Ken Seligson at a Puuc site

Burning Rings of Fire: Ancient Maya Resource Conservation Strategies

Ken Seligson, PhD, California State University Dominquez Hills

The Ancient Maya used burnt lime for everything. From the mortar that held their elaborate temple pyramids together to the processing of corn into a nutritious staple food, burnt lime was literally the glue that held the Maya world together. Yet until recently, archaeologists did not know how the Pre-hispanic Maya made their burnt lime. The amount of wood used in traditional above-ground kilns during the Colonial Period, and more recently, raises the possibility that burnt lime production may have led to rampant deforestation during the Classic Period. In this lecture, Dr. Seligson will discuss the many archaeological methods that he used to identify a fuel-efficient Pre-hispanic pit-kiln technology in the Northern Maya Lowlands–a finding that questions the idea that Classic Maya civilization “collapsed.”

Dr. Ken Seligson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles County. He earned his AB in Anthropology and History from Brown University and his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Seligson has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in the Northern Maya Lowlands since 2010, focusing mainly on human-environment relationships and resource management practices, as well as on ancient technology. His first book The Maya and Climate Change, which was written for a broader public audience interested in the ancient Maya, was published by Oxford University Press in November 2022.

This meeting is free and open to the public but you must pre-register. Click HERE to register. A confirmation email, and reminder will be will be sent the day before the event.