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From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora thetransformation of low-density dispersedagrarian urbanismLisa J Lucero1 Roland Fletcher2 amp Robin Coningham3

In the tropical regions of southern Asia Southeast Asia and the southern Maya lowlands themanagement of water was crucial to the maintenance of political power and the distributionof communities in the landscape Between the ninth and sixteenth centuries AD however thisdiverse range of medieval socio-political systems were destabilised by climatic change Comparativestudy reveals that despite their diversity the outcome for each society was the same the breakdownof low-density urban centres in favour of compact communities in peripheral regions The resultof this an lsquourban diasporarsquo highlights the relationship between the control of water and powerbut also reveals that the collapse of urban centres was a political phenomenon with society-widerepercussions

Keywords Angkor Anuradhapura South Asia Maya lowlands tropics water managementlow-density urbanism climate instability

Past agrarian-based low-density urban tropical societies in the western and easternhemispheres faced significant climatic challenges These included distinct wet and dryseasons tropical storms or monsoons with torrential downpours hurricanes or typhoonsvariable water quality prolonged droughts and rainfall-dependency In southern AsiaSoutheast Asia and the southern Maya lowlands (south-east Mexico Belize and northernGuatemala) between the ninth and sixteenth centuries AD the primary low-density urbancentres broke down This process was largely triggered by long periods of climate instabilitydefined here as the magnitude of seasonal weather pattern changes that persistentlyinterfered with the food and water supplies necessary to support growing populations andinfrastructure systems Particularly critical was the impact of this instability on large-scalewater management which formed one of the key foundations of political power by providingthe means to integrate dispersed subjects Political dynasties fell or transformed with somerelocating to adjacent regions while the farmers who supported those dynasties enduredretaining sustainable agricultural practices albeit reconfigured across the landscape The low-density dispersed urban landscape faded away and the urban world re-created itself in a morecompact form in new locations and regions along the peripheries This movement across

1 Department of Anthropology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 607 South Mathews Avenue MC-148Urbana IL 61801 USA (Email ljluceroillinoisedu)

2 Department of Archaeology Main Quadrangle A14 University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia (Emailrolandfletchersydneyeduau)

3 Department of Archaeology Durham University South Road Durham DH1 3LE UK (Emailraeconinghamdurhamacuk)

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the landscape we term urban diaspora when people abandon not only the urban centres butmuch of the metropolitan heartland and move to peripheral areas where different kinds ofnetworks and economic and political foci emerge

Pre-industrial agrarian-based low-density urban societies in tropical settings were situatedbetween the centripetal pull of political centres and the centrifugal forces of agriculturaldemands We illustrate here how water management political infrastructure sustainableagricultural practices and climate change were implicated in the urban diaspora of threetropical societies In each region despite differences in politics social organisation watercontrol and economic basis the consistent outcome was a move to the regional peripheryindicating that a broad operational process was involved (see Fletcher 2002 2004 2010)One of our key points is that while socio-political systems varied it was the impact ofclimate change on the infrastructure that generated destabilisation this played out in avariety of ways in different social systems Urban diaspora was not a post-collapse state ofbeing but rather a behavioural adjustment to long-term climate instability by low-densityurban societies

Low-density urbanism in the tropicsTropical areas are notable not only for their seasonal vagaries but also for their dispersedand varied biodiversity that is mirrored in settlement patterns and peoplersquos reliance ona mosaic of adaptive strategies (Fletcher 2009 2012 Scarborough amp Burnside 2010)People increasingly transformed the landscape especially through small-scale hydraulicand agricultural features without much political interference (Hawken 2007 Scarboroughamp Lucero 2010 Gilliland et al 2013) Farmers worked together to build and maintainsubsistence features (eg Lansing 1991 2006 McIntosh 2005) Political hierarchies emergedin developing urban cores for other reasons in exchange for tributemdashsupplying capitalprotection and organising the infrastructure that provided water for drinking and agricultureand controlled flooding (Coningham 1999 Lucero 2006 Coningham et al 2007 Fletcheret al 2008) Cities came to integrate thousands of people socially and politically and theyprovided places for markets exchange and religious institutions and for elites to displaytheir wealth and power (Lucero 2003 2007 Coningham amp Gunawardhana 2013) Whilepeople ideas goods and information flowed in and out of central places mobility wasscheduled around seasonal agricultural regimes

In low-density cities agricultural and open land is interwoven with massive urbaninfrastructure and a dispersed residential population (Graham 1999) The urban-ruralpopulation was simultaneously agriculturally based and civically integrated (eg Pottier2000 Fletcher 2012 Isendahl 2012) The rural world was therefore interdigitated andentangled with the urban world through an extensive varied crop economy based onprofitable trees swidden (slash and burn) agriculture and engineered fields and an urban-based water management infrastructure The central areas of low-density cities are centripetalbecause they draw people in via political social economic and religious means Thesurrounding areas are centrifugal because people settle across the landscape in farmsteadsand villages mirroring the dispersed agricultural and natural resources interspersed withmanaged forests and grazing land Farmers relied on flexible subsistence strategies involvingCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

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local small-scale production and exchange and water and agricultural systems The populacesupplied staples local goods labour and services (eg maintaining transportation routes) viatribute and exchange effectively funding the political economy People became beholden toa centralised political elite for access to water via central reservoirs during annual droughtIn the agricultural (rainy) season farmers worked their fields throughout the non-urbanlandscape

In the southern Maya lowlands Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia the agrarian-based dispersed cities varied considerably in size The largest Maya centres covered around100ndash200km2 while Anuradhapura and Angkor were between about 500 and 1000km2

in extent The South Asian examples were also distinct primate cities in their regions incontrast to the Maya region with its multitude of centres and kings Rice was the main staplefor the Khmer and Sinhalese while the Maya relied on maize the Maya also differ in thatthey did not have metal tools beasts of burden major road systems or access to an extensiveinternational maritime trade network To retain as much consistency of comparison aspossible our study addresses the largest examples in each region the Khmer capital ofAngkor in Cambodia (ninthndashsixteenth century) the Sinhalese capital of Anuradhapurain Sri Lanka (fourth century BCndasheleventh century AD) and the major Maya capital ofTikal in Guatemala (sixthndashtenth century AD) (Figure 1) The central areas of these citiesencompassed palaces temples causeways reservoirs plazas elite residences and marketsillustrating their role in attracting and integrating rural subjects About 750 000 people liveddispersed over the 1000km2 of Greater Angkor between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries(Fletcher et al 2003 Evans et al 2007 Coe 2008) There may have been as many as 250 000people in and around Anuradhapura (Coningham amp Manuel 2009) and perhaps as manyas 60 000 in the immediate environs of Tikal (Culbert amp Rice 1990)

The focal role of the central areas is illustrated by the capacity of the courtyards ofthe three great monasteries of Anuradhapura to accommodate 30 000 pilgrims while theirindividual stone rice containers could have fed over 1000 monks at each sitting (Coninghamamp Gunawardhana 2013) In Angkor the late twelfth-century temple of Ta Prohm had astaff of 12 640 living nearby supported by 66 625 farmers (Kapur amp Sahai 2007 52ndash56) At Tikal urban plazas could hold over 10 500 people (Inomata 2006 tab 1) whoparticipated in royal ceremonies and feasts with foodstuffs presumably supplied by subjectsand from royal reserves (Masson amp Freidel 2012) All three low-density urban societiesencompassed immense urban water systems that served as the core for the political economythis focus is critical in understanding the increasing complexity of engineered landscapesand concomitant political vulnerability While some factors are unique to the tropics anypolitical system is vulnerable when intertwined to the extent where changing conditionsaffecting one link can have major repercussions throughout the system

Water management in the tropics seasonal ebb and flowWater is the essential element of life hydrating people watering fields and serving as a vitalcomponent in the manufacture of ceramics plaster cement and bricks Controlling wateris necessary accessing it is another matter entirely and depends on several factors includingseasonality amount intensity and timing Seasonal rainfall is critical in tropical areas and

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etal

Figure 1 Tropical zone and areas mentioned in text generated by LJ Lucero using a map courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03395(accessed 29 April 2015)

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local small-scale production and exchange and water and agricultural systems The populacesupplied staples local goods labour and services (eg maintaining transportation routes) viatribute and exchange effectively funding the political economy People became beholden toa centralised political elite for access to water via central reservoirs during annual droughtIn the agricultural (rainy) season farmers worked their fields throughout the non-urbanlandscape

In the southern Maya lowlands Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia the agrarian-based dispersed cities varied considerably in size The largest Maya centres covered around100ndash200km2 while Anuradhapura and Angkor were between about 500 and 1000km2

in extent The South Asian examples were also distinct primate cities in their regions incontrast to the Maya region with its multitude of centres and kings Rice was the main staplefor the Khmer and Sinhalese while the Maya relied on maize the Maya also differ in thatthey did not have metal tools beasts of burden major road systems or access to an extensiveinternational maritime trade network To retain as much consistency of comparison aspossible our study addresses the largest examples in each region the Khmer capital ofAngkor in Cambodia (ninthndashsixteenth century) the Sinhalese capital of Anuradhapurain Sri Lanka (fourth century BCndasheleventh century AD) and the major Maya capital ofTikal in Guatemala (sixthndashtenth century AD) (Figure 1) The central areas of these citiesencompassed palaces temples causeways reservoirs plazas elite residences and marketsillustrating their role in attracting and integrating rural subjects About 750 000 people liveddispersed over the 1000km2 of Greater Angkor between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries(Fletcher et al 2003 Evans et al 2007 Coe 2008) There may have been as many as 250 000people in and around Anuradhapura (Coningham amp Manuel 2009) and perhaps as manyas 60 000 in the immediate environs of Tikal (Culbert amp Rice 1990)

