Paleoethnobotanical research with the Proyecto Paisaje Piedras Negras-Yaxchilán (PPPNY) and the Proyecto Arqueológico Busiljá-Chocoljá (PABC), in the Middle Usumacinta River region of Guatemala and Mexico, is directed toward several related questions:
1) What were the impacts of human activity on local ecologies– including the effects of different kinds of terraforming, clearing practices, and crop production– on forests, swamplands, and fields?
2) What were the impacts of broad climate shifts on ethnobotanical practices such as crop production and forest management?
3) How do differences in foodways– including cultivation, collection, processing, consumption, trade, and disposal of foods—relate to differences in spatial contexts, including environmental and political conditions? and
4) How do shifts in foodways relate to changes over time in climate and sociopolitical contexts?
Our research at the ILAS involves analysis of microbotanical and macrobotanical residues recovered from sediments, artifacts, and teeth.
PPPNY and PABC project website
PPPNY 2016 Informe (in Spanish)
PPPNY 2017 Informe (in Spanish)
PABC 2018 Informe (in Spanish)
The lowland Maya settlement landscape: Environmental LiDAR and ecology