GATHERING AND SOWING ACROSS THE CENTRAL MAYA LOWLANDS: A REVIEW OF PLANT USE BY PRECERAMIC PEOPLES AND THE EARLY TO MIDDLE PRECLASSIC MAYA

The recovery of macro- and microbotanicals, along with the study of chemical residues, allows us to shed light on a number of anthropological issues concerning ancient populations. This article reviews the data available to date on the plants used by preceramic peoples during the Archaic period and by the Early to Middle Preclassic Maya across the central Maya lowlands. Archaeobotanical data suggest that early preceramic populations took advantage of their ecologically rich natural environment by gathering a range of wild foods and by cultivating domesticates such as maize, manioc, and chili peppers, a pattern that seemingly continued into the Early to Middle Preclassic, as the Maya settled into village life and left more visible traces of modifications to their natural environment in the form of canals and terraces. This region is of particular interest with regard to the development of sociopolitical complexity, as mobile hunter-gatherers used domesticates during the millennia that preceded the onset of sedentary life. These early populations set the stage for patterns of plant use that endured through time, but also across space in the Maya region.

Economic Interactions and the Rise of Sociopolitical Complexity in the Maya Lowlands

The development of economic systems in Mesoamerica has been a crucial link in the understanding of social, economic, and political structure of later polities. The evolution of Preclassic Maya states from the perspective of the Mirador-Calakmul Basin in Guatemala and southern Campeche, Mexico has been under scrutiny with large scale, multi-disciplinary excavations and mapping in 51 sites of varying sizes. The addition of LiDAR technology has confirmed the extraordinary settlement structure, which, when combined with chronological data, allows diachronic and synchronic evaluations of economic and political structure. The geographic and economic similarities in organization with respect to dendritic spatial formations originally proposed by Santley for Aztec Tenochtitlan compare favourably to the Mirador Basin sites, suggesting that dendritic economic, social, and political systems in Mesoamerica have great antiquity.

The Rapid Rise and Fall of Cerros, Belize: A Generational Approach to Chronology

In this article, we use the precision of Bayesian modeled radiocarbon dates to reconstruct a generational history of Late Preclassic (300 BC–AD 250) Cerros (Cerro Maya), Belize. This research was made possible by long-curated excavation records and material remains now housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville. Our interpretations build on earlier research and refine the temporal resolution significantly, enabling us to view site development from the perspective of adjacent generations sharing a lived experience. Here we examine material evidence of their collective actions as they built new buildings and renovated aging ones, characterizing their roles in inventing a visual future for the Late Preclassic Maya port that engaged ancestral actions while reinventing the landscape.

Preclassic Maya Houses and Rituals: Excavations at the Karinel Group, Ceibal

The site of Ceibal was founded around the beginning of sedentary life in the Maya lowlands. Excavations at the Karinel Group within the site reveal domestic structures and ritual deposits dating to the Middle Preclassic, Late Preclassic, and Terminal Preclassic periods (c. 1000 BC–AD 300). The results complement data from Ceibal's Central Plaza and publications on early households in other regions of the lowlands, inviting future investigations of temporal and geographic variation in Preclassic Maya domestic rituals.

Middle Preclassic Maya Shell Ornament Production

Extensive archaeological investigations at the site of Pacbitun, a medium-sized Maya center located in west-central Belize, have revealed the large-scale production of marine shell ornaments during Middle Preclassic period (900-300 B.C.). Non-local marine shell and the restricted nature of its distribution indicate that some degree of control may have been exerted over the production and/or distribution of marine shell or the finished shell products. The sheer quantities of shell working debris in the site core of Pacbitun suggest that these ornaments were intended for intra- or extra-community exchange. Two different scenarios are presented to account for the quantity and spatial distribution of Middle Preclassic shell and shell working materials at Pacbitun and in the Belize River valley.