Reaping the Rewards of Incipient Agriculture from the Land to the Sea and the Mangroves In Between

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the Archaic to Early Formative transition, the Soconusco populations began adopting more sedentary subsistence strategies and investing more in their local environments. Evidence from sediment cores demonstrates that during the Archaic, populations were burning inland landscapes and starting to grow maize. The environmental effects of incipient agriculture along the coastal margins of the Soconusco are addressed in this study by examining pollen from sediment cores, changes in diet, and the evolution of the barrier beach. These lines of evidence point to a relatively sudden change in the coastal environment during the transition from the Archaic to Early Formative. Environmental changes caused by incipient agriculture included the expansion of the mangroves along the eastern Soconusco coast, allowing Early Formative occupants to diversify their subsistence strategies through the exploitation of the biodiversity offered by an expanded mangrove estuary along with continued interior cultivation. The abundance of resources provided by the mangrove-estuary zone supplemented by maize agriculture were primary factors in establishing sedentary village life in the Soconusco. Local environmental investments and technologies allowed initial Early Formative inhabitants to maximize their energy returns.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36284.0