The focal role of the central areas is illustrated by the capacity of the courtyards ofthe three great monasteries of Anuradhapura to accommodate 30 000 pilgrims while theirindividual stone rice containers could have fed over 1000 monks at each sitting (Coninghamamp Gunawardhana 2013) In Angkor the late twelfth-century temple of Ta Prohm had astaff of 12 640 living nearby supported by 66 625 farmers (Kapur amp Sahai 2007 52ndash56) At Tikal urban plazas could hold over 10 500 people (Inomata 2006 tab 1) whoparticipated in royal ceremonies and feasts with foodstuffs presumably supplied by subjectsand from royal reserves (Masson amp Freidel 2012) All three low-density urban societiesencompassed immense urban water systems that served as the core for the political economythis focus is critical in understanding the increasing complexity of engineered landscapesand concomitant political vulnerability While some factors are unique to the tropics anypolitical system is vulnerable when intertwined to the extent where changing conditionsaffecting one link can have major repercussions throughout the system

Water management in the tropics seasonal ebb and flowWater is the essential element of life hydrating people watering fields and serving as a vitalcomponent in the manufacture of ceramics plaster cement and bricks Controlling wateris necessary accessing it is another matter entirely and depends on several factors includingseasonality amount intensity and timing Seasonal rainfall is critical in tropical areas and

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1141

LisaJLucero

etal

Figure 1 Tropical zone and areas mentioned in text generated by LJ Lucero using a map courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03395(accessed 29 April 2015)

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Figure 1 Tropical zone and areas mentioned in text generated by LJ Lucero using a map courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03395(accessed 29 April 2015)

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affects all aspects of society In such rainfall-dependent societies predicting when the rainswill begin is crucial for agricultural scheduling and replenishing reservoirs (Scarborough2003) Humidity and seasonality intensify the threat of agricultural pests and waterbornediseases unless agricultural and water-management strategies are coordinated (Lansing 1991Miksic 1999) Water thus needs to be contained and distributed in the rainy seasonconserved in the dry season and allocated throughout the year Rulers ensured functioningwater systems through varying modes and degrees of control in return for subjectsrsquo goodslabour and services That said long-term and drastic climate change which can resultin flooding and prolonged droughts disrupts planning and management schedules andmobility flows to and from centres (Lucero 2002 Buckley et al 2014)

Rural communities maintained local small-scale water systems and in due course thepopulace maintained the state-managed urban ones (Brohier 1934 Leach 1959) Initiallywater features required centralised management to engineer and build Once in placehowever a large labour force replaced technological skill to expand and maintain them(Scarborough amp Burnside 2010) Reservoirs supplied water for food production and inthe long dry season drew in the dispersed farmers who needed access to potable anddistributable water As water systems increased in scale and complexity reservoirs andassociated channels and roads increasingly affected urban layout and assimilated peopleWater features were built next to temples and palaces but also comprised a part of thecosmological landscape by recreating primordial waters central to their origin stories Thistripartite arrangement literally and figuratively represented the close connection betweenwater power and cosmology

Angkor is famous for its sophisticated and massive baray (artificial reservoirs) such asthe West Baray (16km2 of water enclosed by over 15 million cubic metres of embankment)located near the central palaces and temples The Khmer built the two largest baray betweenthe ninth and eleventh centuries measuring approximately 7ndash8 times 2km and 2ndash5m deep(Fletcher et al 2008) (Figure 2) They were filled and drained using a complex system ofcanals that extended for hundreds of kilometres (Evans et al 2013) Baray were the centralunits of a tripartite system that spread water out over the northern part of Angkor channelledit into baray and sent some out of the eastern exit channels into the southern canals (Kummu2009) The system served two main functions canals flowing south-south-west to the greatlake Tonle Sap acted as drains to dispose of water while canals flowing south-south-eastallowed the distribution of water downslope across the richer rice-producing lands near thelake assisting the growth of the relatively high-yield rice by ensuring the supply of water atthe critical start and end of the growing season As the annual rainfall of 1500mm largelyfalls between May and October rice production was especially vulnerable to early and lateseason vagaries Supplying water by successively skimming and reloading the baray created arisk-management mechanism for ensuring stable crop supplies to cover potential shortfallsof rice for about 100 000 to 200 000 people (Fletcher et al 2003)

Anuradhapura is located in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka with an annual rainfall from1300ndash1450mm between December and February (Figure 3) With a carrying capacity of 04individuals per km2 and largely seasonal water sources (Coningham 1999) it was necessaryto store water during the dry season The construction of reservoirs near the city started inthe fourth century BC At the same time independent cascade systems were constructed

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Figure 2 Angkor water systems the close-up shows temple complexes and moats and reservoirs (rectangular flat) generated by D Brotherson courtesy of APSARA D Evans and CPottier LiDAR image courtesy of KALC and NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

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Figure 3 Anuradhapura Sri Lanka showing settlement and water systems during the Early Medieval Period generated by M Manuel

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in the hinterland (Coningham amp Gunawardhana 2013) People relied on irrigated rice as astaple augmented by kitchen gardens and swidden cultivation known as chena (Coningham2006) As the central area and its ring of Buddhist monasteries expanded so did the capacityof its reservoirs with the construction of the Tissawewa (55km2) in the third century BCand Nuwarawewa (9km2) in the first century AD By the fifth century increasing demandled to the building of timber and stone annicuts (dams) and the cutting of feeder canalssuch as the 87km-long Jaya Ganga and Yoda Ela which linked major reservoirs to morereliable sources in the hill country via storage reservoirs such as the Kalawewa (258km2) andNachchaduwawewa (178km2) This arrangement mirrored the social and political hierarchywhereby the upper tiers were maintained and managed by the elites and individual cascadeswere maintained by local communities and monasteries

The most powerful Classic Maya centres in the southern Maya lowlands such as Tikaland Naranjo in Guatemala and Calakmul in Mexico are located in areas with some of thebest tropical soils for maize agriculture but little or no surface water (Fedick 1996) Therich soils are dispersed in variously sized pockets that correlate with settlement density andpolitical power in a managed forest landscape (Ford amp Nigh 2009) There were hundredsof centres each with their own king the degree of power and number of subjects varieddramatically and was based largely on the amount and distribution of fertile agriculturalsoils means of water containment and access to trade routes (Lucero 2006) Annual rainfallvaries regionally and ranges from 1350ndash3700mm between July and December Much ofthis is absorbed by the permeable karst landscape making its capture and storage essential(Scarborough 1993) The Maya began constructing reservoirs c 100 BC with passiveor concave micro-watershed systems where water was diverted by gravity downslope andstored as seen at El Mirador and Nakbe in Guatemala (Scarborough amp Gallopin 1991) TheMaya abandoned these centres by AD 150 probably as a result of silting problems forestmismanagement and climate instability Between c AD 550 and 850 the Maya engineeredlarge-scale water systemsmdashconvex micro-watershed systems built upslope on hilltops andridges that comprised reservoirs dams and channels Excavations of reservoirs at Tikal alsoshow that the Maya used sluices filtration systems and switching stations (Scarboroughet al 2012) (Figure 4) Water features were distributed across the urban layout Processionalroadways (sacbeob) connected religious or residential compounds and also served as damsand diversionary devices There were also terraces as seen at the regional capital of Caracolwhere soils are less fertile (Chase et al 2011)

Maintaining water quality is a necessary but challenging feat in the humid tropics wherestanding water provides prime conditions for the build-up of noxious elements (eg nitrogen)and the proliferation of water-borne parasites and diseases (eg hepatic schistosomiasischolera and so on) (Burton et al 1979) The Maya maintained water quality by selectingcertain hydrophytic and macrophytic plants to transform artificial reservoirs into constructedwetland biospheres (Lucero et al 2011) The presence of Nymphaea ampla indicates cleanwater This sensitive water lily proliferates on reservoir surfaces and was common in royaliconography and inscriptions signifying the close relationship between kingship and watermanagement (Lucero 1999) A similar situation existed in South Asia where the lotus(Nelumbo nucifera) symbolised creativity and represented the potential of all beings to riseabove suffering and embrace purity (McArthur 2002) As long as kings provided potableCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

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Figure 4 Maya lowland water systems and settlement centre image shows reservoirs and catchment areas in Tikal bluelines signify major arroyos (500 times 500m squares) (generated by C Carr in Scarborough et al 2012 fig 1 courtesy of VScarborough) Lower right image illustrates dispersed settlement on hilltops terraces and reservoirs (depressions) at CaracolBelize (Chase et al 2011 fig 6 used with permission of the UCF Caracol Archaeological Project) Maya map generatedby LJ Lucero courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA Available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03364 (accessed 29April 2015)

water and maintained other integrative facilities and events subjects remained loyal andpolitical security remained intact

A distinct feature of these tropical societies is their growing reliance on increasinglyelaborate complex and intricately linked water systems Dependency on these systemscould continue so long as external circumstances did not change But they did change viaclimatic instability in each area at various times severely weakening water networks to theextent that they eventually failed As a consequence people from all walks of life left the

