Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction A User's Guide to Soils, Climate, and Society -- REFERENCES -- 1. Population Estimates for Anthropogenically Enriched Soils (Amazonian Dark Earths) -- HOW MANY YEARS DO YOU GET FOR COUNTERFEITING A PARADISE? -- ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR LARGE POPULATIONS -- AMAZONIAN DARK EARTHS -- EXAMINATION OF AMAZONIAN DARK EARTHS AS AN ALTERNATE METHOD FOR DETERMINING PAST POPULATIONS -- METHOD ONE -- METHOD TWO -- CAVEATS AND FINAL CONSIDERATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 2. Soilscape Legacies: Historical and Emerging Consequences of Socioecological Interactions in Honduras -- SOILSCAPES AND THEIR LEGACIES -- NACO SETTLEMENT AND LAND USE, 1000 BC-AD 2000 -- GEOMORPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL SETTING -- SETTLEMENT AND LAND-USE HISTORY -- PALMAREJO SOILSCAPES -- SURFACE GEOMORPHOLOGY -- STRATIGRAPHIC SECTION PROFILES -- AUGER PROBES AND SOIL ANALYSIS -- DISCUSSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 3. Drought, Subsistence Stress, and Population Dynamics: Assessing Mississippian Abandonment of the Vacant Quarter -- ESTIMATING MISSISSIPPIAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND POPULATION HISTORIES -- POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF DROUGHT AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ON MISSISSIPPIAN POPULATION TRAJECTORIES IN THE VACANT QUARTER -- DROUGHT EVENT 1 (AD 1288-1308) -- DROUGHT EVENT 2 (AD 1385-1413) -- DROUGHT EVENTS 3 AND 4 (AD 1449-58, 1483-92) -- SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 4. Mimbres Mogollon Farming: Estimating Prehistoric Agricultural Production during the Classic Mimbres Period -- POPULATION -- EXTRAPOLATION OF TOTAL NUMBER OF ROOMS -- ENVIRONMENTAL STRATA -- POPULATION ESTIMATES -- MAIZE PRODUCTION -- MAIZE PRODUCTION MODEL -- MIMBRES MOGOLLON AGROECOSYSTEMS -- PREHISTORIC PRODUCTION AND SUSTAINABLE POPULATION.

AGRICULTURAL LAND USE -- LOSSES -- STORAGE -- CONSUMPTION -- SUSTAINABLE POPULATION UNITS -- DISCUSSION -- Conclusion -- NOTE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 5. So Who's Counting? Modeling Pre-Columbian Agricultural Potential in the Maya World -- Why Is It So Complicated? -- WHAT CAN A COMPUTER SIMULATION ADD? -- EPIC -- BACKGROUND -- QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF INPUTS -- THE CASE OF BAKING POT -- SWIDDEN AGRICULTURE AND ITS DISCONTENTS: LAND USE AT BAKING POT -- SIMULATION METHODS AND INPUTS -- SOIL PRODUCTIVITY CLASSIFICATIONS: A TEST -- EPIC SIMULATION: VARIABLES -- EPIC SIMULATION: CROPS AND ROTATIONS -- SIMULATION RESULTS -- DEFINING THE LAND AREA AT BAKING POT -- METHODOLOGY -- SOILS AVAILABLE FOR AGRICULTURE AT BAKING POT -- CALCULATING THE POTENTIAL POPULATION OF BAKING POT -- CAVEATS -- WAS THERE CASH CROPPING AT BAKING POT? -- A REALITY CHECK: EPIC VERSUS HOUSEHOLD ESTIMATION -- SUMMARY -- NOTES -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 6. Tilling the Fields and Building the Temples: Assessing the Relationship among Land, Labor, and Classic Maya Elite Power in the Copán Valley, Honduras -- RESEARCH AT COPÁN -- COPÁN -- PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT -- SOILS OF THE COPÁN VALLEY -- DATABASE -- MODELING SOIL PROCESSES AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN THE COPÁN VALLEY -- SIMULATIONS AS A MODEL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR -- ADJUSTING THE MODEL TO REFLECT CURRENT KNOWLEDGE -- MODEL RESULTS -- DISCUSSION OF MODEL RESULTS -- IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERPRETING THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 7. An EPIC Challenge: Estimating Site Population in South Coastal Peru -- CAMANÁ -- SIMULATION -- HOW MUCH DID THEY EAT? -- CAMANÁ SITE POPULATION ESTIMATION -- PAMPATÁ, PILLISTAY, AND SOTO -- CAVEATS -- WAS THERE CASH CROPPING? -- SUMMARY -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 8. Feeding the Masses: New Perspectives on Maya Agriculture from Cerén, El Salvador.

POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE IN THE MAYA AREA -- THE SETTING: CERÉN, EL SALVADOR -- PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON AGRICULTURE AT CERÉN -- CERÉN MAIZE FIELDS -- RECENT RESEARCH ON CERÉN AGRICULTURE -- GROUND-PENETRATING RADAR DISCOVERY -- SOIL PRODUCTIVITY ESTIMATES -- THE 2007 CERÉN ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SEASON -- THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDING MANIOC AT CERÉN -- SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- 9. How Can We Know? The Epistemological Foundation of Ecological Modeling in Archaeology -- MODELING MAIZE PRODUCTIVITY IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA -- GENERAL MODELS: ETHNOHISTORIC AND ETHNOGRAPHIC SOURCES -- PRECISE LOCATION MODELS AND CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-AMERICAN SOURCES -- EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES -- COLONIAL BEGINNINGS -- EPISTEMOLOGY, PRODUCTIVITY, AND POPULATION -- CONCLUDING COMMENT -- NOTE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- REFERENCES -- Contributors -- Index.