WHO WE ARE

DECIFERING PLANT LIFE THEN FOR NOW —by Lois Chazen

For David Lentz, a college graduation gift—a round-trip air ticket to London—turned into a splendid yearlong voyage. With London as the starting point, he continued on throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. Besides seeing many parts of the world, he reflected on what his life work should be. He chose Paleoethnobotany and completed his PhD in Botany in 1984 at the University of Alabama. Previously, he earned a BA in Biology and Sociology from Washington and Jefferson College (just before his yearlong voyage), and an MA in Anthropology from Eastern New Mexico University.

David Lentz at an electron microscope at the New York Botanical Garden's Plant Science Lab.

Since the completion of his dissertation, David has become a distinguished scholar and researcher in a highly specialized field. Since 1993, he has been Director of the century-old Graduate Studies Program and Adjunct Curator at the New York Botanical Garden, and concurrently is on the faculty at several prestigious colleges and universities. He is the author of many professional articles and of a recently published, highly acclaimed book widely used as a text in classes across the country. In addition, he leads ongoing research projects encompassing various facets of his discipline. Besides his curatorial obligations at the Botanical Garden, he oversees the progress of forty-two graduate students, each exploring a different research topic.

Of his students, David says, "They are excellent students—stimulating. They dig into the literature and keep me informed in ways I could never do on my own. Sometimes it is humiliating! They are inquisitive and always in touch with the latest developments in their particular fields of study. They teach me and other scientists at the Botanical Garden quite a bit."
 

In his book, Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Precolumbian Americas, published in 2000 by Columbia University Press, David and other researchers contributing essays to the volume demonstrate that the Precolumbian world was adept at farming long before European explorers arrived. The Maya used terracing and irrigation. They grew beans, squash, pepper, avocado and fruit trees and invented chocolate. They domesticated turkeys, ducks, and dogs and had broad access to deer, fish and many types of foul and turtle, especially in the coastal regions.

The ancient Maya capital, Tikal, is believed to have had more than two million inhabitants, then many times more populous than London and Paris combined. "Researching Mayan ethnobotanical practices involves a number of considerations," David explained. "Understanding their religious rituals, political and social organization, their use of tools and transportation, the ritualistic symbolism of their games, climatic conditions and other factors are integral parts of the puzzle." In his book, David uses several disciplines to prove his theories: Aquatic Sciences, Geochemistry, Systematic Botany, Aquatic Biology, Paleoclimatology, and Archaeology.

Dr. Lentz teaches and supervises research in a recently created consortium of five eminent science-research institutions in New York City, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation. The resources of the New York Botanical Garden, the American Museum of Natural History, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Columbia University and the Wildlife Trust are linked for a specific purpose. The premise is that ecology, organismal evolution, population, and environmental biology constitute an interactive subdivision of the biological sciences requiring specialized systems for organization and study. Each institution gains efficient, broader exposure to expertise. Educating future generations to deal with environmental forces and conserving worldwide biodiversity are among their goals.

David's research covers a range of topics. Using accelerator mass spectrometry of carbonized sunflower seed and partially carbonized sunflower fruit excavated from the lowlands of San Andres, Mexico, he determined their age to be 4,130 (±40) and 4,085 (±50) years old, respectively.

Among David's other recent projects are: an ethnomedical study of the Kekchi Maya in Guatemala, and studies of biodynamic compounds derived from natural products, novel antimicrobial and antiviral agents from medicinal plants and new world environmental change and cultural interactions since the Pleistocene. At a recent meeting of the Precolumbian Society, David delivered a lecture on another exploration. It was entitled "Recent Paleoethnobotanical Studies at Ceren: The Central American Pompeii." David reported that this tiny hamlet in El Salvador was covered in 590AD by a six-meter mantle of ash from an erupting volcano and that archaeologists have found a wealth of intact artifacts to study. He told his audience about the exceptional condition of kitchen pantries, storehouses, dooryard gardens, domed sweat lodges and sacred niches—even meals about to be consumed when the volcano erupted, and concluded that these artifacts were an important find that would shed light on the Maya villages on the periphery of the site.

David at the Moonlight Garden, or Mahtab Bagh near theTaj Mahal.

Although David's projects are usually in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and initially, in the southwestern United States, he recently undertook an unusual assignment in India. Elizabeth Moynihan, wife of former Senator Patrick Moynihan of New York, invited David to research the symbolism and function of plants in the Moonlight Garden of the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, who designed the garden and the Taj Mahal just across the river at Agra. "This pleasure paradise," David explains, "was a fragrant mix of plants: varieties of palm, magnolia and cedar trees, pistachio plants, cockscomb and flowers which release their fragrance at night." His findings have been published in The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal, edited by Mrs. Moynihan and published in 2000 by the University of Washington Press and the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

David is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including a Fulbright Fellowship, and grants for his research from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies, private foundations and industry. He enjoys outdoor sports, downhill and cross-country skiing, hiking and canoeing and works out at a gym near his Upper East Side apartment. He also enjoys music and plays the guitar, and has sung in the All Souls Community Chorus. He has also participated in a number of other programs at All Souls, including Meals-On-Heels, Monday Night Hospitality, The Navigators, and Ushering. Active in the Sierra Club, David has held many leadership posts and received awards for his service. He joined All Souls shortly after arriving in New York in 1993.