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

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LisaJLucero

etal

Figure 2 Angkor water systems the close-up shows temple complexes and moats and reservoirs (rectangular flat) generated by D Brotherson courtesy of APSARA D Evans and CPottier LiDAR image courtesy of KALC and NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

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Figure 3 Anuradhapura Sri Lanka showing settlement and water systems during the Early Medieval Period generated by M Manuel

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in the hinterland (Coningham amp Gunawardhana 2013) People relied on irrigated rice as astaple augmented by kitchen gardens and swidden cultivation known as chena (Coningham2006) As the central area and its ring of Buddhist monasteries expanded so did the capacityof its reservoirs with the construction of the Tissawewa (55km2) in the third century BCand Nuwarawewa (9km2) in the first century AD By the fifth century increasing demandled to the building of timber and stone annicuts (dams) and the cutting of feeder canalssuch as the 87km-long Jaya Ganga and Yoda Ela which linked major reservoirs to morereliable sources in the hill country via storage reservoirs such as the Kalawewa (258km2) andNachchaduwawewa (178km2) This arrangement mirrored the social and political hierarchywhereby the upper tiers were maintained and managed by the elites and individual cascadeswere maintained by local communities and monasteries

The most powerful Classic Maya centres in the southern Maya lowlands such as Tikaland Naranjo in Guatemala and Calakmul in Mexico are located in areas with some of thebest tropical soils for maize agriculture but little or no surface water (Fedick 1996) Therich soils are dispersed in variously sized pockets that correlate with settlement density andpolitical power in a managed forest landscape (Ford amp Nigh 2009) There were hundredsof centres each with their own king the degree of power and number of subjects varieddramatically and was based largely on the amount and distribution of fertile agriculturalsoils means of water containment and access to trade routes (Lucero 2006) Annual rainfallvaries regionally and ranges from 1350ndash3700mm between July and December Much ofthis is absorbed by the permeable karst landscape making its capture and storage essential(Scarborough 1993) The Maya began constructing reservoirs c 100 BC with passiveor concave micro-watershed systems where water was diverted by gravity downslope andstored as seen at El Mirador and Nakbe in Guatemala (Scarborough amp Gallopin 1991) TheMaya abandoned these centres by AD 150 probably as a result of silting problems forestmismanagement and climate instability Between c AD 550 and 850 the Maya engineeredlarge-scale water systemsmdashconvex micro-watershed systems built upslope on hilltops andridges that comprised reservoirs dams and channels Excavations of reservoirs at Tikal alsoshow that the Maya used sluices filtration systems and switching stations (Scarboroughet al 2012) (Figure 4) Water features were distributed across the urban layout Processionalroadways (sacbeob) connected religious or residential compounds and also served as damsand diversionary devices There were also terraces as seen at the regional capital of Caracolwhere soils are less fertile (Chase et al 2011)

Maintaining water quality is a necessary but challenging feat in the humid tropics wherestanding water provides prime conditions for the build-up of noxious elements (eg nitrogen)and the proliferation of water-borne parasites and diseases (eg hepatic schistosomiasischolera and so on) (Burton et al 1979) The Maya maintained water quality by selectingcertain hydrophytic and macrophytic plants to transform artificial reservoirs into constructedwetland biospheres (Lucero et al 2011) The presence of Nymphaea ampla indicates cleanwater This sensitive water lily proliferates on reservoir surfaces and was common in royaliconography and inscriptions signifying the close relationship between kingship and watermanagement (Lucero 1999) A similar situation existed in South Asia where the lotus(Nelumbo nucifera) symbolised creativity and represented the potential of all beings to riseabove suffering and embrace purity (McArthur 2002) As long as kings provided potableCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1146

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Figure 4 Maya lowland water systems and settlement centre image shows reservoirs and catchment areas in Tikal bluelines signify major arroyos (500 times 500m squares) (generated by C Carr in Scarborough et al 2012 fig 1 courtesy of VScarborough) Lower right image illustrates dispersed settlement on hilltops terraces and reservoirs (depressions) at CaracolBelize (Chase et al 2011 fig 6 used with permission of the UCF Caracol Archaeological Project) Maya map generatedby LJ Lucero courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA Available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03364 (accessed 29April 2015)

water and maintained other integrative facilities and events subjects remained loyal andpolitical security remained intact

A distinct feature of these tropical societies is their growing reliance on increasinglyelaborate complex and intricately linked water systems Dependency on these systemscould continue so long as external circumstances did not change But they did change viaclimatic instability in each area at various times severely weakening water networks to theextent that they eventually failed As a consequence people from all walks of life left the

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1147

Research

Fromlsquocollapsersquoto

urbandiaspora

Figure 3 Anuradhapura Sri Lanka showing settlement and water systems during the Early Medieval Period generated by M Manuel

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in the hinterland (Coningham amp Gunawardhana 2013) People relied on irrigated rice as astaple augmented by kitchen gardens and swidden cultivation known as chena (Coningham2006) As the central area and its ring of Buddhist monasteries expanded so did the capacityof its reservoirs with the construction of the Tissawewa (55km2) in the third century BCand Nuwarawewa (9km2) in the first century AD By the fifth century increasing demandled to the building of timber and stone annicuts (dams) and the cutting of feeder canalssuch as the 87km-long Jaya Ganga and Yoda Ela which linked major reservoirs to morereliable sources in the hill country via storage reservoirs such as the Kalawewa (258km2) andNachchaduwawewa (178km2) This arrangement mirrored the social and political hierarchywhereby the upper tiers were maintained and managed by the elites and individual cascadeswere maintained by local communities and monasteries

The most powerful Classic Maya centres in the southern Maya lowlands such as Tikaland Naranjo in Guatemala and Calakmul in Mexico are located in areas with some of thebest tropical soils for maize agriculture but little or no surface water (Fedick 1996) Therich soils are dispersed in variously sized pockets that correlate with settlement density andpolitical power in a managed forest landscape (Ford amp Nigh 2009) There were hundredsof centres each with their own king the degree of power and number of subjects varieddramatically and was based largely on the amount and distribution of fertile agriculturalsoils means of water containment and access to trade routes (Lucero 2006) Annual rainfallvaries regionally and ranges from 1350ndash3700mm between July and December Much ofthis is absorbed by the permeable karst landscape making its capture and storage essential(Scarborough 1993) The Maya began constructing reservoirs c 100 BC with passiveor concave micro-watershed systems where water was diverted by gravity downslope andstored as seen at El Mirador and Nakbe in Guatemala (Scarborough amp Gallopin 1991) TheMaya abandoned these centres by AD 150 probably as a result of silting problems forestmismanagement and climate instability Between c AD 550 and 850 the Maya engineeredlarge-scale water systemsmdashconvex micro-watershed systems built upslope on hilltops andridges that comprised reservoirs dams and channels Excavations of reservoirs at Tikal alsoshow that the Maya used sluices filtration systems and switching stations (Scarboroughet al 2012) (Figure 4) Water features were distributed across the urban layout Processionalroadways (sacbeob) connected religious or residential compounds and also served as damsand diversionary devices There were also terraces as seen at the regional capital of Caracolwhere soils are less fertile (Chase et al 2011)

Maintaining water quality is a necessary but challenging feat in the humid tropics wherestanding water provides prime conditions for the build-up of noxious elements (eg nitrogen)and the proliferation of water-borne parasites and diseases (eg hepatic schistosomiasischolera and so on) (Burton et al 1979) The Maya maintained water quality by selectingcertain hydrophytic and macrophytic plants to transform artificial reservoirs into constructedwetland biospheres (Lucero et al 2011) The presence of Nymphaea ampla indicates cleanwater This sensitive water lily proliferates on reservoir surfaces and was common in royaliconography and inscriptions signifying the close relationship between kingship and watermanagement (Lucero 1999) A similar situation existed in South Asia where the lotus(Nelumbo nucifera) symbolised creativity and represented the potential of all beings to riseabove suffering and embrace purity (McArthur 2002) As long as kings provided potableCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1146

Res

earc

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From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

Figure 4 Maya lowland water systems and settlement centre image shows reservoirs and catchment areas in Tikal bluelines signify major arroyos (500 times 500m squares) (generated by C Carr in Scarborough et al 2012 fig 1 courtesy of VScarborough) Lower right image illustrates dispersed settlement on hilltops terraces and reservoirs (depressions) at CaracolBelize (Chase et al 2011 fig 6 used with permission of the UCF Caracol Archaeological Project) Maya map generatedby LJ Lucero courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA Available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03364 (accessed 29April 2015)

water and maintained other integrative facilities and events subjects remained loyal andpolitical security remained intact

A distinct feature of these tropical societies is their growing reliance on increasinglyelaborate complex and intricately linked water systems Dependency on these systemscould continue so long as external circumstances did not change But they did change viaclimatic instability in each area at various times severely weakening water networks to theextent that they eventually failed As a consequence people from all walks of life left the

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1147

Lisa J Lucero et al

in the hinterland (Coningham amp Gunawardhana 2013) People relied on irrigated rice as astaple augmented by kitchen gardens and swidden cultivation known as chena (Coningham2006) As the central area and its ring of Buddhist monasteries expanded so did the capacityof its reservoirs with the construction of the Tissawewa (55km2) in the third century BCand Nuwarawewa (9km2) in the first century AD By the fifth century increasing demandled to the building of timber and stone annicuts (dams) and the cutting of feeder canalssuch as the 87km-long Jaya Ganga and Yoda Ela which linked major reservoirs to morereliable sources in the hill country via storage reservoirs such as the Kalawewa (258km2) andNachchaduwawewa (178km2) This arrangement mirrored the social and political hierarchywhereby the upper tiers were maintained and managed by the elites and individual cascadeswere maintained by local communities and monasteries

