Archaic period settlement and subsistence in the Maya lowlands: new starch grain and lithic data from Freshwater Creek, Belize

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

“…As such, these sites would leave few materials behind. These settlements would also lie deeply buried by later human activities and would have suffered major disturbances if not erasure at the hands of these later occupants, as several authors have pointed out [1,17,35,37]. In addition, at the moment, we have some evidence that these earliest lowlanders manipulated the bedrock to construct platforms [43], but such bedrock manipulations may be hard to identify in the small test pits that Maya archaeologists typically excavate down to bedrock.…”

“…Even more recently, Rosenswig and his team have excavated additional Archaic settlements along the Freshwater Creek in northern Belize [35,37]. Rosenswig describes a Late Preceramic possible living site with patinated lithics, pits, and postholes associated with a buried orange aceramic soil stratum from Caye Coco in northern Belize [35].…”

“…Rosenswig describes a Late Preceramic possible living site with patinated lithics, pits, and postholes associated with a buried orange aceramic soil stratum from Caye Coco in northern Belize [35]. Early AMS dates were obtained from carbonized wood in Pit Feature 2 in this stratum, 8320-6560 BP (6370-4610 BC), while Pit Feature 1 provided a more recent date 2790-2740 BP (840-790 BC) [37]. More importantly, Rosenswig and his team extracted maize starch grains from all seven tested Archaic stone tools, with additional manioc, chili pepper, beans, and squash found only on some of these tools [37].…”

“…Early AMS dates were obtained from carbonized wood in Pit Feature 2 in this stratum, 8320-6560 BP (6370-4610 BC), while Pit Feature 1 provided a more recent date 2790-2740 BP (840-790 BC) [37]. More importantly, Rosenswig and his team extracted maize starch grains from all seven tested Archaic stone tools, with additional manioc, chili pepper, beans, and squash found only on some of these tools [37]. The presence of Zea starch on the Caye Coco tool associated with the dated Pit Feature 2 suggests that domestication was as early here as on the Gulf Coast and coastal Chiapas [37].…”

“…More importantly, Rosenswig and his team extracted maize starch grains from all seven tested Archaic stone tools, with additional manioc, chili pepper, beans, and squash found only on some of these tools [37]. The presence of Zea starch on the Caye Coco tool associated with the dated Pit Feature 2 suggests that domestication was as early here as on the Gulf Coast and coastal Chiapas [37].…”