Forager Mobility Patterns in Southern Belize: Preliminary Results from a Holocene-Length Record

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Interdisciplinary Isotopic Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Despite considerable research on mobility patterns of the Classic Lowland Maya, the mobility of pre-ceramic foragers is understudied. Elsewhere, logistical mobility strategies have been documented for archaeological and ethnographic forager populations in tropical forest biomes. Most often these strategies are related to seasonally variable resource availability. Given the seasonal distribution of precipitation in the Southern Maya Lowlands, long-range seasonal mobility centered on resource acquisition is a possible response to predictable variation in resource availability. We present strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel of Paleoindian, Archaic, and agriculturalist burials excavated at Mayahak Cab Pek, Saki Tzul, and Tzib’te Yux rockshelters to examine mobility patterns across stages of life-history. Our results suggest that long-distance mobility, though apparent over decadal scales, did not occur as a seasonal activity during the Archaic or Paleoindian periods. These results have implications for interpretation of foraging strategies, raw material trading, and population interactions throughout Mesoamerica among pre-agricultural populations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Advances in Interdisciplinary Isotopic Research   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24757