The most powerful Classic Maya centres in the southern Maya lowlands such as Tikaland Naranjo in Guatemala and Calakmul in Mexico are located in areas with some of thebest tropical soils for maize agriculture but little or no surface water (Fedick 1996) Therich soils are dispersed in variously sized pockets that correlate with settlement density andpolitical power in a managed forest landscape (Ford amp Nigh 2009) There were hundredsof centres each with their own king the degree of power and number of subjects varieddramatically and was based largely on the amount and distribution of fertile agriculturalsoils means of water containment and access to trade routes (Lucero 2006) Annual rainfallvaries regionally and ranges from 1350ndash3700mm between July and December Much ofthis is absorbed by the permeable karst landscape making its capture and storage essential(Scarborough 1993) The Maya began constructing reservoirs c 100 BC with passiveor concave micro-watershed systems where water was diverted by gravity downslope andstored as seen at El Mirador and Nakbe in Guatemala (Scarborough amp Gallopin 1991) TheMaya abandoned these centres by AD 150 probably as a result of silting problems forestmismanagement and climate instability Between c AD 550 and 850 the Maya engineeredlarge-scale water systemsmdashconvex micro-watershed systems built upslope on hilltops andridges that comprised reservoirs dams and channels Excavations of reservoirs at Tikal alsoshow that the Maya used sluices filtration systems and switching stations (Scarboroughet al 2012) (Figure 4) Water features were distributed across the urban layout Processionalroadways (sacbeob) connected religious or residential compounds and also served as damsand diversionary devices There were also terraces as seen at the regional capital of Caracolwhere soils are less fertile (Chase et al 2011)

Maintaining water quality is a necessary but challenging feat in the humid tropics wherestanding water provides prime conditions for the build-up of noxious elements (eg nitrogen)and the proliferation of water-borne parasites and diseases (eg hepatic schistosomiasischolera and so on) (Burton et al 1979) The Maya maintained water quality by selectingcertain hydrophytic and macrophytic plants to transform artificial reservoirs into constructedwetland biospheres (Lucero et al 2011) The presence of Nymphaea ampla indicates cleanwater This sensitive water lily proliferates on reservoir surfaces and was common in royaliconography and inscriptions signifying the close relationship between kingship and watermanagement (Lucero 1999) A similar situation existed in South Asia where the lotus(Nelumbo nucifera) symbolised creativity and represented the potential of all beings to riseabove suffering and embrace purity (McArthur 2002) As long as kings provided potableCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1146

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

Figure 4 Maya lowland water systems and settlement centre image shows reservoirs and catchment areas in Tikal bluelines signify major arroyos (500 times 500m squares) (generated by C Carr in Scarborough et al 2012 fig 1 courtesy of VScarborough) Lower right image illustrates dispersed settlement on hilltops terraces and reservoirs (depressions) at CaracolBelize (Chase et al 2011 fig 6 used with permission of the UCF Caracol Archaeological Project) Maya map generatedby LJ Lucero courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA Available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03364 (accessed 29April 2015)

water and maintained other integrative facilities and events subjects remained loyal andpolitical security remained intact

A distinct feature of these tropical societies is their growing reliance on increasinglyelaborate complex and intricately linked water systems Dependency on these systemscould continue so long as external circumstances did not change But they did change viaclimatic instability in each area at various times severely weakening water networks to theextent that they eventually failed As a consequence people from all walks of life left the

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1147

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

Figure 4 Maya lowland water systems and settlement centre image shows reservoirs and catchment areas in Tikal bluelines signify major arroyos (500 times 500m squares) (generated by C Carr in Scarborough et al 2012 fig 1 courtesy of VScarborough) Lower right image illustrates dispersed settlement on hilltops terraces and reservoirs (depressions) at CaracolBelize (Chase et al 2011 fig 6 used with permission of the UCF Caracol Archaeological Project) Maya map generatedby LJ Lucero courtesy of NASAJPLNIMA Available at httpphotojournaljplnasagovcatalogPIA03364 (accessed 29April 2015)

water and maintained other integrative facilities and events subjects remained loyal andpolitical security remained intact

A distinct feature of these tropical societies is their growing reliance on increasinglyelaborate complex and intricately linked water systems Dependency on these systemscould continue so long as external circumstances did not change But they did change viaclimatic instability in each area at various times severely weakening water networks to theextent that they eventually failed As a consequence people from all walks of life left the

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1147

Lisa J Lucero et al

dispersed urban landscape and its central nodes in search of more reliable sources of waterand economic opportunities

Climate instability and the urban diasporaWhile it is relatively common for political systems to fluctuate in scale and place (egbuilding new capitals replacing dynasties) something in these tropical cases resulted in theinhabitants largely abandoning not only the urban centres but also much of the metropolitanheartland Former subjects continued farming but many did so in different areas withinsmaller community networks and engaged in a different kind of urbanism on the peripheryof the former states The dispersal involved the disjunction between five major componentsthe urban hierarchical political system substantial infrastructure urban-rural integrationdiverse farming practices and climate change

Severe climatic instability from the ninth to eleventh centuries (increasing temperaturesand prolonged droughts) and the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries (decreasing temperaturesand increasingly severe wet periods and droughts) strained embedded water systems Analysisof annual ring growth of speleothems from caves and from trees provides a detailed historyof long-term weather patterns as do sediment core data from lakes and reservoirs (eg Pennyet al 2006 2007 McNeil et al 2010 Medina-Elizalde et al 2010 Mueller et al 2010 Dayet al 2012) We can now relate these to social histories (eg Scheffran 2008 Buckley et al2010 2014 Zhang et al 2011 Lieberman amp Buckley 2012 Lucero et al 2014)

The relationship between climate change and societal transformation is complex andmultidimensional (eg Turner amp Sabloff 2012 Iannone 2014) The demise of dispersedurbanism in each region was a unique sequence of events yet led to a similar outcomemdashurban diaspora For Angkor climate change came in the form of ldquoprotracted periods ofdrought and deluge rain eventsrdquo (Buckley et al 2014 1) this interpretation is based ontree-ring data (Buckley et al 2010) In this diaspora much of the residential populationdisappeared from Angkor and its vicinity and established small towns in a wide arc fromBattambang along the southern side of the Tonle Sap along and up the Mekong River(Figure 5) and in a great arc through Isan far to the north Khmer elites moved towardsthe Phnom Penh region initially migrating between multiple capitals (Thompson 200433) By the sixteenth century the centre of royal power had shifted to the Phnom Penh area(Groslier 2006 118ndash20) In the late nineteenth century only eight small villages existed incentral Angkor (de Lajonquiere 1911)

In Sri Lanka settlement decreased within a radius of 15km in central Anuradhapurafrom a peak of 292 sites in the Early Medieval period to only 11 by the eleventh century(Coningham amp Gunawardhana 2013) This decline was paralleled by the abandonmentof the urban core and most monasteries in the central and outer areas The extendednetwork of reservoirs and canals suffered breaches and silted up due to lack of maintenance(Brohier 1934 Part II 8) The area was not entirely abandoned as small communitiesstill practised swidden cultivation prior to the nineteenth-century recolonisation of the DryZone (Gilliland et al 2013) The silting and abandonment appear to have been accompaniedby a corresponding sudden high-amplitude increase of the South West Monsoon whichwould have resulted in both severe drought and an increase in cyclonic storms within theCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1148

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

Figure 5 Urban diaspora in three tropical regions (redndashblack dots) generated by D Brotherson

North East Monsoon (Jung et al 2004) The decline of Anuradhapura is linked with thelater growth and expansion of its successor Polonnaruwa That city was also abandonedin the thirteenth century but not before its leaders constructed the immense lsquoSea of KingParakramabahursquo covering 87km2 (Gilliland et al 2013) The court then shifted southwardsthrough the compact capitals of Dambadeniya and Kurunagala and then up into the hillcountry and the Wet Zone eventually basing the capital at Kandy (Coningham 1999) whiletowns increasingly began to concentrate along the coast (see Figure 5) The destabilisingof Anuradhapura corresponds with the increasing temperatures of the eleventh and twelfthcenturies the later shifts correlate closely with severely reduced monsoon rainfall over a

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1149

Lisa J Lucero et al

multi-decadal period between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as indicated by oxygenisotope analysis of a stalagmite from a cave in east-central India (Sinha et al 2007)

In the Maya area speleothem data from a cave in north-west Yucatan Mexico show that atleast eight prolonged droughts struck between c 800 and 930 AD These droughts negativelyaffected reservoir systems (Medina-Elizalde et al 2010) and exacerbated existing problemsincluding population growth overuse of resources and erosion caused by deforestation(Lucero et al 2011 Dunning et al 2012) During these tumultuous times not onlydid kings at smaller centres challenge political powers on the battlefield as recorded ininscriptions but royal subordinates also began to appear in the iconography alongsidetheir kings (eg Yaxchilan Copan and Piedras Negras) and to co-opt royal symbols fortheir own use (eg Copan Fash 2005) (Martin amp Grube 2008) In the AD 800s Mayafarmers withdrew their support from kings who no longer fulfilled their obligation as watermanagers and subsequently abandoned monarchs and centres (Lucero 2002) Kings losttheir means of support and abandoned their capitals relocating elsewhere and either dyingout or reverting to what their forebears had beenmdashelite landowners While rulers lost powerfarmers persevered by living in smaller communities or migrating out of the interior nearerto the coasts and along major rivers where market towns and trade flourished (Sabloff 2007Graham 2011) as seen at Chichen Izta Chetumal Cozumel and Bacalar among others(Masson amp Freidel 2012) (see Figure 5)

