Preceramic Occupations in Belize: Updating the Paleoindian and Archaic Record

Lohse, Jon C.; Awe, Jaime J.; Griffith, Cameron; Rosenswig, Robert M.; Valdez, Fred

doi:10.2307/25063047

Cited by 61 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…These populations cultivated some domesticates but relied heavily on hunting, gathering, and fishing. Such foragers were certainly present in Belize and possibly in northern Peten, but evidence is still ambiguous in most other parts of the Maya lowlands (10,25,26). In the Pasión region and the central lowlands, lake core data indicate a decline in rainforest taxa and an increase in soil erosion starting between 2500 and 1500 B.C., but it is not clear whether these changes were a result of anthropogenic effects or climate drying (27,28).…”

Section: Interpretationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of sedentary communities in the Maya lowlands: Coexisting mobile groups and public ceremonies at Ceibal, Guatemala

Inomata

MacLellan

Triadan

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

141

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Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.Mesoamerican archaeology | sedentism | Maya | public ceremony | subsistence R ecent archaeological investigations have shown that the development of agriculture and sedentism was more diverse than the simple model of agriculture leading to sedentism and then to social complexity. In Europe, for example, the farming lifestyle that originated in the Near East spread in complex ways, involving the coexistence of farmers and foragers in relatively small areas and differential adoptions of Neolithic cultural elements in different regions (1-3). Studies of early monuments, such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, Watson Brake in Louisiana, and Caral and earlier mounds in the Andes, show that large constructions involving significant collective labor could be built by preceramic people who were still foragers or were at the early stage of farming adaptation (4-7). These emerging understandings lead to important questions about how sedentary and mobile populations interacted and how their relations affected the process of social change. To address these questions, researchers need fine-grained chronological information and a broad spatial coverage, which are not easy to obtain in many cases. A uniquely rich dataset obtained from the Maya site of Ceibal (or Seibal) suggests the possibility that groups with different levels of mobility gathered and collaborated for constructions and public ceremonies, which contrasts with the common assumption that sedentary and mobile groups maintained...

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Section: Interpretationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of sedentary communities in the Maya lowlands: Coexisting mobile groups and public ceremonies at Ceibal, Guatemala

Inomata

MacLellan

Triadan

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

141

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“…Second, recent projects on the Archaic Period in Belize have shown that the region was populated, albeit sparsely, long before the first millennium BC [1,7,13,14]. Lohse because, in the absence of Zea mays pollen (which first appears in their lake cores around 1000 BC), they argue that the vegetation change was caused by the "onset of climatic drying" (138) or what Rosenswig [15] discusses as the 2200-1900 BC drought.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Northern Belize is the only region of the Maya lowlands from where we have substantial information on these early farmers (see below). Because domesticated plants are present in Belize from the fourth millennium BC on, Iceland [13], Clark and Cheetham [7], and Lohse et al [14] refer to this period of the Late Archaic as the Early (3400-1900 BC) and the Late (1500-900 BC) Preceramic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Early Preceramic is characterized by the introduction of macroblade technology which continues into Preclassic and Classic Maya times, supporting cultural continuity between the Archaic and Formative peoples [1,13,14,32]. The Early Preceramic in Belize is also characterized by a particular point type tradition, called Lowe, and possibly also by Sawmill points [7,13,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Early Preceramic in Belize is also characterized by a particular point type tradition, called Lowe, and possibly also by Sawmill points [7,13,14]. These points have been discovered at a dozen sites in northern Belize [7,13,14]. Clark and Cheetham argue that the pattern of retouch on Lowe points suggests that they were hafted knives, a tool best suited to hunting ( [7]: 304).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Earliest Maya Farmers of Peten: New Evidence from Buenavista-Nuevo San José, Central Peten Lakes Region, Guatemala

Castellanos

Foias

2017

Journal of Anthropology

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The origins and cultural affiliations of the first sedentary agricultural and pottery-producing communities in the southern Maya lowlands remain hotly debated. Here, we describe the discovery of a new early farming settlement at the small site of BuenavistaNuevo San José on Lake Peten Itza in northern Guatemala. Evidence for a pre-Mamom occupation (1000-700 BC) at this site was found in the deepest fill layers overlying bedrock, including pottery diagnostic of this time period and the remains of a postin-bedrock dwelling. Because the evidence for this early settlement is from secondary contexts and because four radiocarbon dates cover a broad chronological range, the best evidence for the pre-Mamom occupation consists of the ceramics recovered in the excavations. The closest links of the pre-Mamom pottery at Buenavista-Nuevo San José are with the Eb complex at Tikal and the Cunil complex of Cahal Pech, Belize, suggesting strong interactions between these early groups. The discovery of preMamom pottery at Buenavista also suggests that the early farmers were more widespread than previously suggested. Furthermore, the presence of Olmecoid symbols incised on the pre-Mamom pottery at Buenavista-Nuevo San José indicates that these early communities were immersed in broad pan-Mesoamerican spheres of interaction.

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Mesoamerica’s Archaic Period

Rosenswig

2020

Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

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Preceramic Occupations in Belize: Updating the Paleoindian and Archaic Record

Cited by 61 publications

References 25 publications

Development of sedentary communities in the Maya lowlands: Coexisting mobile groups and public ceremonies at Ceibal, Guatemala

Development of sedentary communities in the Maya lowlands: Coexisting mobile groups and public ceremonies at Ceibal, Guatemala

The Earliest Maya Farmers of Peten: New Evidence from Buenavista-Nuevo San José, Central Peten Lakes Region, Guatemala

Mesoamerica’s Archaic Period

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