Quantifying the Exploitation of Faunal Remains by Preceramic Societies in Southern Belize

Summary

Beyond occasional reports of Pleistocene megafauna, there is a paucity of faunal data from the Mesoamerican Paleoindian and Archaic periods. This poster presents faunal data from three rockshelters in southern Belize located in two distinct environmental regions. Tzib’te Yux, is located in the Rio Blanco Valley in the foothills of the Maya Mountains and has an intact deposits from Cal. 14,000 to 6,000 BP. In contrast, Maya Hak Cab Pek and Saki Tzul, are both located in the interior of the Maya Mountains. They have intact deposits from Cal.12,000 to 1,100 BP. Despite varying degrees of bone fragmentation, the analysis of the deposits from all three rockshelters during these early periods of human occupation provides a unique insight human subsistence choices and food processing. Our precise chronologies are anchored by over 100 precise AMS dates, giving us a high-resolution view into animal exploitation by pre-agricultural hunting and foraging societies in the Central American tropics

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22664