Concluding remarksLow-density urbanism extensive and diverse farming dependence on massive infrastructuresevere climate change and a complex interaction with political systems appear to be the majorfactors triggering urban diaspora in diverse regions The intricacy complexity and magnitudeof water management and political power in the southern Maya lowlands Southern Asia andSoutheast Asia had increased in tandem with increasing inflexibility and decreasing diversitycreating greater urban-rural interdependence While the interlocking systems may initiallyhave coped with changing circumstances including climate extremes they eventually failed

Each society played out a unique history due to its internal characteristics but urbandiaspora was the consistent outcome We know that people from all walks of life abandonedthe former urban centres and their environs drastically reducing the populations of themetropolitan heartlands Rulers either moved away and adapted by creating new politicalinstitutions (Khmer Sinhalese) or disappeared altogether (Maya of the southern lowlands)while most of their subjects survived by continuing to farm and by shifting location toparticipate in new urban networks As these cases show political collapse does not equatewith societal collapse (see Lucero 2006 24ndash25 McAnany amp Yoffee 2009 Middleton 2012)Indeed the area beyond the central Buddhist shrines of Anuradhapura displayed a growthin non-Buddhist cults and ritual practices close to dwindling reservoirs At Angkor areas ofbunded rice fields were in use to the south of the East and West Baray in the nineteenthcentury and swidden still occurred on dry upland slopes as it did in the Dry Zone of SriLanka Maya farmers still worked their dispersed fields near permanent water sources suchas Lake Peten Izta in Guatemala and the Belize River in BelizeCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1150

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

In the end the different histories of kings and farmers relate to the different constructsin which they existed inflexible vs flexible strategies a reliance on massive vs small-scalediverse water systems and entrenched and rigid vs resilient and adaptable systems Althoughnoticeable cultural differences and specific political pathways existed among these tropicalsocieties amidst the waxing and waning of political histories and sustainable agriculturalpractices the significant overall similarity is the trajectory of urban diaspora The combi-nation of dependence on massive infrastructure low-density urbanism and severe climatechange has some resonance in the present day a topic that we plan to examine in the future

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the participants in the lsquoLow-Density Urbanism Water Management and Sustainability in theTropicsrsquo July 2012 conference in Siem Reap Cambodia for discussion of this topic (funded by Wenner-GrenFoundation CONF-594 awarded to Lucero and Fletcher) and for private donations Thanks also go toPatricia McAnany for discussions on human diaspora We are also deeply grateful to our respective researchteams for all their contributions over many years

ReferencesBROHIER R 1934 The ancient irrigation works in

Ceylon Colombo Government

BUCKLEY BM KJ ANCHUKAITIS D PENNYR FLETCHER ER COOK M SANOD LC NAMA WICHIENKEEO TT MINH amp TM HONG2010 Climate as a contributing factor in thedemise of Angkor Cambodia Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences USA 107 6748ndash52httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0910827107

BUCKLEY BM R FLETCHER SS WANG B ZOTTOLI

amp C POTTIER 2014 Monsoon extremes andsociety over the past millennium on mainlandSoutheast Asia Quaternary Science Reviews 951ndash19httpdxdoiorg101016jquascirev201404022

BURTON TM DL KING RC BALL amp TG BAKER1979 Utilization of natural ecosystems for wastewater renovation Chicago (IL) United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency Region V GreatLakes National Programs Office

CHASE AF DZ CHASE JF WEISHAMPELJB DRAKE RL SHRESTHA KC SLATTONJJ AWE amp WE CARTER 2011 Airborne LiDARarchaeology and the ancient Maya landscape atCaracol Belize Journal of Archaeological Science 38387ndash98httpdxdoiorg101016jjas201009018

COE MD 2008 Urbanism and the Classic Khmer inA Guadalupe RH Cobean A Garcia ampKG Hirth (ed) Urbanism in Mesoamerica715ndash31 Mexico Instituto Nacional deAntropologıa e Historia amp Pennsylvania StateUniversity

CONINGHAM RAE 1999 Anuradhapura theBritish-Sri Lankan excavations at AnuradhapuraSalgaha Watta volume 1 the site OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

ndash 2006 Anuradhapura the British-Sri Lankanexcavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta volume2 the artefacts Oxford Archaeopress for the Societyfor South Asian Studies

CONINGHAM RAE amp P GUNAWARDHANA 2013Anuradhapura volume 3 the hinterland OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

CONINGHAM RAE amp MJ MANUEL 2009 The earlyempires of South Asia in T Harrison (ed) Greatempires of the ancient world 226ndash49 LondonThames amp Hudson

CONINGHAM RAE P GUNAWARDHANAM MANUEL G ADIKARI M KATUGAMPOLAR YOUNG A SCHMIDT K KRISHNAN I SIMPSONG MCDONNELL amp C BATT 2007 The state oftheocracy defining an early medieval hinterland inSri Lanka Antiquity 81 699ndash719httpdxdoiorg101017S0003598times00095673

CULBERT TP amp DS RICE 1990 Precolumbianpopulation history in the Maya lowlandsAlbuquerque University of New Mexico Press

DAY MB DA HODELL M BRENNERHJ CHAPMAN JH CURTIS WF KENNEYAL KOLATA amp LC PETERSON 2012Paleoenvironmental history of the West BarayAngkor (Cambodia) Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences USA 109 1046ndash51httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1111282109

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1151

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

Figure 5 Urban diaspora in three tropical regions (redndashblack dots) generated by D Brotherson

North East Monsoon (Jung et al 2004) The decline of Anuradhapura is linked with thelater growth and expansion of its successor Polonnaruwa That city was also abandonedin the thirteenth century but not before its leaders constructed the immense lsquoSea of KingParakramabahursquo covering 87km2 (Gilliland et al 2013) The court then shifted southwardsthrough the compact capitals of Dambadeniya and Kurunagala and then up into the hillcountry and the Wet Zone eventually basing the capital at Kandy (Coningham 1999) whiletowns increasingly began to concentrate along the coast (see Figure 5) The destabilisingof Anuradhapura corresponds with the increasing temperatures of the eleventh and twelfthcenturies the later shifts correlate closely with severely reduced monsoon rainfall over a

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1149

Lisa J Lucero et al

multi-decadal period between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as indicated by oxygenisotope analysis of a stalagmite from a cave in east-central India (Sinha et al 2007)

In the Maya area speleothem data from a cave in north-west Yucatan Mexico show that atleast eight prolonged droughts struck between c 800 and 930 AD These droughts negativelyaffected reservoir systems (Medina-Elizalde et al 2010) and exacerbated existing problemsincluding population growth overuse of resources and erosion caused by deforestation(Lucero et al 2011 Dunning et al 2012) During these tumultuous times not onlydid kings at smaller centres challenge political powers on the battlefield as recorded ininscriptions but royal subordinates also began to appear in the iconography alongsidetheir kings (eg Yaxchilan Copan and Piedras Negras) and to co-opt royal symbols fortheir own use (eg Copan Fash 2005) (Martin amp Grube 2008) In the AD 800s Mayafarmers withdrew their support from kings who no longer fulfilled their obligation as watermanagers and subsequently abandoned monarchs and centres (Lucero 2002) Kings losttheir means of support and abandoned their capitals relocating elsewhere and either dyingout or reverting to what their forebears had beenmdashelite landowners While rulers lost powerfarmers persevered by living in smaller communities or migrating out of the interior nearerto the coasts and along major rivers where market towns and trade flourished (Sabloff 2007Graham 2011) as seen at Chichen Izta Chetumal Cozumel and Bacalar among others(Masson amp Freidel 2012) (see Figure 5)

Concluding remarksLow-density urbanism extensive and diverse farming dependence on massive infrastructuresevere climate change and a complex interaction with political systems appear to be the majorfactors triggering urban diaspora in diverse regions The intricacy complexity and magnitudeof water management and political power in the southern Maya lowlands Southern Asia andSoutheast Asia had increased in tandem with increasing inflexibility and decreasing diversitycreating greater urban-rural interdependence While the interlocking systems may initiallyhave coped with changing circumstances including climate extremes they eventually failed

Each society played out a unique history due to its internal characteristics but urbandiaspora was the consistent outcome We know that people from all walks of life abandonedthe former urban centres and their environs drastically reducing the populations of themetropolitan heartlands Rulers either moved away and adapted by creating new politicalinstitutions (Khmer Sinhalese) or disappeared altogether (Maya of the southern lowlands)while most of their subjects survived by continuing to farm and by shifting location toparticipate in new urban networks As these cases show political collapse does not equatewith societal collapse (see Lucero 2006 24ndash25 McAnany amp Yoffee 2009 Middleton 2012)Indeed the area beyond the central Buddhist shrines of Anuradhapura displayed a growthin non-Buddhist cults and ritual practices close to dwindling reservoirs At Angkor areas ofbunded rice fields were in use to the south of the East and West Baray in the nineteenthcentury and swidden still occurred on dry upland slopes as it did in the Dry Zone of SriLanka Maya farmers still worked their dispersed fields near permanent water sources suchas Lake Peten Izta in Guatemala and the Belize River in BelizeCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1150

