Traditional Maya lime production: Environmental and cultural implications of a Native American technology

This multi-disciplinary study explores several neglected aspects of the production of lime; a chemical used for food preparation and preservation, for agricultural pest management, and a key material of durable Maya architecture and water collection and storage infrastructures that enabled the long term success of ancient Maya civilizations in a tropical forest environment.;Empirical data from the study are used to evaluate a proposition that exceptionally high rates of consumption of lime for architecture in the Late Preclassic Period (350 BC–AD 150) in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala required fuel allocation for lime burning that could not be sustained by the surrounding resource base. The proposition posits that fuel consumption was related to processes of deforestation and environmental degradation that may have contributed to a collapse of civilization and a virtual abandonment of that area at about AD 150.;Much of the work for this study involved experimental burning of traditional lime kiln designs constructed by Maya informants. Some of these men formerly practiced the trade of lime burning as craft specialists. Twelve traditional Maya lime kilns representing seven different regional designs were burned. Measurements of materials consumed, products, labor investment, and environmental effects of fuel procurement were made to provide baseline data to assess the energetics of ancient Maya building practices. In addition, anthropological, ethnographic, and archaeological aspects of lime making were recorded and evaluated. Results show fuel consumption to be significantly higher than most previous estimates for Native American lime production systems. Maya lime kilns were found to require fuel with a very high moisture content to function properly.;A world survey of traditional lime burning technologies beginning with the Natufian and Neolithic Periods in the Near East is offered with a concluding determination that the pyrotecnic principles of wet-fuel lime burning merit a separate classification in the course of development of early lime burning systems. Additional insights on topics relevant to Maya lime procurement and use were accumulated during the course of this investigation. These include social organization of production, associated rituals and meaning, non-architectural uses for lime, and archaeological evidence of lime burning.