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Mayans converted wetlands to farmland
Nature ^ | November 5, 2010 | Amanda Mascarelli

Posted on 12/09/2010 8:01:31 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Using new techniques and extensive excavations, researchers have found that the Maya coped with tough environmental conditions by developing ingenious methods to grow crops in wetland areas. "The work shows that this intensive agriculture is more complicated and on a par with these other areas of intellectual development," says Timothy Beach, a physical geographer at Georgetown University in Washington DC, who presented his findings on Wednesday at the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Denver, Colorado.

The Maya civilization, considered one of the most advanced ancient societies, lived in sprawling and densely populated pockets from the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico to Honduras in Central America. The civilization arose before 1000 BC and reached its height from about 400 BC to 900 AD...

It has long been suspected that the Maya relied heavily on agriculture. In the 1970s, researchers began characterizing the remains of elaborate irrigation canals found in wetland areas. But it has not been clear how widespread these canals were or whether the use of wetlands for farming was an important part of the Maya agricultural system...

One of the reasons some scholars dismissed the idea that wetlands were fundamentally important to the Maya is that they are often far from famous sites such as Tikal and Chichen Itza. But there must have been dense populations living in rural areas near wetlands, far from the glitzy urban centres, says Beach.

(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; maya; mayan; mayans
Maya irrigation canals at "Birds of Paradise" site in northwest Belize. -- S. Luzzadder-Beach

Mayans converted wetlands to farmland

1 posted on 12/09/2010 8:01:34 AM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: decimon; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

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2 posted on 12/09/2010 8:03:35 AM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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Can't use this, link only:
3 posted on 12/09/2010 8:04:06 AM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Had they been in the United States and tried doing that, they would have been fined millions of dollars under the Clean Water Act.


4 posted on 12/09/2010 8:09:08 AM PST by La Lydia
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To: La Lydia
Had they been in the United States and tried doing that, they would have been fined millions of dollars under the Clean Water Act.

"Those Bastards!"

---Eric Cartman

5 posted on 12/09/2010 8:17:23 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine (/s, in case you need to ask)
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To: La Lydia

LOL!


6 posted on 12/09/2010 8:25:27 AM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: La Lydia; SunkenCiv; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SierraWasp; Grampa Dave
Lisa Jackson and the long arm of the EPA will soon be filing a lawsuit in Federal District Court against all ancestors of the Mayan extraction for blatant violation of the "Wetlands Act" and the "Clean Air & Water Act".

No noble savages these were, they raped and pillaged a vital eco-system and they must now pay.

7 posted on 12/09/2010 9:29:21 AM PST by BOBTHENAILER (EPA will RUIN America)
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To: BOBTHENAILER

Ain’t it the truth?!? BWAAAHA HA HA!!!


8 posted on 12/09/2010 9:39:11 AM PST by SierraWasp (What's worse... shutting down government, or the private sector with uncertainty???)
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To: SunkenCiv

When Mayan barbarians drain swamps for productive use, they’re “an advanced civilation. When Americans do the same thing, we’re planet-raping imperialists.

How far does the liberal yardstick bend?


9 posted on 12/09/2010 9:40:15 AM PST by IronJack (=)
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To: blam

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2640042/posts?page=3#3


10 posted on 12/09/2010 9:50:46 AM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: IronJack

The researcher practically had an orgasm, from the sound of his constant string of praise for a group of people who were probably fighting a drought and in the process making the “ecosystem” around them suffer even more. :’)


11 posted on 12/09/2010 10:05:05 AM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SunkenCiv

And the environmentalists are converting farmland into wetland, actually wasteland. The hell with food, they believe that they will be able to import theirs. It is the sheep who will starve. The sheep? They are shouting Whee,Whee all the way home[ to the camps].


12 posted on 12/09/2010 10:11:34 AM PST by sport
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To: SunkenCiv
From the Sydney World Herald:

http://media.smh.com.au/drive/car-news/the-worlds-fastest-road-car-2087420.html

I want a ride.

*********************************

The world's fastest road car (05:04)

Zero to 100kmh in two and a half seconds. Drive climbs into the cockpit of the 736kW Bugatti Veyron for a spin around Sandown Raceway. 09/12/10

13 posted on 12/09/2010 11:05:31 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: SunkenCiv
Excellent.
(Part of a bigger suprise someday)
14 posted on 12/09/2010 11:11:25 AM PST by blam
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To: sport

It’s part of the long range planning of our enemies — we won’t have any way to produce anything, not even the electronics — and the food supply will be crucial.


15 posted on 12/09/2010 12:13:07 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SunkenCiv
It has long been suspected that the Maya relied heavily on agriculture. In the 1970s, researchers began characterizing the remains of elaborate irrigation canals found in wetland areas. But it has not been clear how widespread these canals were or whether the use of wetlands for farming was an important part of the Maya agricultural system...

Well, yeah, somebody had to be growing a whole lotta food to support those cities.

16 posted on 12/09/2010 12:14:29 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Yeah, I could go for that. I’d have to deal with the brain-dead idea of putting speed bumps in many of Grand Rapids’ public streets, while A) letting the potholes go and B) pushing for a tax increase to avoid reductions of police coverage we already voted a tax increase to support and are clearly not getting (else why the speed bumps).


17 posted on 12/09/2010 12:15:03 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: colorado tanker

The rafts on which food was grown in the boggy lake around Tenochtitlan were perhaps more impressive — they managed three crops a year, and in a two-season tropical area like the Mayans had, they should have been able to do at least that well. But yeah, a lot of labor was needed for those pyramid projects, and the next one started on top of the previous (at times), making it a decades- or century-long process.


18 posted on 12/09/2010 12:39:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SierraWasp
"Ain’t it the truth?!?
19 posted on 12/09/2010 10:33:22 PM PST by Beowulf9
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