Gardens on hills: Ancient Maya terracing and agricultural production at Chan, Belize

This dissertation examines the organization of production on the agricultural terraces at the site of Chan in the Belize River valley. Chan is an ancient Maya farming community with an over-2000 year history and a high density of agricultural terraces. Located 4 km from the site of Xunantunich, Chan's population increases dramatically in the latter half of the Late Classic (A.D. 600-800 or 830), concomitant with the rise of Xunantunich as a polity capital. My research addresses how the production of the agricultural terraces at Chan was organized and managed, and how the agricultural production that commenced in the Middle Preclassic (650-300 B.C.) was affected by the later rise of Xunantunich.;Archaeologists often take a top-down approach to the study of agriculture and farmers, emphasizing the role of elites as the prime motivating factor in agricultural production, and neglecting the study of small-scale sites in favor of an archaeological focus on large, urban centers. My research takes a bottom-up approach, focusing on farmers and their means of agricultural production and demonstrating that farmers at Chan developed complex agricultural technologies independent of external pressures from elites. The agricultural terraces at Chan display a complexity of construction and use that extends far back in time and that reveals the farmers' intimate knowledge of the landscape. The results of this research demonstrate the importance in concentrating archaeological investigations on the landscape and away from large, urban centers.;These results were achieved through extensive excavations of terrace walls, horizontal exposures of terrace beds, and explorations in associated structures, an extensive strategy not previously utilized in studies of terrace systems in the Maya area. My dissertation will advance our understanding of the relationship between agricultural producers and ancient political economies, while refining methodological approaches to the study of ancient agricultural technologies.