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

In the end the different histories of kings and farmers relate to the different constructsin which they existed inflexible vs flexible strategies a reliance on massive vs small-scalediverse water systems and entrenched and rigid vs resilient and adaptable systems Althoughnoticeable cultural differences and specific political pathways existed among these tropicalsocieties amidst the waxing and waning of political histories and sustainable agriculturalpractices the significant overall similarity is the trajectory of urban diaspora The combi-nation of dependence on massive infrastructure low-density urbanism and severe climatechange has some resonance in the present day a topic that we plan to examine in the future

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the participants in the lsquoLow-Density Urbanism Water Management and Sustainability in theTropicsrsquo July 2012 conference in Siem Reap Cambodia for discussion of this topic (funded by Wenner-GrenFoundation CONF-594 awarded to Lucero and Fletcher) and for private donations Thanks also go toPatricia McAnany for discussions on human diaspora We are also deeply grateful to our respective researchteams for all their contributions over many years

ReferencesBROHIER R 1934 The ancient irrigation works in

Ceylon Colombo Government

BUCKLEY BM KJ ANCHUKAITIS D PENNYR FLETCHER ER COOK M SANOD LC NAMA WICHIENKEEO TT MINH amp TM HONG2010 Climate as a contributing factor in thedemise of Angkor Cambodia Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences USA 107 6748ndash52httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0910827107

BUCKLEY BM R FLETCHER SS WANG B ZOTTOLI

amp C POTTIER 2014 Monsoon extremes andsociety over the past millennium on mainlandSoutheast Asia Quaternary Science Reviews 951ndash19httpdxdoiorg101016jquascirev201404022

BURTON TM DL KING RC BALL amp TG BAKER1979 Utilization of natural ecosystems for wastewater renovation Chicago (IL) United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency Region V GreatLakes National Programs Office

CHASE AF DZ CHASE JF WEISHAMPELJB DRAKE RL SHRESTHA KC SLATTONJJ AWE amp WE CARTER 2011 Airborne LiDARarchaeology and the ancient Maya landscape atCaracol Belize Journal of Archaeological Science 38387ndash98httpdxdoiorg101016jjas201009018

COE MD 2008 Urbanism and the Classic Khmer inA Guadalupe RH Cobean A Garcia ampKG Hirth (ed) Urbanism in Mesoamerica715ndash31 Mexico Instituto Nacional deAntropologıa e Historia amp Pennsylvania StateUniversity

CONINGHAM RAE 1999 Anuradhapura theBritish-Sri Lankan excavations at AnuradhapuraSalgaha Watta volume 1 the site OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

ndash 2006 Anuradhapura the British-Sri Lankanexcavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta volume2 the artefacts Oxford Archaeopress for the Societyfor South Asian Studies

CONINGHAM RAE amp P GUNAWARDHANA 2013Anuradhapura volume 3 the hinterland OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

CONINGHAM RAE amp MJ MANUEL 2009 The earlyempires of South Asia in T Harrison (ed) Greatempires of the ancient world 226ndash49 LondonThames amp Hudson

CONINGHAM RAE P GUNAWARDHANAM MANUEL G ADIKARI M KATUGAMPOLAR YOUNG A SCHMIDT K KRISHNAN I SIMPSONG MCDONNELL amp C BATT 2007 The state oftheocracy defining an early medieval hinterland inSri Lanka Antiquity 81 699ndash719httpdxdoiorg101017S0003598times00095673

CULBERT TP amp DS RICE 1990 Precolumbianpopulation history in the Maya lowlandsAlbuquerque University of New Mexico Press

DAY MB DA HODELL M BRENNERHJ CHAPMAN JH CURTIS WF KENNEYAL KOLATA amp LC PETERSON 2012Paleoenvironmental history of the West BarayAngkor (Cambodia) Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences USA 109 1046ndash51httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1111282109

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1151

Lisa J Lucero et al

multi-decadal period between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as indicated by oxygenisotope analysis of a stalagmite from a cave in east-central India (Sinha et al 2007)

In the Maya area speleothem data from a cave in north-west Yucatan Mexico show that atleast eight prolonged droughts struck between c 800 and 930 AD These droughts negativelyaffected reservoir systems (Medina-Elizalde et al 2010) and exacerbated existing problemsincluding population growth overuse of resources and erosion caused by deforestation(Lucero et al 2011 Dunning et al 2012) During these tumultuous times not onlydid kings at smaller centres challenge political powers on the battlefield as recorded ininscriptions but royal subordinates also began to appear in the iconography alongsidetheir kings (eg Yaxchilan Copan and Piedras Negras) and to co-opt royal symbols fortheir own use (eg Copan Fash 2005) (Martin amp Grube 2008) In the AD 800s Mayafarmers withdrew their support from kings who no longer fulfilled their obligation as watermanagers and subsequently abandoned monarchs and centres (Lucero 2002) Kings losttheir means of support and abandoned their capitals relocating elsewhere and either dyingout or reverting to what their forebears had beenmdashelite landowners While rulers lost powerfarmers persevered by living in smaller communities or migrating out of the interior nearerto the coasts and along major rivers where market towns and trade flourished (Sabloff 2007Graham 2011) as seen at Chichen Izta Chetumal Cozumel and Bacalar among others(Masson amp Freidel 2012) (see Figure 5)

Concluding remarksLow-density urbanism extensive and diverse farming dependence on massive infrastructuresevere climate change and a complex interaction with political systems appear to be the majorfactors triggering urban diaspora in diverse regions The intricacy complexity and magnitudeof water management and political power in the southern Maya lowlands Southern Asia andSoutheast Asia had increased in tandem with increasing inflexibility and decreasing diversitycreating greater urban-rural interdependence While the interlocking systems may initiallyhave coped with changing circumstances including climate extremes they eventually failed

Each society played out a unique history due to its internal characteristics but urbandiaspora was the consistent outcome We know that people from all walks of life abandonedthe former urban centres and their environs drastically reducing the populations of themetropolitan heartlands Rulers either moved away and adapted by creating new politicalinstitutions (Khmer Sinhalese) or disappeared altogether (Maya of the southern lowlands)while most of their subjects survived by continuing to farm and by shifting location toparticipate in new urban networks As these cases show political collapse does not equatewith societal collapse (see Lucero 2006 24ndash25 McAnany amp Yoffee 2009 Middleton 2012)Indeed the area beyond the central Buddhist shrines of Anuradhapura displayed a growthin non-Buddhist cults and ritual practices close to dwindling reservoirs At Angkor areas ofbunded rice fields were in use to the south of the East and West Baray in the nineteenthcentury and swidden still occurred on dry upland slopes as it did in the Dry Zone of SriLanka Maya farmers still worked their dispersed fields near permanent water sources suchas Lake Peten Izta in Guatemala and the Belize River in BelizeCcopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1150

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

In the end the different histories of kings and farmers relate to the different constructsin which they existed inflexible vs flexible strategies a reliance on massive vs small-scalediverse water systems and entrenched and rigid vs resilient and adaptable systems Althoughnoticeable cultural differences and specific political pathways existed among these tropicalsocieties amidst the waxing and waning of political histories and sustainable agriculturalpractices the significant overall similarity is the trajectory of urban diaspora The combi-nation of dependence on massive infrastructure low-density urbanism and severe climatechange has some resonance in the present day a topic that we plan to examine in the future

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the participants in the lsquoLow-Density Urbanism Water Management and Sustainability in theTropicsrsquo July 2012 conference in Siem Reap Cambodia for discussion of this topic (funded by Wenner-GrenFoundation CONF-594 awarded to Lucero and Fletcher) and for private donations Thanks also go toPatricia McAnany for discussions on human diaspora We are also deeply grateful to our respective researchteams for all their contributions over many years

ReferencesBROHIER R 1934 The ancient irrigation works in

Ceylon Colombo Government

BUCKLEY BM KJ ANCHUKAITIS D PENNYR FLETCHER ER COOK M SANOD LC NAMA WICHIENKEEO TT MINH amp TM HONG2010 Climate as a contributing factor in thedemise of Angkor Cambodia Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences USA 107 6748ndash52httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0910827107

BUCKLEY BM R FLETCHER SS WANG B ZOTTOLI

amp C POTTIER 2014 Monsoon extremes andsociety over the past millennium on mainlandSoutheast Asia Quaternary Science Reviews 951ndash19httpdxdoiorg101016jquascirev201404022

BURTON TM DL KING RC BALL amp TG BAKER1979 Utilization of natural ecosystems for wastewater renovation Chicago (IL) United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency Region V GreatLakes National Programs Office

CHASE AF DZ CHASE JF WEISHAMPELJB DRAKE RL SHRESTHA KC SLATTONJJ AWE amp WE CARTER 2011 Airborne LiDARarchaeology and the ancient Maya landscape atCaracol Belize Journal of Archaeological Science 38387ndash98httpdxdoiorg101016jjas201009018

COE MD 2008 Urbanism and the Classic Khmer inA Guadalupe RH Cobean A Garcia ampKG Hirth (ed) Urbanism in Mesoamerica715ndash31 Mexico Instituto Nacional deAntropologıa e Historia amp Pennsylvania StateUniversity

