Ancient Maya water management strategies have received considerable attention in the past several decades. Combined with advances in our understanding of paleoclimatic conditions, these strategies have become a key focus of investigation because of annual seasonal and episodic severe water scarcity in the Maya Lowlands. Given the increasingly larger quantity of data on this topic obtained by archaeologists working across the Maya Lowlands, a comprehensive study of the technological aspect of ancient Maya hydraulic practices has become more and more necessary. Nicolaus Seefeld's book is an updated and revised version of his PhD dissertation defended in 2017, in which he fulfilled this task and contributed to the corpus of data through his own work with the University of Bonn at the site of Uxul, Campeche, from 2009 to 2014.

An introductory chapter presents Seefeld's research question, methodology, and the structure of the book. He defines his research question by emphasizing our failure to explain exactly how Classic Maya polities secured a constant water supply in the Central Lowlands and our lack of knowledge of the historical development of hydraulic features and their sociopolitical relevance. The second chapter focuses on the geomorphology of the Maya Lowlands, including essential geological, climatic, and pedological characteristics of the region, as well as general landscape features encountered such as bajos. The chapter provides information needed to understand the various environmental characteristics of the area to which the Maya adapted by building different hydraulic features. A brief chapter follows on the history of research on the hydrology of the region, in which Seefeld presents successive major consensuses that marked this area of research, as well as important investigations that propelled it forward. The fourth chapter addresses the climatic and landscape history of the Maya Lowlands, including models of prehispanic climatic conditions, as well as the current state of knowledge of these conditions from the Early Preclassic to the Postclassic periods.

The fifth chapter is by far the longest in the book, covering 181 pages. Focusing on the technological aspects of ancient Maya water management, Seefeld has assembled an incredible amount of information about hydraulic features from across the Maya Lowlands, including canals, reservoirs, terraces, and the like. He also discusses the functionality of the features; for example, whether they were intended to manage water scarcity or excess water. It is also here that Seefeld tells us how he defines water management, based on previous scholarship, as the storage and redirection of water by society, relying on features ranging from reservoirs to canals, terraces to raised fields, and any constructions intended to alter the flow of water. In addition, he differentiates water requirements for consumption from those for agricultural production.

The sixth chapter is the second largest, with 117 pages, and is the most original contribution of the book, because it focuses on the author's own excavations of the hydraulic system of the site of Uxul. There, Seefeld excavated two large reservoirs and an artificial cave. He addresses the functions of the various features and the building history of the whole system. Uxul's inhabitants built small- and large-scale hydraulic features throughout the site's history, starting with a modification of the natural aguada occidental in the first part of the Late Classic. This was supplemented by an influx canal to increase its catchment area, as well as a complete additional aguada built in the second part of the Late Classic to cope with an increasing population. The author provides evidence for at least one residential reservoir built during the Early Classic. The deliberate destruction of the system to create at least one buk'te’ (filtration well) in the aguada occidental is interpreted as a sign of the disintegration of the whole system during the Terminal Classic.

The seventh chapter focuses on the functional and spatial patterns of Maya hydraulic features. Based on what was reviewed in the fifth and sixth chapters and the environmental settings presented in the second chapter, Seefeld discusses the different engineering choices made in different environmental circumstances. The eighth chapter covers the development and social relevance of water management in Classic Maya society. The perspective taken follows from the fifth chapter, as he presents and reevaluates different models of the development of water management and its sociopolitical relevance. Seefeld also proposes and justifies his evaluation criteria for determining the social relevance of the features: size, quality, and/or complexity; the extent of interaction between individual elements; and geographic location. A ninth chapter synthesizes principal findings of the volume.

The book is exhaustive and useful for experts in the field. However, it is also accessible to early professionals, scholars who wish to learn more about ancient Maya water management in general, or those who need more information about certain specific aspects of the topic—from regional and environmental characteristics, to climatic conditions, to the techniques and materials involved in building the features. The high quantity and quality of the colored illustrations, most of which are either Seefeld's originals or good reproductions, support the text in a very clear way. Additionally, data from the reviews of hydraulic features and their evaluation are effectively summarized in tables and graphs.

In sum, this large volume of 517 pages provides a unique synthesis that many will find useful. Indeed, Seefeld's book constitutes the best comprehensive study of ancient Maya water management available at this time, with no comparable work out there. The book is a very valuable addition to a Mayanist's library because of everything it brings together on the topic of ancient Maya water management. Scholars working in water management in other regions of the world will also find a very good place to start here if they intend to look at the Maya case.

One limitation of the book is that it does not address the symbolic and ritual aspects of water and its management, because the focus of Seefeld's work is on the technological aspects of ancient Maya water management. Nevertheless, social and political relevance of the features receive attention in a chapter of the volume, and there is no doubt that anyone wishing to study the topic from a more anthropological perspective will find a lot of information in this book.