A regional perspective on biotic change during the Classic Maya occupation using zooarchaeological isotopic chemistry

This paper uses stable isotopic research on faunal remains from archaeological sites in the Maya area to describe ancient environments through time in the region. Carbon isotope signatures of white-tailed deer remains recovered from the Petexbatún and Motul de San José polities in Guatemala are combined with other published data to provide a regional diachronic perspective on variations in availability of maize, a C4 plant, to herbivores. These data are used as a proxy for the extent of agricultural fields through time across the Maya world and the results indicate considerable temporal and spatial heterogeneity, likely linked to natural environmental heterogeneity and local land-use histories. The local nature of variations underscores the need for greater detail in paleoenvironmental studies at the drainage-basin or site level. Preliminary oxygen isotope research on white-tailed deer from the Motul de San José polity is also presented as the basis for discussion of the role of archaeologically linked oxygen isotope signatures in correlating large scale climate shifts with other site-specific evidence for environmental change over the period of Maya occupation. Together discussions of the two isotopic data sets emphasize the importance of paleoenvironmental and particularly isotopic research on materials from well-dated archaeological contexts.