During the exploration of few of the hundreds of caves that exist in the Yucatan Peninsula, we found a cave that was used as a pottery workshop by ancient mayans and retrieved a number of interesting stalagmites. A cross-section of these specimens revealed clear charcoal layers and pieces of charcoal on the bottom-i.e. reminiscences of pottery manufacturing- which indicate that they witnessed the history of this ancient Mayan workshop. These specimens may provide the first records ever recovered of continual cave usage for pottery-making by ancient mayans.
I aim to develop a comprehensive program to study the climate evolution of Mesoamerica; the geographical region where ancient cultures such as the Aztec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Mixtec and Mayan flourished. The study of past climates on this region, which includes Mexico and Central America, is also particularly important climatologically, because it is influenced by the ITCZ, which links remote regions along the tropical band, and by the North American Monsoon, which brings moisture to Mexico and the southwestern United States. This program would include recovering paleoclimate archives (speleothems, corals, lake sediments) and using a variety of proxies. The aim is not only reconstructing past climate variability but also studying the evolution of vegetation and the impact of human activities on the ecosystem. In addition, I aim to create a modern monitoring network to place those records in context and to help develop new tools for environmental reconstruction.