There's More to the Story: Comment on Ebert and Colleagues

To understand Middle Preclassic social processes at Cahal Pech, we must consider the dynamic and complex record of architectural development in its entirety.

Comparing Preclassic Sequences at Cahal Pech, Belize: Reply to Horn

We thank our colleague for his comment, address concerns raised, and encourage future collaborative research to answer important questions about the Middle Preclassic at Cahal Pech.

Early Monumentality in the Belize River Valley: Excavations of a Preclassic E-Group at Cahal Pech, Belize

Recent investigations at Cahal Pech, Belize, documented a previously unrecognized Middle Preclassic (700–500 cal BC) E-Group complex. Located in an open public plaza, the monumental complex likely functioned as a forum for communal public events. In the Late Preclassic, the E-Group was replaced by an ancestor shrine where several royal tombs are located, as well as buildings separating public civic space from private elite space. These shifts in monumental construction temporally track the development of ideological manifestations of power and provide evidence for the formalization of dynastic rulership by an emerging elite class.

LIFE AND DEATH AMONG THE EARLIEST MAYA: A REVIEW OF EARLY AND MIDDLE PRECLASSIC BURIALS FROM THE MAYA WORLD

This article presents a review of the earliest Maya skeletal remains thus far found, including a list of 398 burials dating to the Early (1800–900 b.c.) and Middle Preclassic periods (900–300 b.c.) and adjacent regions. These sites are spread throughout the Maya region and the data allow basic descriptive syntheses about early mortuary behavior and aspects of health and diet. Poor preservation and differences in scoring and reporting severely limit the scope of interpretation possible at this point, but it is hoped that this review stimulates coordinated research into the biology of early groups.

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.