This article places Maya civilization in a global perspective and discusses its rise and fall, especially at Ceibal, Guatemala, in relation to environmental changes. Maya civilization was the most sophisticated urban civilization based on lithic technology in human history. At Ceibal, Maya civilization arose about 1,000B.C., some 300 years earlier than previously believed, and flourished for 2,000 years. In the 2nd century, some Maya cities declined while Ceibal continued to develop its urban setting. Ceibal declined partially in the 5^th century but revived during the 7^th century. The city became the most dominant power in the southern Maya lowlands during the 9^th century, while many other Maya cities were declining. Our research project “Pan Pacific environmental changes and civilizations” carried out drilling in lakes near Ceibal and discovered annually laminated sediments for the first time in the Maya area. We are about to investigate the inter-relationships between the high-resolution environmental history and the rise and fall of Maya civilization.

View full abstract

This paper elucidates the resilience mechanism created by Mayan women’s weaving and clothing from the sequence of events that led to the lion design that began to be woven in the fall of 1999 by the women of the Mayan village of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, in the central Guatemalan Highlands, and then was duplicated in the neighboring village of Nahualá in the summer of 2002. I focus on various designs of both villages with which decorate the woven cloth and on a discourse about borrowing and lending the woven cloth, which is had in common between Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán and Nahualá.
The lion design was created in the midst of a land ownership dispute with Nahualá over the relocation destination of Santa Catarina to “Alaska” (the name given by locals to the new town) in November 1999 after a hurricane had caused major landslides in the original town. This design eventually started also being woven in the neighboring village of Nahualá.
The women of both villages use backstrap looms to make cloth with a variety of designs, including that of the lion, and then use this cloth to make a type of tunic that they wear called a huipil. The reasons why the women of both villages—while looking askance at the men in confrontation over a land ownership dispute—wove the lion design and wore the same huipil will be analyzed through a study that follows the changes in clothing between the late 1990s and the present, as well as ethnographic data.
By following the footsteps of the lion design’s creation in Santa Catarina and its spread to Nahualá, quiet indications of a return to friendly relations through the sharing of the design between the women of the two villages can be seen. Through this process, which was neither intentional nor political, each village would make its own original, and clothes and, by continuing to wear them, each and every woman drew on this power of self-healing, which in turn was a form of resilience. This type of work, which continues to be done by women to this day, is supported by the looms that date back to the ancient Mayan civilization and the legendary “costumbre” (“customs”) handed down by the ancestors of each village.
This resilience has progressed up to now in a unique way by containing the cultural continuity that links modern women with those of the time of the Mayan civilization through the use of the backstrap loom, while also adding each era’s changes to the woven fabrics and clothes.
It can therefore be said that there continues to be potential for collective representations of peace and coexistence to be nurtured by the hands of the Mayan women of the Guatemalan Highlands.

View full abstract

The Aztec Kingdom, formed by a Triple Alliance among the city-states of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan in the Valley of Mexico, immensely flourished from 1428 to 1521. In particular, the age of Motecuzoma I (1440-1469) in Aztec history is thought to be a period filled with drastic social changes. During the 1440s natural disasters struck one after another, and a severe famine lasted for 5 years beginning in 1450 due to a series of extraordinary weather events. Food shortages, epidemics, and population outflow from the Valley seriously affected the fate of the Kingdom. Archaeological evidence of child sacrifices offered to the Rain god, corresponding to this period, have been unearthed from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Just after the devastating disasters, however, the Aztec armies immediately invaded the fertile and rainy region of the Gulf Coast. The State quickly undertook both the expansion of chinampa fields over the southern lakes in the Valley and the reconstruction of an aqueduct for the purpose of preventing future disasters. Likewise, the cyclic occurrence of drought was interpreted in the Aztec mythological context and was employed in order to modify the traditional ritual called “Binding of the Years” for displaying the State’s religious and political influence in the Valley. Consequently the Kingdom rapidly expanded its sphere of influence all over Mesoamerica.
This paper analyzes the socio-cultural effects of these natural disasters and the Aztec style of disaster management, based upon ethnohistorical records together with related dendrochronological research results. Then it theorizes the changes in environmental cognition in Aztec society from a diachronic point of view.
In civilized societies people’s experience of coping with various disasters could motivate them to reorganize their environmental cognition, to direct their attention to environmental problems, and to develop environmental technology.

