Territory, society and climate in the Southern Maya Lowlands: causes and consequences of a systemic socio-environmental mutation in tropical forest between 600 and 900 CE
Projet inter-MSH 2024-2025 : MSHS Sud-est (coordinator), MSHE, MSH Mondes
Scientific coordinator: Lydie Dussol (UniCA, CEPAM)
Scientific partners: Boris Vannière (MSHE), Chloé Andrieu (CNRS, ArchAm), Julien Sion (CEMCA, ArchAm), Carlos Avendaño (Earth Sciences & Local Sovereignty Group), Renaldo Gastineau (EDYTEM, Université Savoie Mont Blanc)
Key words: Maya, Tropical forest, Climate change, Human impact, Socio-ecological mutations
The southern Maya lowlands are a shadow area in the current debate on Maya archaeology. Despite abundant water resources, it was in this region of central Guatemala that the first cities were abruptly abandoned around 800 AD. But the hypothesis of a widespread agricultural, economic and political crisis caused by exceptional droughts in stressed environments is still unresolved. Backed to the Raxruha-Cancuén archaeological project supported by the MEAE, the LACHUA project aims to fill this gap by building a regional environmental framework that is currently lacking. We propose 1) to initiate an anthracological study of the two major regional cities: Cancuén and Raxruha, in order to obtain an initial picture of the forest cover during the Late Classic period (AD 600-800), and 2) to get an original test core in the deep zone of Lake Lachua in order to assess the potential of the lake archive. The approaches used will draw on geosciences, palaeoecology and archaeology to study this tropical socioecosystem, its recent history and the issues for the coming decades. This project, involving fieldwork and laboratory analysis, has a strong international dimension, based on collaboration between French and Guatemalan universities, and is an essential stage in obtaining results that will support a largerscale project.
