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Researchers have long argued that the ancient Maya actively exploited forest resources, but the nature of these forest economies and their long-term impact on the landscape are still vigorously debated. We address this issue through charcoal analysis at the Classic site of Naachtun (Northern Guatemala), systematically analyzing the use of the breadnut ( Brosimum alicastrum ) and sapodilla ( Manilkara zapota ) trees for domestic firewood over eight centuries. These two species are among the most economically and ecologically valuable for modern Maya people, and have been at the core of the debate concerning ancient Maya subsistence economy. We carry out an experimental anthracological study and discuss the implications of its results from a diachronic and taphonomic perspective for the ancient Maya site of Naachtun. We assume that sapodilla wood was intensively exploited as a primary source of fuel throughout the site's occupation history, and that its importance in the fuel economy until the city's abandonment was the product of careful management practices. Our results also indicate that breadnut wood use may have been much more significant than generally perceived in the charcoal records of Maya Lowland sites. An increase in breadnut wood use during the Late Classic, which corresponds to the demographic apogee of Naachtun, is evidence that this tree was of sufficient economic and/or ecological importance to be maintained despite the growing population pressure on the local forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Maya early Anthropocene (2000 BCE – 1000 CE) in Mesoamerica, socio-environmental interactions contributed to the rise and decline of the ancient Maya civilisation. At the scale of the exploitation territories of the Maya cities, the temporal variations of hydrological and sedimentary dynamics in response to anthropogenic and climate drivers are still poorly known. This constrains diachronic analyses of socio-ecosystems and, more particularly, of water and soil resources in the hinterlands. This manuscript analyses and presents a regional comparison of the dynamics of one of the most transformed hydrosystems and morpho-sedimentary systems by the societies of the Southern Maya Lowlands (SMLs), during the second half of the Holocene. It focuses on the lake basin of the polje named El Infierno bajo and its watershed, which was the main water storage area for the Maya city of Naachtun – a large regional capital between 150 and 950 CE –, and which contains many remains of hydraulic and agrarian structures. This integrated palaeolimnological, geoarchaeological and hydrological approach, based on the analyses of morpho-sedimentary archives, LiDAR altimetry data and hydrological data, resulted in the construction of hydro-sedimentary baselines (pre- syn- and post-ancient Maya anthropogenic impacts). Currently, the intermittent lake (civale) of this bajo responds to strong seasonal and interannual hydrological variabilities, under climate control. During the past 5500 years, hydro-sedimentary fluctuations were marked by the alternation of seven main hydrological periods (HP), characterised by high and low lake levels (alternately perennial, intermittent and dry lake) and six main erosion and sediment transfer periods (ESTP), marked by strong and low alluvial and colluvial detrital inputs in the lowlands. Anthropogenic and climate forcings have independently or jointly controlled the hydrologic and sedimentary budgets of the lake basin. Lithofacies, depositional processes, accumulation rates and drivers of the anthropogenic detrital inputs – the so-called "Maya clays" –, are analysed and quantified from ∼1500 BCE to ∼1150 CE. It thus reveals one of the longest periods of occupation and exploitation of natural resources of the SMLs, for over 2500 years during the Preclassic, Classic and Post-classic Maya periods. The hydro-sedimentary dynamics in the bajos of the SMLs Elevated Interior Region (EIR), such as El Infierno, enabled the long-term exploitation of water and soil resources for agrarian purposes, thanks to the construction of hydraulic and agrarian palimpsest landscapes shaped by the socio-ecosystems. • Wetlands palaeolimnology, geoarchaeology and hydrology based on sedimentary, LiDAR and hydrological data. • Current strong seasonal and interannual hydrological variabilities of the bajos, under climate control. • 7 hydrological periods and 6 erosion and sediment transfer periods during the past 5500 years. • Anthropogenic and climate forcings controlled the hydrologic and sedimentary budgets of the lake. • A long-term exploitation of water and soil resources in Maya Lowlands EIR (1500 BCE to 1150 CE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]