Changing Food Choices from Paleoindian to Classic Maya Periods: A Zooarchaeological Analysis

Summary

Very little is known about Paleoindian and Archaic subsistence strategies of the people of Mesoamerica prior to the development of ceramics as food processing, storage, and serving containers. Rockshelters with good preservation and stratigraphic deposits can provide excellent contexts for a comparative faunal analysis though time. We examine subsistence patterns using the faunal remains from the Maya Hak Cab Pek (MHCP) rock shelter in the Toledo District of southern Belize before and after the introduction of ceramics. Use of the rockshelter spanned the Paleoindian to the Classic Maya periods. Preservation of the faunal remains at MHCP is unusually good and allows for a detailed analysis of early diet and animal processing. With over thirty species identified in the faunal assemblage, we determine the potential effects that the introduction of ceramics had on the use of specific species and elements of those species.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage