Preceramic period in Belize

The Preceramic period of Belizean and Mesoamerican history began with the arrival of the first Palaeoindians during 20000 BC – 11000 BC, and ended with the Maya development of ceramics during 2000 BC – 900 BC.^{[n 1][n 2]}

Preceramic
20000 BC – 2000 BC
Location	Belize
Including	Palaeoindian (to 8000 BC) Archaic (to 2000 BC)
Key events	Palaeoindian settlement lithic tool development introduction of farming
Chronology None Preclassic

Geography

During the pre-Columbian era, Belize formed part of Mesoamerica. Traditionally, the first-order subdivisions of the latter follow cultural or political boundaries of Preclassic, Classic, or Postclassic civilisations, eg Mayas and Aztecs. The Maya Region of Mesoamerica is one such. It, in turn, is further subdivided physiographically into at least three regions, ie the Lowlands, the Highlands, and the Pacific. Belize lay within the first of these regions, usually termed the Maya Lowlands.^{[citation needed]}

Climate

During the Younger Dryas stage, as the Pleistocene progressed to the Holocene epoch, Belize's climate became increasingly warmer and wetter, its expansive savannah fields increasingly covered by dense tropical broadleaf forests, and its low-lying coast submerged by a 10 ft (3 m) rise in sea levels.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} It is not certain how exactly the first Palaeoindian settlers adapted to such changes, as little Preceramic plant matter has been recovered in the country and surrounding Maya Lowlands.^[1][6] It has been suggested, however, that the increasing availability of small, freshwater food-sources, eg molluscs, turtles, and aquatic birds, which attended wetter climatic conditions during the early Holocene, may have driven a slow transition away from a diet heavily reliant on large game towards a broader-spectrum or varied diet incorporating various species of small game and aquatic food-sources.^[7]

Demographics

Few skeletal findings in Belize and the broader central Maya Lowlands have been dated to the Preceramic, resulting in limited understanding of the period's demographics.^[8][9] Remains recovered from caves across the Yucatan Peninsula have been reliably dated to 13000 BC – 12000 BC, such findings constituting the earliest available evidence of human presence in the Lowlands.^[10] Genetic studies of Yucatanese remains, and of Lowland remains generally, have tended to confirm demographic models involving multiple migrations from North and South America into the Maya Lowlands.^[10][11] For instance, recent genetic studies on Preceramic skeletal remains from southern Belize found common ancestry between these and Preceramic proto-Chichban speakers from the Panama–Colombia region, indicating that the latter settled in southern Belize during 5500 cal BC – 3600 cal BC, and intermixed with pre-existing Palaeoindian residents.^[10][12] Further studies also found common ancestry between this population and modern Mayas, suggesting that later Maya settlers of Belize intermixed with pre-existing Palaeoindian residents.^[10][12] Generally, however, Palaeoindians in Belize and the Lowlands are not thought to be direct ancestors of later Mayas, the implication being that the latter did not intermix with the former upon settlement.^{[10][13][n 3]}

Technology

Lithic

Preceramic projectile points from Belize / A–C Lowe / D–F Sawmill / G Allspice / H Ya'axche / 2019 Prufer et al. / via PLOS ONE

Lithic technology during the first part of the Preceramic is characterised mainly by Clovis-style ie fluted lanceolate and Fell's Cave-style ie fluted fishtail bifaces.^[10] Bifaces recovered from Belize and the Maya Lowlands, however, can seldom be reliably radiocarbon dated.^[14][15] A recent exception to this was provided by excavations in Mayahak Cab Pek and Tzibte Yux, rockshelters in southern Belize, which yielded radiocarbon dates of 10450 cal BC – 10085 cal BC and 8275 cal BC – 6650 cal BC for one alternately-bevelled biface and three or four possibly Lowe-style stemmed bifaces, respectively.^[14] The relationship of these radiocarbon-dated bifaces to others recovered in Belize is not clear. In particular, it is thought that Sawmill-, Allspice-, and Ya'axche-style bifaces may predate the aforementioned ones, but this conjecture remains unconfirmed.^[14]

Bifaces seem to have been phased out in most of Belize and the surrounding Maya Lowlands by circa 6000 BC, with non-bifacial lithic tools replacing them by circa 3400 BC.^[16]

In 1983, the Belize Archaic Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BAAR) proposed a six-phase classification of lithic technology as found in northern Belize.^[17][18][19] This classification was subsequently criticised and rejected, being described as 'so badly flawed that the resulting chronology has little merit.'^[20][19] An alternative six-phase classification has since been proposed.^[19][21]

Phases or types of Preceramic bifacial points recovered in Belize.^{[n 4]}

Phase	Type	Origin	Count	Form	Length / max	Width / max	Width / neck	Thickness / max	Notes
Allspice	Provisional	Local	4	Stemmed	85.7	37.8	33.2	10.7	cf [n 5]
Clovis	Established	North America	3	Fluted	71.6	31.0	26.6	7.2	cf [n 6]
Fishtail	Established	South America	4	Fluted	63.2	43.7	25.3	7.1	cf [n 7]
Lowe	Established	Local	63	Stemmed	83.5	55.6	29.0	9.8	cf [n 8]
Sawmill	Established	Local	23	Stemmed	67.9	39.4	14.9	7.8	cf [n 9]
Ya'axche	Provisional	Local	2	Stemmed	65.7	52.8	29.9	10.9	cf [n 10]

Other

Evidence of Preceramic weaving, eg cordage, sandals, baskets, nets, and bags, has been recovered across Mesoamerica, though not in Belize.^[22] It has been suggested that their absence in the country is rather due to poor preservation of organic material, rather than due to a lack of weaving by Palaeoindian settlers.^[22]

