8 Calakmul: Agent Risk and Sustainability in the Western Maya Lowlands
Joel D. Gunn|William J. Folan|Christian Isendahl|María del Rosario Domínguez Carrasco|Betty Bernice Faust|Beniamino Volta
Great attention has been focused on the southern trade routes across Yucatan Peninsula through Tikal but little to potential for crossing Calakmul further north. This chapter shows that a combination of topography and politics make corridor more efficient transit route. The political turmoil generated by Teotihuacan's involvement in Lowland following C.E. 378 cascaded into centuries conflict between cities along inhabitants alternative routes. We trace evolution this as influenced landscape climate, decisions ambulatory Kaan Dynasty El Mirador, Dzibanche, finally Calkini. seems have played out elevated interior peninsula, bone contention perhaps being control Candelaria River. suggest there are sufficient parallels European Rhône River corridors draw productive analogy two, including they both fall under same synoptic climate system. Because post-Columbian world economic system rose indirectly from corridor, two systems good test bed thinking about future scale comparison is rendered feasible viewing terms information transfer which were embedded. offer three brief examples how rise decline hegemony suggests ways system: warfare, sustainable design, engineering.
Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association