Journal of Paleolimnology 19: 139–159, 1998. 139 c 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in Belgium. A multi-proxy study of Holocene environmental change in the Maya Lowlands of Peten, Guatemala 1 Jason H. Curtis 1 , Mark Brenner 2 , David A. Hodell 1 , Richard A. Balser 1 , Gerald A. Islebe 3 & Henry Hooghiemstra 3 1 Department of Geology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA (e-mail: curtis@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu) 2 Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida 7922 NW 71st Street, Gainesville, FL 32653, USA 3 Hugo de Vries Laboratorium, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands Current address: Naval Oceanographic Office, Bldg. 1002, Code N231, NASA Stennis Space Center, Stennis Space Center, MS 39522-5001, USA Current address: ECOSUR-Chetumal, Apdo Postal 424, CP 77000 Chetumal, Mexico Received 1 November 1996; accepted 1 May 1997 Key words: geochemistry, Guatemala, Holocene, lake sediment, Maya, magnetic susceptibility, paleolimnology, pollen, stable isotopes Abstract We used multiple variables in a sediment core from Lake Peten-Itza, Peten, Guatemala, to infer Holocene climate change and human influence on the regional environment. Multiple proxies including pollen, stable isotope geo- chemistry, elemental composition, and magnetic susceptibility in samples from the same core allow differentiation of natural versus anthropogenic environmental changes. Core chronology is based on AMS 14 C measurement of terrestrial wood and charcoal and thus avoids the vagaries of hard-water-lake error. During the earliest Holocene, prior to 9000 14 C yr BP, the coring site was not covered by water and all proxies suggest that climatic conditions were relatively dry. Water covered the coring site by 9000 14 C yr BP, coinciding with filling of other lakes in Peten and farther north on the Yucatan Peninsula. During the early Holocene ( 9000 to 6800 14 C yr BP), pollen data suggest moist conditions, but high 18 O values are indicative of relatively high E/P. This apparent discrepancy may be due to a greater fractional loss of the lake’s water budget to evaporation during the early stages of lake filling. Nonetheless, conditions were moist enough to support semi-deciduous lowland forest. Decrease in 18 O values and associated change in ostracod species at 6800 14 C yr BP suggest a transition to even moister conditions. Decline in lowland forest taxa beginning 5780 14 C yr BP may indicate early human disturbance. By 2800 14 C yr BP, Maya impact on the environment is documented by accelerated forest clearance and associated soil erosion. Multiple proxies indicate forest recovery and soil stabilization beginning 1100 to 1000 14 C yr BP, following the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Introduction The Department of Peten, in the northern Guatemala lowlands, encompasses 35 854 km 2 and constitutes much of the area in which ancient Maya civilization arose more than 3000 years ago, flourished for nearly 1 Journal Series Number R-05436 of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station. two millennia, and then collapsed mysteriously in the ninth century AD. Postclassic Maya populations con- tinued to occupy the region until the European con- quest, but never attained the numbers or achieved the cultural heights of their ancestors. The Maya lowlands have captured the imagination of archaeologists and natural scientists alike because the Maya were one of only a few prehistoric high cultures to develop and persist in the context of a tropical lowland dry for-