Examination of Paleoindian and Archaic subsistence in Southern Belize

Summary

Recent excavations at Tzib’te Yux, a small rockshelter in Southern Belize, have revealed evidence of human occupation in the area spanning the Paleoindian and Archaic periods. Strata dating to the Late Pliestocene contain abundant faunal remains, lithic debitage, and highly fragmentary human remains. Preliminary indicators suggest that a broad spectrum of food resources was exploited including considerable input of lotic protein sources as early as the Late Pliestocene with continued exploitation into the Classic Period. Evidence for cooking methods lends insight into the utilization of perishable materials to process food resources. Faunal remains were subjected to stable isotope analysis to examine changes in animal diets and forest structure aimed at evaluating how climate variation over this time period impacts the ecology of the region, as well as to establish some baseline data for diet reconstruction of Paleoindian and Archaic peoples inhabiting lowland tropical wet forest environments.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage