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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

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.

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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Technology

Lithic

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. Bifaces recovered from Belize and the Maya Lowlands, however, can seldom be reliably radiocarbon dated. 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. 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.

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.

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

Other

Evidence of Preceramic weaving, eg cordage, sandals, baskets, nets, and bags, has been recovered across Mesoamerica, though not in Belize. 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.

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. 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. 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.

The early settlers are thought to have begun farming by circa 4500 BC, with the practice becoming increasingly common by circa 3400 BC. 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. This increasing reliance on farmed produce is thought to have resulted in forest disturbance, deforestation, and landscape modification.

Sites

Preceramic artefacts have been recovered mainly from northern and central Belize. Preceramic findings in southern Belize 'had been suspiciously absent' since the 1980s, being limited to a few surface finds until quite recently. Generally, few Preceramic living spaces have been identified in the Maya Lowlands. 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. An additional four have been recently proposed as working spaces, eg as lithic workshops, namely, Colha, Kelly, Ladyville, and Callar Creek.

Timeline

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. The discovery, however, did not spark much interest, as work in the region focussed on Classic Period sites and artefacts.

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

See also

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

Notes and references

Explanatory footnotes

1. The Preceramic period is variously dated in literature (see Periodisation of the history of Belize for further discussion). For instance, it is dated 11500 BC – 900 BC by Stemp et al. 2021, pp. 416–417, 20000 BC – 2000 BC or 12000 BC – 2000 BC by Sharer & Traxler 2006, pp. 98, 153–154, 35000 BC – 1500 BC or 10000 BC – 1500 BC by Adams & Macleod 2000a, p. 10, 35000 BC – 2300 BC by Pearsall 2008, pp. 163–164. However, Stemp et al. 2021, p. 417 note that ceramics in northern and central Belize have been dated to circa 1200 BC, such that an end period of 900 BC for the Preceramic 'may be too recent.' Additionally, Adams & Macleod 2000a, p. 47 note that 2300 BC 'marks the end of the Preceramic era and, by strict definition, the close of the Archaicome prehistorians reason that the Archaic period in Mesoamerica should more logically be extended to 1500 , when the transformation from nomadic foraging to a fully sedentary, agricultural way of life was essentially complete throughout the area.' Pearsall 2008, p. 163 similarly note that 'y 2300 pottery was being manufactured in , by which definition marks the end of the Preceramic era and its final Archaic periodome archaeologists, however, prefer to extend the Archaic to 1500 or later, by which time agriculture provided the bulk of food and the previously nomadic hunter-gatherers had settled in permanent villages.'
2. The term Lithic period is sometimes used as a synonym for the Preceramic period proper (as in Pearsall 2008, p. 163 and Adams & Macleod 2000a, p. 46), and at other times as a synonym for the Palaeoindian subperiod of the Preceramic period (as in Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 98).

3. What we can take from this is support for the old conclusion that the fluted Clovis and Fishtail traditions of North, Central, and South America were related. Moreover, this technology may have spread as the descendants of one group of early Paleaoindians migrated south through the New World. Among these were the earliest inhabitants of the SBR dating to the end of the Pleistocene. But these early occupants left an ever-attenuating genetic footprint, either as it was selected against or, much more likely, as later groups arrived. Thus, the much later inhabitants of the SBR and the Maya Area as a whole may have had some relationship with the Paleoindians of the region 10 millennia earlier, but that relationship probably was quite distant and likely dates to a time before the first Paleoindians left North America and arrived in what today is Belize. Put another way, the genetic evidence that the Maya are direct descendants of the Paleoindians of Central America is very slim and much more strongly suggests that they represent a later migration that, unfortunately, has not yet been dated.

   — Braswell 2022, p. 92.

