Agroforestry Practices of the Ancient Maya at Tikal

This study is designed to assess the impact of Maya agroforestry practices on the Tikal environs across its nearly 2000 year occupation history and evaluate the potential of the forested environment to provide the needed food, fuel and structural material. Vegetation surveys covering over 6 ha of forests in various habitats were conducted.These surveys, coupled with Landsat 7 imagry, were used to create a biomass calculation of the modern forest currently blanketing the ancient community. Agregate pollen profiles were used to estimate the forest cover during times of Maya occupation. Ethnographic studies provided a means of evaluating the polity’s wood needs for construction, cooking, plaster preparation and pottery manufacture which were substantial in a population that has been estimated between 45,000 and 285,000 inhabitants. Our results inform the understanding of forest resource use that sustained the polity through time and, ironically, may also have contributed to its ultimate demise.