Harper Galen Dine

HARPER DINE, then a graduate student at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, received a grant in August 2020 to aid research on ‘Agriculture and Community Food Security at Bohe, Yucat’n, Mexico,’ supervised by Dr. Andrew Scherer. Retitled ‘Agricultural Strategies and Household Food Security in the Yaxuna-Coba Region,’ this dissertation research involved laboratory work and archaeological fieldwork with the goal of investigating ancient Maya agricultural practice and household foodways at the sites of Yaxuna, Joya, and Coba in relation to the Late Classic (600-800 AD) construction of a monumental causeway that spanned the region. This research was conducted as part of the Proyecto de Interacci’n Pol’tica del Centro de Yucat’n, directed by Travis Stanton and Traci Ardren. From October 2020 to December 2021, artifact extractions from previously excavated materials recovered at Yaxuna and Coba were conducted and analyzed in Providence, Rhode Island, while the COVID-19 pandemic made travel unsafe. From January 2022 to April 2022, research was relocated to M’rida, Yucat’n in order to process plaster floor samples from Coba and Yaxuna and perform paleoethnobotanical reference collection work with local plants. In April 2022 through June 2022, archaeological fieldwork in agricultural features and outer household contexts was carried out at Yaxuna and Joya. This research was coupled with paleoethnobotanical sampling and sample processing, resulting in a total of 88 samples collected (25 artifact extractions conducted, 15 flotation samples processed, 48 phytolith samples collected) during the field season. This is in addition to the 50 samples whose analysis are still in progress.