Early Mesoamericans Trapped Fish Far Earlier Than Previously Thought

UNH archaeologist Eleanor Harrison-Buck and her team have collected data which indicates the presence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility in Belize that pre-dates existing examples of such fisheries by a thousand years or more. The series of canals and ponds indicate that hunter-gatherer-fishers of the Late Archaic period (cal. 2000-1900 BCE) were harvesting enough fish to feed up to 15,000 people a year, signaling an earlier start to the development of complex societies than previously thought.

"For Mesoamerica in general, we tend to regard agricultural production as the engine of civilization, but this study tells us that it wasn't just agriculture-it was also potential mass harvesting of aquatic species."

"The network of canals was designed to channel annual flood waters into source ponds for fish trapping and would have yielded enough fish to feed as many as 15,000 people year-round, conservatively," says Harrison-Buck, professor of anthropology and director of the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project. "The dates indicate that the fisheries were initially constructed by Late Archaic hunter-gatherer-fishers and continued to be used by their Formative Maya descendants (approximately 2000 BCE to 200 CE). For Mesoamerica in general, we tend to regard agricultural production as the engine of civilization, but this study tells us that it wasn't just agriculture-it was also potential mass harvesting of aquatic species."

Published in the journal Science Advances, the research used 26 radiocarbon dates from test excavation sites in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary (CTWS) the largest inland wetland in Belize, which indicate that such landscape-scale wetland enhancements may have been an adaptive response to long-term climate disturbance recorded in Mesoamerica between 2200 and 1900 BCE.

"The early dates for the canals surprised us initially because we all assumed these massive constructions were built by the ancient Maya living in the nearby city centers," said Harrison-Buck. "However, after running numerous radiocarbon dates, it became clear they were built much earlier."

Sediment samples were collected along the walls of the excavation units and sequenced for specific elements, such as nitrogen and carbon, to look for environmental changes over time. The sediment showed a strong tropical forest dominance during that period and no evidence of crop cultivation, specifically maize. Along with a lack of any pollen from domesticated crops, there were not any signs of ditched and drained agricultural fields in the immediate area dating to that time. The multiproxy data gathered suggests the distinctive long linear zigzag channels served primarily as large-scale fish-trapping facilities.

"It seems likely that the canals allowed for annual fish harvests and social gatherings, which would have encouraged people to return to this area year after year and congregate for longer periods of time," said Marieka Brouwer Burg, professor of anthropology at the University of Vermont and BREA co-director. "Such intensive investments in the landscape may have led ultimately to the development of the complex society characteristic of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, which subsequently occurred in this area by around 1200 BCE."

"Wetlands have always been a critical ecosystem for humans across the globe," said Samantha Krause, professor of geography and environmental studies at Texas State University. "Knowing how to manage wetland resources responsibly is essential for the continued resilience of these ecosystems both in the past and today. The Archaic hunter-gatherer-fishers knew how to protect their resources and use them in a way that could sustain these habitats, not exhaust them, which explains their long-lasting occupation in this area."

With the support of the local community, the team plans to return to Crooked Tree to investigate a larger sample of these landscape-scale modifications that they have identified across a broad area of northern Belize, hoping to more fully understand the complexity of human-wetland interactions in the past.

Other co-authors include Mark Willis, department of archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia; Angelina Perrotti, Palynology & Environmental Archaeology Research Lab; Monona, Wisconsin; and Katie Bailey, department of anthropology, University of Vermont.

This research was funded by a grant from the Alphawood Foundation Chicago. Additional support was provided by a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation (#2120534). The Belize Institute of Archaeology provided an archaeological permit, granting permission to excavate in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. The Crooked Tree Village Council welcomed the research team and permitted them to map and excavate in the wetlands around their community.

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