Domestic Space and Food Production in the Mesoamerican Neotropics During the Early Holocene

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeobotany of Early Peopling: Plant Experimentation and Cultural Inheritance" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Discussions on the peopling of the tropics have tended to characterize tropical forests as barriers to early human foragers due to the difficulties in obtaining sufficient nutrition from hunting and foraging activities. New research on these pioneering settlers is transforming our understanding of ancient subsistence practices, and migration, ecological adaptation, and cultural developments in the tropics. We present data from the Maya Mountains of southern Belize, where we document food processing from contexts over 9,000 years old. Our data document food management strategies from shortly after the Younger Dryas as evidenced by intensive use of grinding stones for plant processing. We document an early Holocene plastered domestic space as well as cobbled living surfaces. These data were generated with a focus on high precision chronologies and demonstrate the active engagement of early peoples with plant resources and investment in landscapes with profound implications for cultural and environmental trajectories.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeobotany of Early Peopling: Plant Experimentation and Cultural Inheritance   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39155.0