Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador

Exceptional preservation of the Late Classic Maya village Joya de Cerén, buried by the Loma Caldera eruption around 660 CE, offers a unique window into ancient Mesoamerican agricultural practices. Research reveals that villagers employed polyculture farming, combining fruit trees, annual and root crops, fiber plants, and weedy species in productive house-lot gardens and extensive outfields. This diversified approach ensured a nutritionally rich diet, as evidenced by the recovery of maize, manioc, squash, common beans, and other economically useful species through intensive paleoethnobotanical methods. The study underscores the sophisticated landscape management strategies used by ancient inhabitants to maximize food production and sustainability.

Slotten, V., Lentz, D., & Sheets, P. (2020). Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 59, 101191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101191