4. Excluding over 130 constricted unifaces ie adzes recovered from Belize (Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1). Counts as of 2021 (Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1). Length, Width, Thickness data given in mean millimetres; data exclude 'significantly damaged bifaces' (Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1).
5. Form and Count from Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1. No associated radiocarbon dates, though 'may be younger than Lowe and Allspice points, based on the observed differences in patination and style of artifacts when all are found in the same area' (Kelly 1993, p. 216).
6. Form from Stemp et al. 2021, p. 418. Count from Stemp et al. 2021, p. 419. Associated radiocarbon dates not available (Stemp et al. 2021, p. 419). Points recovered from Ladyville and August Pine Ridge (Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1). American Clovis points adequately dated 11300 – 10600 BP, such that 'ne can only postulate a date for of ca. 10,000 b.c. with a potentially large probable error' (Kelly 1993, p. 224).
7. Form from Stemp et al. 2021, p. 418. Count from Stemp et al. 2021, p. 419. Associated radiocarbon dates not available (Stemp et al. 2021, p. 419). Points recovered from New River Lagoon, Orange Walk , Big Falls , and Lowe Ranch (Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1).
8. Form and Count from Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1. Dated 2500 BC – 1900 BC by Kelly 1993, pp. 215, 224, among others (Braswell 2022, p. 90). Dated to 8200 cal BC – 7300 cal BC more recently, at least for Lowe points recovered in southern Belize (Braswell 2022, pp. 90–91, Awe et al., p. 529 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAweEbertStempBrown (help)).
9. Form and Count from Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1.
10. Form and Count from Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1.
11. However, carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen and bone apatite from human skeletal remains from southern Belize indicate that the diet in this area did not include maize prior to circa 2750 cal BC (Stemp et al. 2021, p. 421, Braswell 2022, p. 92). Additionally, faunal remains from northern Belize indicate that a wide array of game were still being hunted during 3400 BC – 900 BC, including common agouti, armadillo, snakes, turtles, freshwater fish and molluscs, and possibly white-tailed deer (Stemp et al. 2021, pp. 421–422).
12. Not including various unnamed or minor Preceramic sites.
13. As of 2022, the earliest Preceramic skeleton recovered in the Lowlands is that of Naia of Hoyo Negro, dated to 12910 cal BP – 12720 cal BP; the earliest recovered in Belize is that of an unnamed individual of Mayahab Cab Pek, dated 9430 cal BP – 9140 cal BP (Tiesler 2022, p. 50, table 1.3.1).
14. As of 2019, no bifaces recovered in Belize have been dated to 7000 BC – 1900 BC, though it is uncertain whether this represents a gap in contemporary knowledge or one in Preceramic lithic production ie whether this temporal gap indicates an absence of evidence or evidence of an absence (Awe et al. 2021, p. 529).

Short citations

1. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, p. 420.
2. Adams & Macleod 2000a, p. 47.
3. Lohse, Borejsza & Joyce 2021, pp. 2–4.
4. Pearsall 2008, pp. 163, 173.
5. Prufer et al. 2019, p. 2.
6. Lohse, Borejsza & Joyce 2021, p. 21.
7. Awe et al. 2021, pp. 525–526.
8. Stemp et al. 2021, pp. 417–418.
9. Braswell 2022, p. 89.
10. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, p. 418.
11. Braswell 2022, pp. 91–92.
12. ^ Awe et al. 2021, p. 524.
13. Braswell 2022, p. 92.
14. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, p. 419.
15. Lohse, Borejsza & Joyce 2021, pp. 15–16.
16. Stemp et al. 2021, pp. 419–420.
17. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, p. 417.
18. Adams & Macleod 2000a, pp. 86–87.
19. ^ Kelly 1993, p. 205.
20. ^ Pearsall 2008, p. 180.
21. Stemp et al. 2021, supp. 1.
22. ^ Awe et al. 2021, p. 528.
23. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, pp. 420–421.
24. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, p. 421.
25. Awe et al., p. 527. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAweEbertStempBrown (help)
26. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, p. 422.
27. ^ Awe et al. 2021, p. 526.
28. Stemp et al. 2021, p. 417-418, 421-422.
29. Witschey & Brown 2010.
30. Adams & Macleod 2000a, pp. 57, 72.
31. Pearsall 2008, pp. 167, 173.
32. Awe et al. 2021, p. 527.
33. Adams & Macleod 2000a, p. 62.
34. Pearsall 2008, p. 163.
35. Awe et al. 2021, p. 529.
36. Fox 1871, p. 93.
37. Pendergast 1993, p. 4.
38. Franks 1877, p. 38.
39. ^ Stemp et al. 2021, pp. 416–417.
40. Adams & Macleod 2000a, p. 26.
41. Adams & Macleod 2000a, p. 86.

