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

Awe, Jaime J.; Ebert, Claire E.; Stemp, W. James; Brown, M. Kathryn; Sullivan, Louis W.; Garber, James F.

doi:10.1017/s0956536121000420

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…maize”) on the seven sampled stone tools from the Freshwater Creek drainage Archaic period sites (Caye Coco, Fred Smith, Patt Work, Laguna de On, and Doubloon Bank Lagoon) “have evidence of damage consistent with milling” (Rosenswig et al 2014:317), no grinding stones were recovered at any of these sites. At the earliest ceramic-using village sites in the Maya Lowlands where reliance on domesticated crops occurred, manos and metates are significant food-processing tools (e.g., Awe et al 2021; Hammond 1991; McAnany and Ebersole 2004). Moreover, in preceramic/early ceramic period organic soils containing maize pollen at Pulltrouser Swamp, Pohl and colleagues (1996:365) recovered grinding implements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Archaic Period Lithic Technology, Sedentism, and Subsistence in Northern Belize: What Can Debitage at Caye Coco and Fred Smith Tell Us?

Stemp

Rosenswig

2022

Latin Am. antiq.

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Despite the abundance of lithic debitage at preceramic sites in the Maya Lowlands, these data have rarely been studied in detail. We analyzed the chipped chert debitage from Caye Coco and Fred Smith, two Archaic period sites in the Freshwater Creek drainage of northern Belize, to evaluate strategies of lithic raw material procurement, stone tool production, and tool use. The technological and use-wear analyses of the debitage demonstrate that the sites’ inhabitants procured most of their tool stone from the Northern Belize Chert-bearing Zone (NBCZ) and relied on hard-hammer percussion to produce flakes for use as expedient tools and some crude bifaces and unifaces. Although similar patterns of raw material procurement and tool production are demonstrated at both sites, some differences exist, including bipolar reduction at Caye Coco. Based on use-wear analysis, the debitage at the island site of Caye Coco was primarily used for working wood, shell, and hard contact materials and for digging soil. On the shore at Fred Smith, most use-wear is consistent with working wood, plants, and hard contact materials, as well as digging soil. For both sites, analyses suggest the increasing importance of a horticultural subsistence strategy with reduced mobility and reliance on some cultigens that were locally produced.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, in the earliest sedentary, Maya ceramic-using communities (ca. 1200–800 BC) in the Lowlands, hard-hammer expedient flakes and core tools dominate the lithic assemblages (Aoyama 1999, 2017; Awe et al 2021; Stemp et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaic Period Lithic Technology, Sedentism, and Subsistence in Northern Belize: What Can Debitage at Caye Coco and Fred Smith Tell Us?

Stemp

Rosenswig

2022

Latin Am. antiq.

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“…Other indicators of change during this period arise in central Belize, where an absence of macro-blade production from 2000 to 1000 b.c. (Awe et al 2021) signals technological developments associated with changing subsistence practices or population movement at this time.…”

Section: Early Accretional Changes In the Maya Lowlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Landesque Capital in the Maya Lowlands During the Middle Preclassic

Reese-Taylor

López²,

Dunning³

et al. 2022

Ancient Mesoam

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In this article, we argue that landesque capital was integral to the development of complexity in the Maya Lowlands. Such features involved permanent investments in the landscape that supported material and ideological practices, resulting in increased sustainability and well-being. We contend that these developments stemmed from accretional modifications to soils in the Preceramic/Early Preclassic, as well as intentional investments of labor in agricultural features, large public works, and select civic complexes during the Middle Preclassic. Capital improvements were particularly important during the Middle Preclassic, when sedentary occupations and civic life were established. The timing and location of the investments strongly correlate with other aspects of Middle Preclassic lifeways, such as the transition to sedentism, acquisition and control of resources, changes in lithic production, and the emergence of an elite class. We note that some of the largest investments in landscape management during the Middle Preclassic occurred in the Central Karstic Uplands, where substantial cities rose in the Late Preclassic. We conclude that during the Middle Preclassic an ontology of landesque capital developed, based on the synergistic fusing of daily and ritual practices with physical features, which provided a foundation for resilience, sustainability, and well-being in subsequent generations.

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“…Time among the Maya 8,000-4,000 BP Archeological data from the Archaic period is scant but growing (Awe et al, 2021;Prufer et al, 2021;Rosenswig, 2021;Valdez et al, 2021;Wrobel et al, 2021), yet evidence of plant domestication shows inhabitants of the Maya Lowlands were already manipulating flora. Maize, beans, squash, and chile supplemented hunting and gathering (McClung de Tapia, 1992;Betz, 1997;Piperno and Pearsall, 1998;Smith, 1998;Clark and Cheetham, 2002;Blake, 2015;Cagnato, 2021).…”

Section: The Maya Chronology: Long Steady Successful Cultural Develop...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Scrutinizing the paleoecological record of the Maya forest

Ford

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Human expansion into and occupation of the New World coincided with the great transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch, yet questions remain about how we detect human presence in the paleoecological record. In the Maya area of southern Mesoamerica, archeological evidence of the human imprint is largely invisible until ∼4,000 years ago. How do environmental changes after that time correspond and relate to human impacts? Are the archeological signatures of initial settlements in the Early Preclassic detected? Later, by ∼2,000 years ago when the Maya had fully settled the landscape, how does the evidence of forest compositional changes relate to human intervention? This paper evaluates published paleoecological data in light of the rise of the Maya civilization and reflects on interpretations of how swidden agriculture and the milpa cycle impacted the environment. Evaluating the contrast between the long archeological sequence of successful Maya development and paleoecological interpretations of destructive human-induced environmental impacts requires a concordance among pollen data, archeological evidence, ethnohistoric observations, ethnological studies of traditional Maya land use, and the historical ecology of the Maya forest today.

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

Cited by 10 publications

References 99 publications

Archaic Period Lithic Technology, Sedentism, and Subsistence in Northern Belize: What Can Debitage at Caye Coco and Fred Smith Tell Us?

Archaic Period Lithic Technology, Sedentism, and Subsistence in Northern Belize: What Can Debitage at Caye Coco and Fred Smith Tell Us?

The Development of Landesque Capital in the Maya Lowlands During the Middle Preclassic

Scrutinizing the paleoecological record of the Maya forest

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