CONINGHAM RAE 1999 Anuradhapura theBritish-Sri Lankan excavations at AnuradhapuraSalgaha Watta volume 1 the site OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

ndash 2006 Anuradhapura the British-Sri Lankanexcavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta volume2 the artefacts Oxford Archaeopress for the Societyfor South Asian Studies

CONINGHAM RAE amp P GUNAWARDHANA 2013Anuradhapura volume 3 the hinterland OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

CONINGHAM RAE amp MJ MANUEL 2009 The earlyempires of South Asia in T Harrison (ed) Greatempires of the ancient world 226ndash49 LondonThames amp Hudson

CONINGHAM RAE P GUNAWARDHANAM MANUEL G ADIKARI M KATUGAMPOLAR YOUNG A SCHMIDT K KRISHNAN I SIMPSONG MCDONNELL amp C BATT 2007 The state oftheocracy defining an early medieval hinterland inSri Lanka Antiquity 81 699ndash719httpdxdoiorg101017S0003598times00095673

CULBERT TP amp DS RICE 1990 Precolumbianpopulation history in the Maya lowlandsAlbuquerque University of New Mexico Press

DAY MB DA HODELL M BRENNERHJ CHAPMAN JH CURTIS WF KENNEYAL KOLATA amp LC PETERSON 2012Paleoenvironmental history of the West BarayAngkor (Cambodia) Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences USA 109 1046ndash51httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1111282109

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1151

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

In the end the different histories of kings and farmers relate to the different constructsin which they existed inflexible vs flexible strategies a reliance on massive vs small-scalediverse water systems and entrenched and rigid vs resilient and adaptable systems Althoughnoticeable cultural differences and specific political pathways existed among these tropicalsocieties amidst the waxing and waning of political histories and sustainable agriculturalpractices the significant overall similarity is the trajectory of urban diaspora The combi-nation of dependence on massive infrastructure low-density urbanism and severe climatechange has some resonance in the present day a topic that we plan to examine in the future

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the participants in the lsquoLow-Density Urbanism Water Management and Sustainability in theTropicsrsquo July 2012 conference in Siem Reap Cambodia for discussion of this topic (funded by Wenner-GrenFoundation CONF-594 awarded to Lucero and Fletcher) and for private donations Thanks also go toPatricia McAnany for discussions on human diaspora We are also deeply grateful to our respective researchteams for all their contributions over many years

ReferencesBROHIER R 1934 The ancient irrigation works in

Ceylon Colombo Government

BUCKLEY BM KJ ANCHUKAITIS D PENNYR FLETCHER ER COOK M SANOD LC NAMA WICHIENKEEO TT MINH amp TM HONG2010 Climate as a contributing factor in thedemise of Angkor Cambodia Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences USA 107 6748ndash52httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0910827107

BUCKLEY BM R FLETCHER SS WANG B ZOTTOLI

amp C POTTIER 2014 Monsoon extremes andsociety over the past millennium on mainlandSoutheast Asia Quaternary Science Reviews 951ndash19httpdxdoiorg101016jquascirev201404022

BURTON TM DL KING RC BALL amp TG BAKER1979 Utilization of natural ecosystems for wastewater renovation Chicago (IL) United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency Region V GreatLakes National Programs Office

CHASE AF DZ CHASE JF WEISHAMPELJB DRAKE RL SHRESTHA KC SLATTONJJ AWE amp WE CARTER 2011 Airborne LiDARarchaeology and the ancient Maya landscape atCaracol Belize Journal of Archaeological Science 38387ndash98httpdxdoiorg101016jjas201009018

COE MD 2008 Urbanism and the Classic Khmer inA Guadalupe RH Cobean A Garcia ampKG Hirth (ed) Urbanism in Mesoamerica715ndash31 Mexico Instituto Nacional deAntropologıa e Historia amp Pennsylvania StateUniversity

CONINGHAM RAE 1999 Anuradhapura theBritish-Sri Lankan excavations at AnuradhapuraSalgaha Watta volume 1 the site OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

ndash 2006 Anuradhapura the British-Sri Lankanexcavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta volume2 the artefacts Oxford Archaeopress for the Societyfor South Asian Studies

CONINGHAM RAE amp P GUNAWARDHANA 2013Anuradhapura volume 3 the hinterland OxfordArchaeopress for the Society for South AsianStudies

CONINGHAM RAE amp MJ MANUEL 2009 The earlyempires of South Asia in T Harrison (ed) Greatempires of the ancient world 226ndash49 LondonThames amp Hudson

CONINGHAM RAE P GUNAWARDHANAM MANUEL G ADIKARI M KATUGAMPOLAR YOUNG A SCHMIDT K KRISHNAN I SIMPSONG MCDONNELL amp C BATT 2007 The state oftheocracy defining an early medieval hinterland inSri Lanka Antiquity 81 699ndash719httpdxdoiorg101017S0003598times00095673

CULBERT TP amp DS RICE 1990 Precolumbianpopulation history in the Maya lowlandsAlbuquerque University of New Mexico Press

DAY MB DA HODELL M BRENNERHJ CHAPMAN JH CURTIS WF KENNEYAL KOLATA amp LC PETERSON 2012Paleoenvironmental history of the West BarayAngkor (Cambodia) Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences USA 109 1046ndash51httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1111282109

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1151

Lisa J Lucero et al

DUNNING NP TP BEACH amp S LUZZADDER-BEACH2012 Kax and kol collapse and resilience inlowland Maya civilization Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences USA 109 3652ndash57httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1114838109

EVANS D C POTTIER R FLETCHER S HENSLEYI TAPLEY A MILNE amp M BARBETTI 2007 Acomprehensive archaeological map of the worldrsquoslargest preindustrial settlement complex at AngkorCambodia Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences USA 104 14277ndash82httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0702525104

EVANS D RJ FLETCHER C POTTIERJ-B CHEVANCE D SOUTIF BS TAN S IMT TIN S KIM C CROMARTY S DE GREEFK HANUS P BATY R KUSZINGER I SHIMODA ampG BOORNAZIAN 2013 Uncovering archaeologicallandscapes at Angkor using LiDAR Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences USA 11012595ndash600httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1306539110

FASH B 2005 Iconographic evidence for watermanagement and social organization at Copan inEW Andrews amp WL Fash (ed) Copan thehistory of an ancient Maya kingdom 103ndash38Santa Fe (NM) School of American Research

FEDICK SL 1996 An interpretative kaleidoscopealternative perspectives on ancient agriculturallandscapes of the Maya lowlands in SL Fedick(ed) The managed mosaic ancient Maya agricultureand resource use 107ndash31 Salt Lake City Universityof Utah Press

FLETCHER R 2002 The hammering of societynon-correspondence and modernity in J SchofieldWG Johnson amp CM Beck (ed) Materiel culturethe archaeology of twentieth-century conflict 303ndash11London Routledgehttpdxdoiorg1043249780203165744_chapter_26

ndash 2004 Materiality space time and outcome inJ Bintliff (ed) A companion to archaeology 110ndash40Oxford Blackwell

ndash 2009 Low-density agrarian-based urbanism acomparative view Insights (Institute of AdvancedStudy Durham University) 2(4) 1ndash19

ndash 2010 Urban materialities meaning magnitudefriction and outcomes in D Hicks ampMC Beaudry (ed) The Oxford handbook ofmaterial culture studies 459ndash83 Oxford OxfordUniversity Press

ndash 2012 Low-density agrarian-based urbanism scalepower and ecology in ME Smith (ed) Thecomparative archaeology of complex societies285ndash320 Cambridge Cambridge UniversityPress

FLETCHER R M BARBETTI D EVANS H THANI SOKRITHY D CHAN D PENNY C POTTIER ampT SOMANEATH 2003 Redefining Angkorstructure and environment in the largestlow-density urban complex of the pre-industrialworld UDAYA 4 107ndash25

FLETCHER R D PENNY D EVANS C POTTIERM BARBETTI M KUMMU T LUSTIG amp Authorityfor the Protection and Management of Angkor andthe Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) Department ofMonuments and Archaeology Team 2008 Thewater management network of Angkor CambodiaAntiquity 82 658ndash70httpdxdoiorg101017S0003598times00097295

FORD A amp R NIGH 2009 Origins of the Maya forestgarden Maya resource management Journal ofEthnobiology 29 213ndash36httpdxdoiorg1029930278-0771-292213

GILLILAND K IA SIMPSON WP ADDERLEYCI BURBIDGE AJ CRESSWELLDCW SANDERSON RAE CONINGHAMM MANUEL K STRICKLAND P GUNAWARDHANA

amp G ADIKARI 2013 The dry tank developmentand disuse of water management infrastructure inthe Anuradhapura hinterland Sri Lanka Journal ofArchaeological Sciences 40 1012ndash28httpdxdoiorg101016jjas201209034

GRAHAM E 1999 Stone cities green cities inEA Bacus amp LJ Lucero (ed) Complex polities inthe ancient tropical world (Archeological Papers ofthe American Anthropological Association number9) 185ndash94 Arlington (VA) AmericanAnthropological Associationhttpdxdoiorg101525ap3a199991185

ndash 2011 Maya Christians and their churches insixteenth-century Belize Gainesville University Pressof Floridahttpdxdoiorg105744florida97808130366630010001

GROSLIER B-P 2006 Angkor and Cambodia in thesixteenth century according to Portuguese and Spanishsources (translated by Michael Smythies) BangkokOrchid

