Ancient Maya Wetland Agricultural Fields in Cobweb Swamp, Belize: Construction, Chronology, and Function

Abstract

A series of channel/island features at the archaeological site of Colha on the margins of Cobweb Swamp in northern Belize were determined to be relics of ancient wetland agricultural fields. Conformation of the stratigraphy in both mounded and non mounded areas, as examined in pits and trenches, revealed definite human modification of the buried Cobweb Paleosol. Radiocarbon assays of sediment and charcoal suggest the Maya dug ditches in the Cobweb surface by at least A.C. 600 and possibly much earlier, in the Late Preclassic or Middle Preclassic, probably in an attempt to manage water levels and enable crop production on the fertile swamp-margin soils. The wetland fields were buried by the Maya Clay, apparently the result of erosion of the adjacent upland soils. The Maya Clay probably began to accumulate on the Swamp margin as soon as the Maya began cropping the adjacent uplands, but the bulk of it was deposited after about A.C. 850. The Maya may have continued to crop the fertile wetland fields even after massive deposition of the Maya Clay.