A sophisticated fish capture system nourished a growing human population in the Central American lowlands starting about 4,000 years ago, a new study suggests. The discovery of this large-scale construction project indicates that marine products at least partially supported the rise of the Mayan civilization roughly a thousand years later.
It zigzags across wetlands in what is now the country of Belize. A network of ancient earthen channels brought fish and other aquatic edible creatures into the ponds. Archaeologist Eleanor Harrison-Buck of the University of New Hampshire in Durham and her colleagues say they formed as flood waters receded in the spring and early summer. The fish trapped in those ponds could have fed an average of about 15,000 people each year, researchers concluded Nov. 22. scientific advancement.
Large numbers of people probably did not gather near fish traps until the emergence of large-scale Mayan rituals and urban centers about 3,000 years ago, scientists say.SN: June 3, 2020).
Harrison-Buck’s team used camera-equipped drones and Google Earth imagery to detect 167 shallow channels spanning about 42 square kilometers in Belize’s Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. Mapping at the height of the summer dry season in 2017 revealed nearly 60 ponds near intersecting waterways.
Radiocarbon dating of material from three excavated channels shows that hunter-gatherers first built fishing facilities about 4,000 years ago. Geological signs of a drought from about 4,200 to 3,900 years ago indicate that the area changed from year-round wetlands to seasonal wetlands at that time, and a shift in diet from corn cultivation to aquatic foods.SN: 18/12/13).
Excavations of the canal found no traces of corn pollen. Scientists suspect that the region’s ancient menu included fish, turtles, molluscs, waterfowl, and the edible seeds of the amaranth plant, which thrives in open ground during droughts.
Maya villagers benefited from aquatic life through a fish trap system about 3,200 to 1,800 years ago, researchers say. One of the excavated channels led directly to Chau Hiix, a major Maya center.
Future fieldwork will examine the remains of pre-Mayan settlements near the fish capture system. Researchers will also examine possible canal networks identified through remote sensing in two other wetlands in Belize and one wetland in southern Mexico.
