Since 1991,
Timothy Beach has traveled to the Maya Lowlands of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala -- the region once populated by the Maya civilization that flourished from 2000 B.C. to 900 A.D. By researching the wetlands in the area, the professor has been able to chart how the civilization adapted to its changing environment.
Beach, a professor of geography and geoscience in the Walsh School of Foreign Service’s
Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) program, became particularly intrigued by the surrounding wetlands because he knew they played important roles in the Maya livelihood, as well as human history. The fact that there was such a scarce amount of research on that environment further prompted his interest.
“Wetlands, known for their well-known repository of information on the past, combine sedimentary and biological records that are up to 5,000 years old,” says Beach. “Humans have always tried to live near wetlands because they provide myriad resources for hunting and gathering, and they are among the richest environments for agricultural uses.”
Beach has spent the past eight summers in Belize studying two new environments -- the Chan Cahal and Birds of Paradise wetlands.
Through his extensive research, Beach can now help explain how wetlands formed over the last 5,000 years with natural factors and human factors, providing evidence of ancient hurricanes, natural and climatically induced erosion and deposition, human manipulation and response to changes in sea level.
The last few months have been busy for Beach, who was recently named the university’s Cinco Hermanos Chair in Environment and International Affairs. He traveled to Atlanta this month to present his wetlands research during the Society for American Archaeology’s conference held April 22-26. As lead author, he also wrote a series of articles on the evidence of two new models of human-wetland interaction. One of those articles, “A review of human and natural changes in Maya Lowland wetlands over the Holocene,” appeared in last month’s Quaternary Science Reviews.
“We developed two new models based on years of work that have provided evidence of the complexity of wetland ecosystems in the tropics, and that no one model can explain,” says Beach. “Our new models show that the Maya people altered wetlands, adapted to major environmental changes and persisted successfully for a millennium.”
Tripti Bhattacharya (SFS’10), an environment major in STIA and two-year research assistant to Beach, traveled to Belize with her professor for a two-week research excursion last summer on a
Georgetown University Research Opportunities Program fellowship.
“I originally came to SFS interested in environmental conservation, but a freshman seminar with Dr. Beach quickly taught me that basic scientific research is both fascinating and has a lot to contribute to conservation,” Bhattacharya says.
Bhattacharya, who worked in 100-degree temperatures, 90 percent humidity and endured prolific insect life in Belize for two weeks of field research, found her trip to be rewarding. “I learned a lot every day just by talking to Dr. Beach and his colleagues and using the methods I had previously only read about,” she says.
Bhattacharya plans to return to Belize this summer.
“Learning about how people used the land in the past provides cautions about what not to do as well as potential techniques applicable to modern agriculture,” says Bhattacharya, who co-authored Beach’s article on wetlands in Quaternary Science Reviews.
Beach agrees that his research can be used as a case study for current wetlands, such as the Everglades, giving researchers and environmentalists insight into their formation.
“The results of my research show how an earlier society, the Maya society, responded to large scale ecological change with several forms of innovative adaptations,” says Beach. “These kinds of adaptations, although by groups 1,000 years ago, may still be useful for rural development in the face of global change today.”
