Melanie Pugliese's thesis research focused on reconstructing the paleoenvironment to study human-environmental interactions during the Classic Period near the Copán area of Northwestern Honduras. She studied which plants were utilized by analyzing microbotanical remains recovered from sediments and artifacts at the site of Río Amarillo. Through the analysis of starch grains and phytoliths, she demonstrated how ancient Maya people were interacting with their surrounding environment, during times of social and climatological stress. She revealed about how past societies were utilizing plant resources and how changes in the climate and the environment may have influenced agricultural practices in the area.

PARAC Project Directors: Dr. Cameron McNeil and Lic. Edy Barrios

Article: Cuisine at the Crossroads

Sarah Watson's M.A. thesis focused on the site of Macabilero, an ancient Maya community with residential, defensive, and ritual features, abandoned during the Early Classic Period (ca 400 CE). At the MPERF, Sarah identified phytoliths, starch grains, and macrobotanical remains and then interpreted the results in the context of environmental and political changes. Her research focused on plant staples at Formative Period sites as compared to staples at Classic Period sites, how these differences may have reflected changes in ethnoecology and the abandonment of Formative sites, and what the implications may be for hypotheses about the Formative Maya “collapse” that relate abandonment to ecological stress and potential crop failures.

M.A. thesis: Maya Food Strategies at Macabilero: A Paleoethnobotanical Study of Ancient Maya Agriculture and Ethnoecology during the Formative and Classic Periods

Grace Horseman’s Honours thesis enhanced current understanding of ancient Maya agriculture by considering the variety of crops grown by ancient Maya farmers (crop suitability), and investigating areas of agricultural intensification in a geospatial agricultural model (agricultural capability). Her project focused on LiDAR data collected by the Proyecto Arqueológico Busiljá-Chocoljá (PABC) and the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) in the Upper Usumacinta River region of Guatemala and Mexico. To test hypotheses regarding types of crops and placement of agricultural terraces and channelized fields in the Upper Usumacinta River region of Mexico and Guatemala, this study combined the growth requirements of 18 crops cultivated by ancient Maya farmers with LiDAR and other geospatial data in a suitability model that mapped the optimal areas of growth for each crop. The results of this study serve as a foundation for future field studies and more complex spatial models to draw further connections between agriculture and social, economic, and political organization.

Maia Dedrick (University of North Carolina) studied changing livelihood strategies pursued by residents of Tahcabo, Yucatán--a farming community--from the Classic through Colonial Periods (~300 - 1800 CE). Excavations took place within five rejolladas (sinkholes used for gardening when located within settlements) and six residential platforms spanning distinct time periods. While at McMaster University, Dedrick investigated economic activities and food strategies at Tahcabo through an analysis of phytolith and starch grains found on groundstone tools and in soils from relevant contexts identified during excavation.

PACOY Project Directors: Dr. Patricia A. McAnany and Dr. Iván Batún Alpuche

PACOY project website

PDF of PhD dissertation: The Archaeology of Colonial Maya Livelihoods at Tahcabo, Yucatán, Mexico  

In the high-elevation environment of the Upper Gunnison Basin (Colorado), fluctuating mid-Holocene climatic conditions culminated in the extirpation of Pinyon pine (Pinion edulis) by 3,000 B.P. and altered the distribution of other economically important resources. According to contemporary cultural history models, Late Prehistoric occupants of the basin began to focus on long-range logistical bison hunting and relocated base camps to outside of the basin. However, archaeological excavations at 5GN1.2 and a few other sites challenge this narrative. For this project, Jonathan M. Peart conducted a macrobotanical analysis of materials recovered from site 5GN1.2 to better understand the role that plants played during the Late Prehistoric in the Upper Gunnison Basin. Research questions guiding this study included: What plant resources were used by the occupants of the site? Can the identified plant remains provide evidence of site occupation seasonality or duration? Can the identified plant remains provide information of prehistoric feature use, size and construction design? Are there any temporal patterns evident in the use of plants at site 5GN1.2? Can these patterns provide clues on paleoenvironmental conditions, regional demographics or changing land-use or mobility strategies?

