An American scientific team has discovered traces of an extensive network of fishing traps created by ancient Mesoamericans in what is now Belize.
Located in a highly biodiverse wetland, this extensive system of trapping canals provided archaic hunter-gatherer-fishermen with an important food and probably contributed to the growth of the Mayans.
Located in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, the largest inland wetland in Belize, the team dated its construction in the Late Archaic period (2000-1900 BC).
These are some of the conclusions of a study that is published this Friday in the magazine Science Advancesled by Eleanor Harrison-Buck, of the University of New Hampshireand which has the participation of the University of Vermont or the State of Texas.
To reach their conclusions, the researchers used drones and Google Earth images.
Crooked Tree has a record of 10,000 years of human occupation which began in the Archaic period, between 8000 and 1800 BC, and included the Formative period, from 1800 BC to 150 AD.
It is a biologically diverse environment containing a wealth of food resources, including fish, mollusks, plants, aquatic birds and other wild species.
The scientific team discovered there this ancient and vast network of canals/traps used by ancient Mesoamericans to catch fish. Also They dug three of the canals for radiocarbon dating, according to a summary in the magazine.
The data collected suggests that zigzag channels They served primarily as large-scale fish capture facilities.
The net was designed to channel annual flood waters into ponds to catch fish, he explains in a statement. Eleanor Harrison-Buck.
“The early dates of the canals surprised us at first because we all assumed that these enormous constructions had been built by the ancient Mayans who lived in the nearby urban centers,” notes Harrison-Buck. However, after carrying out numerous radiocarbon dating “it was clear that they were built much earlier.”
This network is 1,000 years older than other similar ones in the Amazonnotes a note from Vermont.
Evidence indicates that Archaic and Late Archaic hunter-gatherer-fishermen built this system, which was later used by the Mayans to catch fish, the researchers conclude.
They estimate that the network of traps could have produced enough fish to feed a few 15,000 people a year.
“We are not claiming that 15,000 people gathered at any one time at Crooked Tree during the Late Archaicbut there is evidence of such demographic growth in the Mayan zone in the Middle and Late Formative,” the authors point out.
Additionally, the researchers observed signs of drought in excavated sediment samples, which began in 2200 BC.
According to them, the drought could have changed the social approach to agriculture based on corn to the production of aquatic foods.
This is the first Archaic large-scale fish capture facility recorded in ancient Mesoamerica, summarize the experts in their article, who suggest that such an increase may have been a response to the long-term climatic disturbance recorded between 2200-1900 BC.
“Early intensification of aquatic food production offered a high value livelihood strategy which was instrumental in the emergence of the sedentary lifestyle of the Formative period and the development of complexity among pre-Columbian civilizations such as the Mayans,” the authors conclude.