Subsistence

The diet of the first Palaeoindian settlers has not been fully elucidated. Faunal remains from Actun Halal in southern Belize suggest these early settlers consumed jute snails, horses, peccaries, common agouti, and spectacled bears.^[23] Floral and faunal evidence from the El Gigante rockshelter in Honduras suggests their diet included hog plums, pears, mammee apples, mesquite beans, acorns, deer, birds, turtles, crabs, and snails.^[23] Similar evidence from the Santa Marta rockshelter in Chiapas suggests the likely consumption of green tomatoes, craboo, figs, deer, peccary, rabbits, snakes, iguanas, tortoises, and jute snails, and the possible consumption of cacao and teosinte.^[23]

The early settlers are thought to have begun farming by circa 4500 BC, with the practice becoming increasingly common by circa 3400 BC.^[24] Floral remains from northern and central Belize suggest maize, cassava, chilis, squash, and beans were the main cultivars, these being increasingly relied upon for nutrition during 3000 BC – 1500 BC.^[24] This increasing reliance on farmed produce is thought to have resulted in forest disturbance, deforestation, and landscape modification.^{[24][n 11]}

Sites

Actun Halal

August Pine Ridge

Basil Jones

Blackman Eddy

Blue Creek

Cahal Pech

Calakmul

Callar Creek

Caye Coco+

Cayo Frances Lagoon

Chichen Itza

Coba

Cob Swamp

Cobweb Swamp

Colha

Copan

Cuello

El Mirador

Honey Camp Lagoon

Izamal

Ladyville

Lowe Ranch

Mayahak Cab Pek

Nakbe

Palenque

Piedras Negras

Pulltrouser Swamp

Saki Tzul

Sand Hill

Tikal

Tzibte Yux

Uxmal+

Xunantunich

Yaxchilan

Preceramic sites in Belize and surrounding Lowlands / very large Classic sites outside of Belize displayed / Uxmal+ = Uxmal, Tiho / Caye Coco+ = Caye Coco, Betz Landing, Fred Smith / via 2010 Witschey & Brown, 2021 Stemp et al.

Preceramic artefacts have been recovered mainly from northern and central Belize.^[17] Preceramic findings in southern Belize 'had been suspiciously absent' since the 1980s, being limited to a few surface finds until quite recently.^[17][25] Generally, few Preceramic living spaces have been identified in the Maya Lowlands.^[26] Seven Preceramic sites in Belize have been recently proposed as such, ie Saki Tzul, Mayahak Cab Pek, Tzibte Yux, Actun Halal, Caye Coco, Ladyville, and Xunantunich.^[26][27] An additional four have been recently proposed as working spaces, eg as lithic workshops, namely, Colha, Kelly, Ladyville, and Callar Creek.^[26]

Prominent excavated sites in Belize with Preceramic artefacts, material, or structures.^{[28][29][30][31][32][n 12]}

Name	Location	Size
Actun Halal	Cayo	Small
August Pine Ridge	Orange Walk	Small
Basil Jones	Ambergris Caye	Small
Betz Landing	Corozal	Small
Blackman Eddy	Cayo	Small
Blue Creek	Orange Walk	Small
Cahal Pech	Cayo	Large
Callar Creek	Cayo	Small
Caye Coco	Corozal	Small
Cayo Frances Lagoon	Ambergris Caye	Small
Cob Swamp	Corozal	Small
Cobweb Swamp	Corozal	Small
Colha	Corozal	Small
Crawford Bank	Belize	Small
Cuello	Corozal	Small
Fred Smith	Corozal	Small
Honey Camp Lagoon	Orange Walk	Small
Kelly	Belize	Small
Ladyville	Belize	Small
Lowe Ranch	Belize	Small
Mayahak Cab Pek	Toledo	Small
Pulltrouser Swamp	Corozal	Small
Saki Tzul	Toledo	Small
Sand Hill	Belize	Small
Tzibte Yux	Toledo	Small
Xunantunich	Cayo	Large

Timeline

Prominent Preceramic events in Belize or the Maya Lowlands.

Start	End	Unit	Event	Notes
13000	12000	BC	Earliest appearance of Palaeoindians	cf [10][33][n 13]
10450	10085	cal BC	Earliest appearance of bifaces	ie an alternately-bevelled point; cf [14]
7000	7000	BC	Latest appearance of Ice Age megafauna	including horses; cf [34]
7000	6000	BC	Latest appearance of bifaces	cf [14][35][n 14]
4500	4500	BC	Earliest appearance of domesticated plant cultivars	cf [24][27]
3400	3400	BC	Earliest appearance of lithic tools other than bifaces	ie blades, macroblades, pointed unifaces; cf [1]
2500	1500	BC	Earliest appearance of intensified agriculture	ie deforestation, erosion; cf [27]
2200	1900	BC	Drought	cf [27]

Scholarship

The earliest work on Preceramic artefacts from Belize is thought to be that of Augustus Pitt Rivers, who exhibited a flint implement for the Society of Antiquaries of London on 2 March 1871, which had been recovered from the country 'some years ago' by a Royal Navy officer.^[36][37][38] The discovery, however, did not spark much interest, as work in the region focussed on Classic Period sites and artefacts.^[39][40]

The first significant work was that of the Belize Archaic Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BAAR), begun in 1980.^[39][41][20] BAAR identified some 150 possibly Preceramic sites across the country, and conducted excavations in nine of these, all in northern Belize.^[17][20][19]

See also

• Pre-Columbian Belize
• Lithic stage in the Americas
• Archaic stage in the Americas
• Palaeoindian Period in Mesoamerica
• Archaic Period in Mesoamerica