Integrates recent data from bone-chemistry research, paleopathology, paleobotany, zooarchaeology, and ethnobotany to show what the ancient Maya actually ate at various periods (as opposed to archaeological suppositions) and how it affected the quality of their lives. It is now evident that to feed a burgeoning population the Maya relied on increasingly intensive forms of agriculture.
TThe collapse of classic Maya civilization at the end of the eighth century AD is still an enigma, but the reason behind it is likely more than a clash of warring city-states. New research indicates that ecological degradation and nutritional deficiency may be as important to our understanding of Maya cultural processes as deciphering the rise and fall of kings. Reconstructing Ancient Maya Diet integrates data from bone-chemistry research, paleopathology, paleobotany, zooarchaeology, and ethnobotany to show what the ancient Maya actually ate at various periods (as opposed to archaeological suppositions) and how diet affected the quality of their lives. Maya subsistence has been probed intensively for the last decade, but this is the first volume to unite work across the spectrum of Maya bioarchaeology.