View full abstract

What is generally known as the Aztec Kingdom, based on the domains of three city-states situated in the Valley of Mexico, Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Tlacopan, flourished between 1428 and 1521 in the Mesoamerican Postclassic period. This article reviews the historical context not only of the Postclassic period but also of its conquest and colonial domination by the Spaniards and, later, some of the studies on the natural disasters that the Aztecs suffered during this time. The existence of rich documentation on Aztec history, especially documents written in the Nahuatl language, and recent advances in their analysis will be considered, in order to demonstrate that consulting the original documents can bring us more detailed information on Aztec environmental history. Additionally, the article refers to some trends in the study of Mesoamerican religious rites and visions of the cosmos. Such work is of great importance, not only for understanding the actual events that occurred (natural disasters they suffered, for example) but also for exploring the way Mesoamerican peoples interpreted those facts and their surroundings, and is crucial to deepening the study of the environmental history of civilizations.

View full abstract

There appears to be no cogent reason why lines and geoglyphs were drawn on the Nasca Pampas, but the most plausible explanation may be that they had been delineated for the sake of praying for a good harvest. The aim of this study is to examine the peasants’ knowledge of meteorological phenomena in the neigh-boring areas around the Nasca Pampas along the south coast of Peru. This research will lay basic groundwork for a forthcoming archaeological study of the Nasca lines. The field investigation has clarified four types of meteorological knowledge shared by peasants near the Nasca Pampas :
(1) Agricultural water near the Nasca Pampas is derived from rainfall in the Andes.
(2) It rains in the Andes when coast drizzle goes inland and breaks against highland drizzle.
(3) It does not rain even during the rainy season when the coast drizzle does not move to the highland.
(4) It rains in the Andes when peasants carry sea water in pots from the coast to the highland.

View full abstract

The Ryukyu archipelago is located between Kyushu, Japan, and Taiwan, and consists of more than 200 islands. The archaeology of the archipelago was considered merely as the archaeology of the southwestern region of the Japanese archipelago until recently. One approach lacking in Ryukyu archaeology was biogeographical perspectives. When the archaeology of the archipelago is studied in the context of biogeography, the region provides evidence about extremely important phenomena to human history. In this paper, two such phenomena are presented.
First, it was known from approximately 40 years ago that Homo sapiens existed in the region during the Late Pleistocene. As of today, a dozen sites have yielded human fossil remains or lithic artifacts dated between 18,000 and 32,000BP. When this phenomenon is examined and compared to other islands, one will recognize that this is a rare case in the world since only a handful of islands were colonized by modern humans during the Pleistocene.
Second, it is said that an island environment is very fragile. It can easily deteriorate, especially when Homo sapiens have colonized an island. Historically, once Homo sapiens settled islands, numerous animal species became extinct. Also, they modified island ecosystems by introducing not only human beings but also domesticated animals and plants. The environmental deterioration after human colonization of islands is rather considered as the rule. However, in the case of the Ryukyu archipelago, we do not have any evidence of animal extinction. Moreover, we do not have any data which strongly indicate that humans induced environmental change or deterioration.

View full abstract

Based on archaeological data obtained from the Shellmidden period sites in the Northern Ryukyu Archipelago (Tokara, Amami, and Okinawa islands), I have introduced three phases in the period : Nomadic (ca.7,000-4,500BP), Sedentary (ca.4,500-2,500BP), and Trade (ca.2,500-1,000BP). During the Nomadic phase human groups were mobile hunter-gatherers. However, during the Sedentary phase, as the name implies, human groups were less mobile, and some kind of “territoriality” appears to have emerged. The latter also modified their surrounding environment and began to transform natural landscapes into artificial landscapes. This paper examines “territoriality” during the Sedentary phase using the Voronoi diagram analysis, which elucidated the presence of “territories” during this period. These “territories” were likely utilized for daily life. In addition to these “territories”, there seems to have been activity areas which went beyond these “territories” in order to obtain locally unavailable resources or expand exchange networks.

