The Maya Forest: destroyed or cultivated by the ancient Maya?

B oth academic and popular perceptions concerning the relationship between the Maya (ancient and modern) and the Maya Forest in which their culture developed and persisted formore than three millennia are varied and continuously subject to change (1). The analysis of a sediment core from a pond located near the ancient Maya city of Copan, Honduras, interpreted byMcNeil et al. (2) in this issue of PNAS, offers a unique perspective on long-term interactions between theMaya and their environment. The results of this study demonstrate how refinement of methods and extension of time frames can provide dramatic reinterpretations of scenarios that have become engrained in both academic and popular perceptions about theMaya.Whereas the pollen analysis presented and interpreted by McNeil et al. (2) cannot be expected to provide a full picture of theMaya Forest and how it may have been managed, it does provide sound and convincing evidence that the Late Classic Maya at Copan did not foolishly strip away the forest and destroy their environment as portrayed in Jared Diamond’s best-selling book (3) and taught in our children’s classrooms. Among academics, we generally recognize that the results of our research represent what we hope to be the best interpretation of currently available data, and that our interpretations will be subject to modifications as new data and methods are developed. At the same time, our initial interpretations, often based on very limited data, are picked up and amplified in the public realm through books and movies that influence audiences a thousand-fold greater than the readers of our obscure academic publications. I was recently a reviewer for California Education and the Environment Curriculum for seventh grade classes that wouldbe taught about the rise and fall of PreColumbian civilizations in the Americas, with a strong focuson theancientMaya.One of the primary lessons in the curriculum was how the ancient Maya exemplified uncontrolled destruction of the environment and the consequent collapse of their civilization. This lesson was based in large part on the earlier interpretation of a sediment core from Copan (4). Dramatic swings in our interpretations concerning the historical ecology of the Maya Lowlands will continue, at least until enough studies, such as the one presented byMcNeil et al. (2), are conducted and published. Use of pollen to reconstruct major changes in plant communities and the environments that they represent has provided valuable information about long-term climate patterns for the planet and resulting impacts on biologic communities over broad regions. The use of pollen to reconstruct local historical ecology, however, has many obstacles to overcome, particularly when humans are agents of environmental manipulation. We still have a great deal of research to conduct before we can provide definitive answers about what past environments looked like when humans were involved.