relatively feeble economic base that could be reconstructed for it. Recent fieldwork has ihdicated that much more intensive cultivation patterns were used than was previously thought. Data from the use of synthetic aperture radar in aerial surveys of the southern Maya lowlands suggest that large areas were drained by ancient canals that may have been used for intensive cultivation. Ground checks in several limited areas have confirmed the existence of canals, and excavations and ground surveys have provided valuable comparative information. Taken together, the new data suggest that Late Class period Maya civilization was firmly grounded in large-scale and intensive cultivation of swampy zones.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Nucleation of Population and Water Storage Among the Ancient Maya.
R. E. W. ADAMS (1991)
Science 251, 632
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)