View full abstract

Island Melanesia is a series of archipelagoes extending to the southeast of mainland New Guinea, including the Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. This part of the Pacific is characterized by considerably rich environments and cultural diversity. While sharing the same subsistence basis represented by the cultivation of root crops and arboriculture, Island Melanesians exploit and utilize a wider range of resources than do Polynesians. Ethnographically documented sociopolitical systems in Melanesia are largely egalitarian, with competitive leadership systems such as big-men are typically used. Taking Vanuatu as an area for a case study, this article examines the nature of subsistence strategies in Island Melanesia and their link to sociopolitical systems with ethnographic and archaeological perspectives. Northern Vanuatu, which has competitive political systems of grade taking, exhibits an interesting geographical divide between taro and yam cultivation. By emphasizing social production and associated food processing technologies, the role of cultural values in shaping and intensifying subsistence strategies is discussed.
Thus far, available archaeological evidence regarding subsistence activities and later social transformations is limited in Vanuatu. While early occupants adapted to the local environment and regions in the south became gradually isolated, northern regions seem to have maintained a certain degree of regional inter-group interactions up to the ethnographic period, as inferred by the existence of similar sociopolitical systems as well as shared cultural traits, values, and practices. It is likely that the major transformations leading to the emergence of ethnographically known systems would have taken place in the last 700 years or so. Further progress in archaeological investigations specifically focusing on this period, as well as in paleoenvironmental research, is necessary for elucidating environmental and social factors that are responsible for this transformation.

View full abstract

At a time when humanity is faced by unprecedented anthropogenic climate change and the increasing destruction of ecosystem services, how can archaeology build strategies to increase the resilience of social-ecological systems? Archaeology has only recently begun to consider this question. In this paper, we first discuss reasons why Japanese archaeology has paid little attention to how human activity and human cultures are connected to ecosystems. The work of Yoshinori Yasuda is used as an example of how the historical development of archaeology in Japan has worked to obstruct such research. The paper then summarizes the main components of resilience-based stewardship of social-ecological systems and goes on to suggest some possible archaeological strategies for contributing to such stewardship.

View full abstract

Tephra layers provide time markers to sedimentary sequences in marine and terrestrial environments. Therefore, this feature is useful as platform for crosschecking among various dating and environmental studies. On a land surface, continuous accumulation of loam and humic soil layers allows the preservation of tephra layers. Throughout just the Holocene, for example, Adak Island in the Aleutian Islands has been covered by a sequence of soil-tephra complexes. In the Philippines, the discovery of co-ignimbrite ash-falls of Irosin ignimbrite is a first step for establishing a chronological framework. It is necessary to conduct core-drilling and stratigraphic studies in an artificial trench to obtain good samples for various analyses. In Tanegashima Island, the radiocarbon dates for Tn2 and Tn4 imply that accumulation rate is not constant between K-Tz (95ka) and AT (30ka). Precise age determination for B-Tm has been done by varve chronology and ¹⁴C wiggle-matching methods. This crosschecking process is very important for developing a dating method. Tephra layers in lacustrine play a role as time control. The data sets from varve counting and ¹⁴C dates provide accurate ages of tephra layers. Crypto-/micro-tephras contribute as time-markers. However, this method has the potential to be wrong. In fact, U-Oki has been correlated with U-2 in Ulleung Island, based on recognition of a K-Ah horizon. Radiocarbon dating in the island allows us to correlate U-4 with U-Oki.

View full abstract

This paper proposes the existence of a Pan Pacific life civilization. Conventional concepts in the study of civilization have all been modeled on civilization developed by a wheat-cultivating pastoral culture in which the main diet consists of bread, milk, and meat. The Mesopotamia, Indus River, Egypt, and Yellow River civilizations have all risen from societies that keep either sheep and goats as livestock and consume their milk and meat.
However, a completely distinct type of civilization has existed in the Pan Pacific region, of which the Yangtze River, Maya, and Andes civilizations are the prime examples. The Yangtze River civilization was a rice-cultivating piscatory culture with a diet composed mainly of rice and fish and devoid of milk from livestock such as sheep and goats.
The staple foods of the Maya and the Andes civilizations were potatoes and corn, and although their diet included the meat of llama and alpaca, milk from these animals was not consumed. The Pan Pacific life civilization lacked sheep and goats, so its impact on ecosystems was small. The Pan Pacific life civilization was a milkless civilization and respected life and worshipped nature, preserving the circulation of forest and water.

View full abstract