Project Director: Jonathan M. Peart, MS, RPA

Final report: "Macrobotanical Analysis of Archaeological Materials Recovered from Site 5GN1.2, Gunnison County, Colorado"

Kacey Grauer (Northwestern University) studied human-environment interactions during sociopolitical and ecological change at the ancient Maya city of Aventura, Belize. She investigated how people were using pocket bajos (small depressions likely used for agriculture or water management) during the Terminal Classic/Early Postclassic (ca. 750-1100 CE), a time of regional sociopolitical reorganization and drought when Aventura was flourishing. At the MPERF, Grauer worked to identify phytoliths indicative of wetlands and agricultural fields from pocket bajo soils and groundstone tools recovered during preliminary excavations at Aventura.

Aventura Archaeology Project (AAP) Project Director: Dr. Cynthia Robin

Dissertation (2021): Ontologies, Ecologies, and Inequalities: Human-Environment Relationships at the Ancient Maya City of Aventura, Belize

Éloi Bérubé examined the residues of plants in ceramic vessels recovered from burials at the site of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. Bérubé identified phytoliths and starch grains extracted from those vessels to provide an understanding of plants possibly placed along with the vessels as offerings. These data have allowed for a better understanding of mortuary practices at the site of Palenque.

Project Director: Dr. Lisa Johnson

Shanti Morell-Hart studied changes in human-environmental transformations over time, comparing cuisines from several ancient communities within and near the Copán area of Northwestern Honduras.  She recovered a rich archaeobotanical data set that included both microbotanical and macrobotanical residues recovered from bulk flotation samples and extracted from artifacts.  She addressed evidence of human resilience during times of social and climatological stress.  She also explored the dynamic overlap between northern and southern societies, where Northwestern Honduras served as a sort of regional crossroads. 

PARAC project directors: Dr. Cameron McNeil and Lic. Edy Barrios

Article: Cuisine at the Crossroads

In her M.A. thesis, Sophie Reilly researched foodways of the Late Formative period (200 BC-300 AD) in the Lake Titicaca basin of highland Bolivia. She studied both the plant remains of food as well as the ceramic vessels in which food was prepared, stored, and consumed. In another McMaster lab, the Lab for Interdisciplinary Research on Archaeological Ceramics (LIRAC), Reilly studied ceramic attributes to learn about the technological choices that potters made while producing these vessels. In the MPERF, Reilly recovered microbotanical residues from the ceramic sherds to identify the plants that were present in the ceramic vessels. By studying both ceramics and food remains, Reilly explored the daily practices that went into preparing meals in the Late Formative Period.

Project director: Dr. Andrew P. Roddick

Plants in Transit Communities: Circulating Tubers and Maize in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia

M.A. Thesis: Meals in Motion: A Study of Foodways using Ceramic and Botanical Datasets in Late Formative and Tiwanaku Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia

AnthroDish podcast: Episode 13: Sophie Reilly on Ancient Bolivian Foodways and Mobility

Éloi Bérubé used paleoethnobotanical methods to analyze plant uses at two archaeological sites. The samples collected at La Consentida by Dr. Guy Hepp and his team came from different contexts, including grave goods. By identifying phytoliths and starch grains from artifacts dating from the Early Formative period, Bérubé illuminated plant uses in everyday lives and in the ritual and sacred realm. Éloi Bérubé also studied artifacts left as offerings at the Terminal Formative site of Cerro de la Virgen, where he examined the use of plants in sacred rituals. This research helped to indicate the potential for further paleoethnobotanical analysis on the site.

La Consentida Project Director: Dr. Guy Hepp; Cerro de la Virgen Project Director: Jeff Brzezinski

Rio Verde project website

Article: Paleoethnobotanical evidence of Early Formative period diet in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico 

Meghan Macleod studied dietary trends as they relate to the sociopolitical environment and food security of Classic period (350-950 CE) Maya populations in the Usumacinta Basin. In the field in Chiapas, she extracted microbotanical samples from human teeth and floated macrobotanical samples in search of evidence of plant food consumption. 

Sophie Reilly investigated questions surrounding agricultural practices and human-environmental relations at the Maya site Motul de San José. Reilly employed phytolith analysis of soil samples excavated from various sectors throughout the site.  She traced the sectors that may have been used for agriculture and which plant species people may have been cultivating. This research has contributed to knowledge about how people at Motul de San José interacted with their environment, furthering research about daily life in the Classic Maya Period. 

Motul Project Directors: Dr. Kitty Emery and Dr. Antonia Foias

Motul Project Website