Early Human Biology, Ecology, and Archaeology in the Lowland Tropics of Central America

Summary

Renewed focus on Paleoamerican and archaic peoples across Mesoamerica have broadened our understanding of those time periods.  However, few stratified sites have been documented.  We present new data from two multi-component rockshelters located in the Bladen Nature Reserve in the Maya Mountains of Belize.  We document persistent use of these rockshelters from the late Pleistocene through the Maya collapse and suggest these spaces were used for animal processing, tool reduction, and as cemeteries. These sites are very difficult to access and are located more than 40km from the nearest road. Their location, in a well protected environmental preserve, has allowed us to excavate undisturbed contexts in dry shelters that have fostered remarkable preservation of organic materials. Here we present data from human biology, isotope ecology and material culture. The results contribute to our understanding of early human adaptations in the New World.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21141