Linking late Paleoindian stone tool technologies and populations in North, Central and South America

Abstract

From the perspective of Central and South America, the peopling of the New World was a complex process lasting thousands of years and involving multiple waves of Pleistocene and early Holocene period immigrants entering into the neotropics. These Paleoindian colonists initially brought with them technologies developed for adaptation to environments and resources found in North America. As the ice age ended across the New World people adapted more generalized stone tools to exploit changing environments and resources. In the neotropics these changes would have been pronounced as patchy forests and grasslands gave way to broadleaf tropical forests. We document a late Pleistocene/early Holocene stone tool tradition from Belize, located in southern Mesoamerica. This represents the first endogenous Paleoindian stone tool technocomplex recovered from well dated stratigraphic contexts for Mesoamerica. Previously designated Lowe, these artifacts share multiple features with contemporary North and South American Paleoindian tool types. Once hafted, these bifaces appear to have served multiple functions for cutting, hooking, thrusting, or throwing. The tools were developed at a time of technological regionalization reflecting the diverse demands of a period of pronounced environmental change and population movement. Combined stratigraphic, technological, and population paleogenetic data suggests that there were strong ties between lowland neotropic regions at the onset of the Holocene.

Early isotopic evidence for maize as a staple grain in the Americas

“…Within this forested environment, MHCP is formed by an east-facing 20-m-high limestone outcrop that creates a 26-m-wide and 6-m-deep rock shelter. Dry sediments and limited root activity inside the dripline (~160 m 2 ) have favored the preservation of bone and carbonized plant materials (30). One 2.5 m-by-2.5 m excavation trench (figs.…”

Post-Depositional Alteration of Calcium Carbonate Phases in Archaeological Ceramics: Depletion and Redistribution Effects

“…The terrain of the Central Plateau is steep and mountainous, with its highest peaks reaching altitudes of over 2800 masl; it is colloquially characterized as "tierra fria", with short agricultural growing seasons and traditionally low population densities compared to neighboring lowland polities [92]. Yet, the Jovel Valley shows evidence of human habitation from the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene transition (12,000-9300 CalBP) onward [93][94][95] due to its rich mineral and forest resources. The Jovel Valley is the largest intermontane valley in highland Chiapas, and it was historically significant for its strategic position along long-distance trade and transportation routes across central Chiapas [96,97].…”

Lowland Maya Genesis: The Late Archaic to Late Early Formative Transition in the Upper Belize River Valley

“…First, it acknowledges that the data currently available for western Belize (Figure 3) place the establishment of ceramic-producing sedentary communities somewhere around 1200/1000 b.c., a date that is also supported by recently published 14 C dates from Nixtun-Ch'ich' in neighboring Guatemala (Rice 2019b:473, Table 2). Second, it takes into serious consideration a perspective that has been echoed by several researchers that "[t]he transition out of the Archaic should be viewed as a process rather than an event" (Lohse 2021; see also Kennett et al 2020;Prufer et al 2019;Rosenswig 2015). Third, it reflects the point of view that this process was neither sudden nor abbreviated, but instead was gradual, complex, and as diverse in time as it was in space.…”

“…Current research is also being conducted by Prufer and colleagues in southern Belize (Kennett et al 2020(Kennett et al , 2021Prufer et al 2019Prufer et al , 2021Reich et al 2020), and by Rosenswig Rosenswig et al 2014) in the Freshwater Creek drainage in northern Belize. In spite of the commendable efforts of the latter projects, most of which have focused on Belize, even a comprehensive search of the available literature reveals that data on the Archaic to Formative transition in the Maya lowlands remain exceedingly limited.…”