Elliot M. Abrams

The Causes and Consequences of Deforestation Among the Prehistoric Maya

The collapse of the Classic Maya state is investigated from an ecological perspective. Settlement and palynological data from the Maya center of Copan, Honduras, are presented which indicate that substantial clearing of the upland pine forest had occurred prior to and during the abandonment of that urban center. A comparative use- rate analysis suggests that the increased clearing of pine was primarily caused by demands for domestic fuel wood by an expanding urban population. This forest mismanagement is directly linked to accelerated erosion rates which are considered primary elements in the collapse of the Maya state.

Economic specialization and construction personnel in Classic period Copan, Honduras

The degree of development of specialist positions associated with large-scale construction at the Maya site of Copan, Honduras, is evaluated. The methodology used involves the quantification of energy, in human labor, which was expended in the construction of Str. 10L-22, a major palace in the Main Center of Copan. The results suggest that few specialists were required, and that the vast majority of construction personnel were unspecialized conscripts. Moreover, the absolute energetic investment was low, suggesting that energetic expenditures in largescale architecture could not have been a major source of stress on the Late Classic Maya socioeconomic system.

Architectural Energetics, Ancient Monuments, and Operations Management

Architectural energetics, subsumed within replicative archaeology, provides a means through which buildings are translated into labor-time estimates. To date, the majority of architectural energetics analyses have generated comparative measures of architectural costs, equating these with a vertical structure of political power and authority within and among societies. The present analysis expands the application of architectural energetics by subjecting construction labor costs to an analysis based on concepts central to the Theory of Constraints, which is widely applied in modern operations management. This modeling generates a hypothetical set of behavioral patterns performed by general laborers within a construction project and explicates a method which allows further exploration into the question of labor organization (i.e., allocation and articulation of workers), as well as perhaps other economic organization, in an archaeological context. The case example is Structure 10L-22, a large Mayan palace at the site of Copan, Honduras.

A Late Classic lime-plaster kiln from the Maya centre of Copan, Honduras

Under and behind the splendours of Maya ceremonial buildings are the craft skills of the artisans who put them up. A first find of a lime-plaster kiln, from Copan in Honduras, illuminates one of those technologies, the burning of lime in a closed oven rather than on an open-air pyre.

An essay on energetics : the construction of the Aztec chinampa system

The authors describe an ingenious Aztec form of irrigated field system and assess its costs and benefits. Swamps were reclaimed by digging channels by hand and the excavated soil used to construct embanked fields (chinampas). The banks were anchored by planted trees and the trees, the crops and the water channels created a sheltered space which itself raised the temperature and increased productivity. The construction of the whole system took 25 million person-days spread over 40 years. In their study of the energetics of construction, the authors show that this project, forced on the local community, was within their capacity and comparable to the labour expended on the production of cloth.

An Elite Compound at Copan, Honduras

Abstract Although the Lowland Maya site of Copan, in western Honduras, has been the focus of archaeological research for a century, most excavations have been centered on the ruins of the Main Group. A major objective of the current Copan Archaeological Project is the complete excavation of a series of archaeological complexes in the densely settled Sepultura residential zone NE of the Main Group. In 1980–1981 an impressive compound, Plaza A, was largely exposed. Excavation data indicate that this major architectural complex functioned as an elite residential zone, but had important political and possible ritual functions as well. In addition to well-preserved architecture, data from Plaza A include features consistent with domestic functions and a corpus of new sculpture, most notably a beautiful hieroglyphic bench from the main structure.

Environmental Change Since the Woodland Period in the Mid-Ohio Valley: Results from Patton Bog Sediment Core Palynological Analyses

Abstract Palynological analyses of sediment cores from Patton Bog in southeastern Ohio recorded environmental changes from ca. 1000 B.C. to the present, representing the first pollen core analyzed from this region. Pollen data show an increase in prairie species, implying periodic expansion of grassland environments during the Woodland period coeval with the initial collection and eventual domestication of Eastern Agricultural Complex seeds. It is suggested that these environmental changes influenced human decisions concerning plant domestication and diet in the mid-Ohio Valley.

The Taber Well Site (33HO611): A Middle Woodland Habitation and Surplus Lithic Production Site in the Hocking Valley, Southeastern Ohio

Abstract From ca. 1500 B.C. through A.D. 300, small indigenous communities in southeastern Ohio incrementally increased their population size, adopted a more sedentary lifeway within recognized territories, formalized the burial of select individuals in mounds, and supplemented their hunting and gathering economy with gardening. Data from the Taber Well site (33HO611) are presented, from which we infer that surplus lithic production was taking place at the site. We suggest that surplus production of utilitarian goods was part of the economy of this and other local communities, especially within an environment of uneven resource distribution. This observation is contextualized within models of Middle Woodland exchange and specialization.

Houses in a Landscape: Memory and Everyday Life in Mesoamerica by Julia A. Hendon (review)

Archaeologists typically initiate the analysis of excavated materials by asking an array of fundamental questions, such as those involving the processes of artifact manufacture, the function and distribution of artifacts within a society, and the representation of status and power by various artifacts. Through her years of archaeological research at the pre-Columbian Honduran sites of Copan, Cerro Palenque, and Cuyumapa, Julia A. Hendon has conducted those basic and important types of analyses. This book, however, represents the logical extension of her prior scholarship and is perhaps her most ambitious, addressing the issue of social memory as reflected in the rich archaeological data of those three societies.