UMaine Anthropologist Receives National Geographic Research Grant
Assistant professor of anthropology and climate change Gregory Zaro and a colleague from Texas Tech University have received a grant of nearly $17,000 from the National Geographic Society to fund research into the abandonment of one of the many great ancient Maya cities of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
In collaboration with Brett Houk of Texas Tech, the research targets tenth-century contexts to determine the intensity of occupation at the archaeological site of La Milpa, Belize during its final decades, and to better understand the nature of urban life in the city just prior to abandonment, according to Zaro. The researchers’ hypothesize that the abandonment of the Classic Maya city of La Milpa may have been more drawn out than currently thought by scholars.
“The results will be significant for our understanding of urban sustainability in the Maya Lowlands, the growth and decline of ancient Maya city-states, and the mechanisms leading to the collapse of Classic Maya civilization,” Zaro says.
Zaro’s research focuses on long-term human-environment dynamics, with a principal interest in landscape evolution among urban and agricultural settings. Of specific interest is the assessment of the role humans over the past several thousand years have played in shaping local and regional environmental conditions experienced today. He continues to maintain active programs of research in the tropical forests of northwestern Belize and in the coastal deserts of southern Peru.
Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756