2021/01/01 by Fred Valdez, Lauren A. Sullivan, Palma Buttles +1 · 6 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond
paper · doi:10.1017/s0956536121000468
openalex publication_date 2021/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Investigations concerning the earliest Maya have been of archaeological interest for many decades. Northern Belize serves as a valuable region for researching and understanding early Maya developments. In particular, the ancient Maya site of Colha in northern Belize is a focal point of some early developments beginning in the Archaic period. Select resources in the region, especially in the chert-bearing zone, clearly had been of great interest and attraction to populations extending back into Paleoindian and Archaic times, as well as the Maya period for Colha and other sites near the resource zone. With the appearance of pottery-producing settled villages is the common assertion that Maya societies are in place around 1000 b.c. Recent studies have identified much earlier occupants in the region with significant cultural developments, including semi-permanent occupation and horticulture occurring in the Late Archaic at approximately 3400 b.c. It seems plausible, perhaps likely by our assessment, that these Late Archaic people (or aceramic populations) may have been the earliest Maya communities. Factors of defining communities, aspects of horticulture, and the transition from the Archaic into the Preclassic are reviewed in consideration of—just who were the earliest Maya?