The ancient Maya and limestone
This article posits that the ancient Maya were uniquely advantaged by the limestone bedrock of their homeland, the Yucatán Peninsula. This happenstance was unintentional, but limestone provided a resource that helped promote Maya society to become a civilization. The most significant innovation was...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Quaternary Environments and Humans |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950236524000264 |
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| _version_ | 1846091562496294912 |
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| author | Barbara Voorhies George H. Michaels |
| author_facet | Barbara Voorhies George H. Michaels |
| author_sort | Barbara Voorhies |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article posits that the ancient Maya were uniquely advantaged by the limestone bedrock of their homeland, the Yucatán Peninsula. This happenstance was unintentional, but limestone provided a resource that helped promote Maya society to become a civilization. The most significant innovation was the elevation of one cultivated plant, maize, to the role of a dietary staple, which was made possible by nixtamalization, an innovative processing technology that increased the plant’s nutritional value. Nixtamalization relies on soaking maize kernels in an alkaline solution, which the Maya usually made with burned limestone. Before maize became a staple, earlier prehistoric Maya likely cultivated many crops, with maize among them. The consequent dietary and intense cultural focus on maize by later prehistoric Maya blinded researchers from recognizing that the earliest Maya on the peninsula were broad-spectrum farmers. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2f9d38cff95545e6b68fc297eaa70b1c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2950-2365 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quaternary Environments and Humans |
| spelling | doaj-art-2f9d38cff95545e6b68fc297eaa70b1c2025-01-10T04:38:46ZengElsevierQuaternary Environments and Humans2950-23652024-12-0126100028The ancient Maya and limestoneBarbara Voorhies0George H. Michaels1Department of Anthropology, University of California-Santa Barbara, Campus Code 32, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA; Corresponding author.Executive Director Emeritus, Instructional Development, University of California, Santa Barbara, USAThis article posits that the ancient Maya were uniquely advantaged by the limestone bedrock of their homeland, the Yucatán Peninsula. This happenstance was unintentional, but limestone provided a resource that helped promote Maya society to become a civilization. The most significant innovation was the elevation of one cultivated plant, maize, to the role of a dietary staple, which was made possible by nixtamalization, an innovative processing technology that increased the plant’s nutritional value. Nixtamalization relies on soaking maize kernels in an alkaline solution, which the Maya usually made with burned limestone. Before maize became a staple, earlier prehistoric Maya likely cultivated many crops, with maize among them. The consequent dietary and intense cultural focus on maize by later prehistoric Maya blinded researchers from recognizing that the earliest Maya on the peninsula were broad-spectrum farmers.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950236524000264LimestoneEarly MayaBroad spectrum cropsMaize as a staple |
| spellingShingle | Barbara Voorhies George H. Michaels The ancient Maya and limestone Quaternary Environments and Humans Limestone Early Maya Broad spectrum crops Maize as a staple |
| title | The ancient Maya and limestone |
| title_full | The ancient Maya and limestone |
| title_fullStr | The ancient Maya and limestone |
| title_full_unstemmed | The ancient Maya and limestone |
| title_short | The ancient Maya and limestone |
| title_sort | ancient maya and limestone |
| topic | Limestone Early Maya Broad spectrum crops Maize as a staple |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950236524000264 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT barbaravoorhies theancientmayaandlimestone AT georgehmichaels theancientmayaandlimestone AT barbaravoorhies ancientmayaandlimestone AT georgehmichaels ancientmayaandlimestone |