HAWKEN S 2007 Angkor sprawling forms of amedieval metropolis Topos the international reviewof landscape architecture and urban design 61 90ndash96

IANNONE G (ed) 2014 The great Maya droughts incultural context Boulder University Press ofColorado

INOMATA T 2006 Plazas performers and spectatorspolitical theaters of the Classic Maya CurrentAnthropology 47 805ndash42httpdxdoiorg101086506279

ISENDAHL C 2012 Agro-urban landscapes theexample of Maya lowland cities Antiquity 861112ndash25httpdxdoiorg101017S0003598times00048286

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1152

Res

earc

h

From lsquocollapsersquo to urban diaspora

JUNG SJA GR DAVIES GM GANSSEN ampD KROON 2004 Synchronous Holocene seasurface temperature and rainfall variations in theAsian monsoon system Quaternary Science Reviews23 2207ndash18httpdxdoiorg101016jquascirev200408009

KAPUR PK amp S SAHAI 2007 Ta Prohm a glorious erain Angkor civilisation Bangkok White Lotus

KUMMU M 2009 Water management in Angkorhuman impacts on hydrology and sedimenttransportation Journal of EnvironmentalManagement 90 1413ndash21

LAJONQUIERE L DE 1911 Inventaire descriptif desmonuments du Cambodge Cartes 1mdashCartearcheologique de lrsquoancien Cambodge 2mdashCarte dugroupe de drsquoAngkor par Buat et DucretPublications de lrsquoEFEO 9 Paris Ernest Leroux

LANSING JS 1991 Priests and programmerstechnologies of power in the engineered landscape ofBali Princeton (NJ) University of Princeton

ndash 2006 Perfect order recognizing complexity in BaliPrinceton (NJ) University of Princeton

LEACH E 1959 Hydraulic society in Ceylon Past andPresent 15 2ndash25httpdxdoiorg101093past1512

LIEBERMAN V amp B BUCKLEY 2012 The impact ofclimate on Southeast Asia circa 950ndash1820 newfindings Modern Asian Studies 46 1049ndash96httpdxdoiorg101017S0026749times12000091

LUCERO LJ 1999 Water control and Maya politics inthe southern Maya lowlands in EA Bacus ampLJ Lucero (ed) Complex polities in the ancienttropical world (Archeological Papers of theAmerican Anthropological Association number 9)34ndash49 Arlington (VA) American AnthropologicalAssociation

ndash 2002 The collapse of the Classic Maya a case for therole of water control American Anthropologist 104814ndash26httpdxdoiorg101525aa20021043814

ndash 2003 The politics of ritual the emergence of ClassicMaya rulers Current Anthropology 44 523ndash58httpdxdoiorg101086375870

ndash 2006 Water and ritual the rise and fall of Classic Mayarulers Austin University of Texas Press

ndash 2007 Classic Maya temples politics and the voice ofthe people Latin American Antiquity 18 407ndash27httpdxdoiorg10230725478195

LUCERO LJ JD GUNN amp VL SCARBOROUGH 2011Climate change and Classic Maya watermanagement Water 3 479ndash94httpdxdoiorg103390w3020479

LUCERO LJ JD GUNN amp VL SCARBOROUGH 2014Water and landscape Ancient Maya settlementdecisions in A Chase amp VL Scarborough (ed)Theresilience and vulnerability of ancient landscapestransforming Maya archaeology through IHOPE(Archeological Papers of the AmericanAnthropological Association number 24) 30ndash42Hoboken (NJ) Wiley-Blackwell

MARTIN S amp N GRUBE 2008 Chronicle of theMaya kings and queens deciphering the dynastiesof the ancient Maya London Thames ampHudson

MASSON MA amp DA FREIDEL 2012 An argumentfor Classic era Maya market exchange Journal ofAnthropological Archaeology 31455ndash84httpdxdoiorg101016jjaa201203007

MCANANY PA amp N YOFFEE (ed) 2009Questioningcollapse human resilience ecological vulnerabilityand the aftermath of empire Cambridge CambridgeUniversity Presshttpdxdoiorg101017CBO9780511757815

MCARTHUR M 2002 Reading Buddhist art anillustrated guide to Buddhist signs and symbolsLondon Thames amp Hudson

MCINTOSH RJ 2005 Ancient middle Niger urbanismand the self-organizing landscape CambridgeCambridge University Press

MCNEIL CL DA BURNEY amp LP BURNEY 2010Evidence disputing deforestation as the cause forthe collapse of the ancient Maya polity of CopanHonduras Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences USA 107 1017ndash22httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0904760107

MEDINA-ELIZALDE M SJ BURNS DW LEAY ASMEROM L VON GUNTEN V POLYAKM VUILLE amp A KARMALKAR 2010 Highresolution stalagmite climate record from theYucatan Peninsula spanning the Maya TerminalClassic period Earth and Planetary Science Letters298 255ndash62httpdxdoiorg101016jepsl201008016

MIDDLETON GD 2012 Nothing lasts foreverenvironmental discourses on the collapse of pastsocieties Journal of Archaeological Research 20257ndash307httpdxdoiorg101007s10814-011-9054-1

MIKSIC JN 1999 Water urbanization and disease inancient Indonesia in EA Bacus amp LJ Lucero(ed) Complex polities in the ancient tropical world(Archeological Papers of the AmericanAnthropological Association number 9) 167ndash84Arlington (VA) American AnthropologicalAssociationhttpdxdoiorg101525ap3a199991167

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

1153

Lisa J Lucero et al

MUELLER AD GA ISLEBE MB HILLESHEIMDA GRZESIK FS ANSELMETTI D ARIZTEGUIM BRENNER JH CURTIS DA HODELL ampKA VENZ 2010 Recovery of the forest ecosystemin the tropical lowlands of northern Guatemalaafter disintegration of Classic Maya polities Geology38 523ndash26 httpdxdoiorg101130G307971

PENNY D C POTTIER R FLETCHER M BARBETTID FINK amp Q HUA 2006 Vegetation and land-useat Angkor Cambodia a dated pollen sequence fromthe Bakong Temple moat Antiquity 80 599ndash614httpdxdoiorg101017S0003598times00094060

PENNY D C POTTIER M KUMMU R FLETCHERU ZOPPI M BARBETTI amp S TOUS 2007Hydrological history of the West Baray Angkorrevealed through palynological analysis ofsediments from the West Mebon Bulletin de lrsquoEcoleFrancaise drsquoExtreme-Orient 92 497ndash521httpdxdoiorg103406befeo20055994

POTTIER C 2000 Some evidence of aninter-relationship between hydraulic features andrice field patterns at Angkor during ancient timesJournal of Sophia Asian Studies 18 253ndash62

SABLOFF JA 2007 It depends on how you look atthings new perspectives on the post-Classic periodin the northern Maya lowlands Proceedings of theAmerican Philosophical Society 151 11ndash25

SCARBOROUGH VL 1993 Water management in thesouthern Maya lowlands an accretive model for theengineered landscape Research in EconomicAnthropology 7 17ndash69

ndash 2003 The flow of power ancient water systems andlandscapes Santa Fe (NM) School of AmericanResearch Press

SCARBOROUGH VL amp WR BURNSIDE 2010Complexity and sustainability perspectives fromthe ancient Maya and the modern BalineseAmerican Antiquity 75 327ndash63httpdxdoiorg1071830002-7316752327

SCARBOROUGH VL amp GC GALLOPIN 1991 A waterstorage adaptation in the Maya lowlands Science251 658ndash62httpdxdoiorg101126science2514994658

SCARBOROUGH VL amp LJ LUCERO 2010 Thenon-hierarchical development of complexity in thesemitropics water and cooperation Water History2 185ndash205httpdxdoiorg101007s12685-010-0026-z

SCARBOROUGH VL NP DUNNING KB TANKERSLEYC CARR E WEAVER L GRAZIOSO B LANEJG JONES P BUTTLES F VALDEZ amp DL LENTZ2012 Water and sustainable land use at the ancienttropical city of Tikal Guatemala Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences USA 109 12408ndash413httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1202881109

SCHEFFRAN J 2008 Climate change and securityBulletin of the Atomic Scientists 64 19ndash25 59ndash60httpdxdoiorg102968064002007

SINHA A KG CANNARIATO LD STOTT H CHENGRL EDWARDS MG YADAVA R RAMESH ampIB SINGH 2007 A 900-year (600 to 1500 AD)record of the Indian summer monsoonprecipitation from the core monsoon zone of IndiaGeophysical Research Letters 34 L16707 httpdoi1010292007GL030431

THOMPSON A 2004 The future of Cambodiarsquos past amessianic Middle-Period Cambodian royal cult inJ Marston amp E Guthrie (ed) History Buddhismand new religious movements in Cambodia 13ndash39Honolulu University of Hawairsquoi Press

TURNER BL amp JA SABLOFF 2012 Classic periodcollapse of the central Maya lowlands insightsabout human-environment relationships forsustainability Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences USA 109 13908ndash14httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1210106109

ZHANG DD HF LEE C WANG B LI Q PEIJ ZHANG amp Y AN ZHANG 2011 The causalityanalysis of climate change and large-scale humancrisis Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesUSA 108 17296ndash301httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1104268108

Received 19 August 2014 Accepted 28 October 2014 Revised 12 December 2014

Ccopy Antiquity Publications Ltd 2015

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