References

Journals

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3. Cagnato, Clarissa (2021). "Gathering and Sowing Across the Central Maya Lowlands: A Review of Plant Use by Preceramic Peoples to the Early to Middle Preclassic Maya". Ancient Mesoamerica. 32 (3): 486–501. doi:10.1017/S0956536121000225. S2CID 245125329.
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17. Prufer, Keith M.; Alsgaard, Asia V.; Robinson, Mark; Meredith, Clayton R.; Culleton, Brendan J.; Dennehy, Timothy; Magee, Shelby; Huckell, Bruce B.; Stemp, W. James; Awe, Jaime J.; Capriles, Jose M.; Kennett, Douglas J. (18 July 2019). "Linking late paleoindian stone tool technologies and populations in North, Central and South America". PLOS ONE. 14 (7): 1-20 of article no. e0219812. Bibcode:2019PLoSO..1419812P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219812. PMC 6638942. PMID 31318917.
18. Prufer, Keith M.; Robinson, Mark; Kennett, Douglas J. (2021). "Terminal Pleistocene Through Middle Holocene Occupations in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Linking Ecology and Culture in the Context of Neotropical Foragers and Early Farmers". Ancient Mesoamerica. 32 (3): 439–460. doi:10.1017/S0956536121000195. S2CID 245125309.
19. Rosenswig, Robert M. (2021). "Opinions on the Lowland Maya Late Archaic Period with Some Evidence from Northern Belize". Ancient Mesoamerica. 32 (3): 461–474. doi:10.1017/S0956536121000018. S2CID 245125324.
20. Stemp, W. James; Awe, Jaime J.; Marcus, Joyce; Helmke, Christophe; Sullivan, Lauren A. (2021). "The Preceramic and Early Ceramic Periods in Belize and the Central Maya Lowlands". Ancient Mesoamerica. 32 (3): 416–438. doi:10.1017/S0956536121000444. S2CID 245125311.
21. Stemp, W. James; Awe, Jaime J.; Prufer, Keith M.; Helmke, Christophe (2016). "Design and Function of Lowe and Sawmill Points from the Preceramic Period of Belize". Latin American Antiquity. 27 (3): 279–299. doi:10.7183/1045-6635.27.3.279. S2CID 163979743.
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Theses

1. Burns, Jeffrey M. (2018). Preceramic Cave Use in Belize (MA). Northern Arizona University. ProQuest 2050579408.
2. Dennehy, Timothy J. (2021). From Foragers to Farmers in Tropical Forests: How Paleoindian and Archaic Peoples in Southern Belize Adapted Their Lithics, Mobility, and Subsistence to a Changing Holocene Climate (PhD). Arizona State University. ProQuest 2610379260.
3. McLellan, Alec (2020). From Lamanai to Ka'kabish : human and environment interaction, settlement change, and urbanism in northern Belize (PhD). University College London.
4. Orsini, Stephanie R. (2016). From turkeys to tamales: Paleoindian to Preclassic period faunal use at Maya Hak Cab Pek rockshelter in southern Belize (MA). University of Mississippi. ProQuest 1809807534.
5. Solmo, Keith F. (2017). Rain Don't Stop the Reggae Jam: Locating Early Archaic Materials Through Paleosol Identification and Predictive Modeling, Belize River Valley, Cayo District, Belize (MA). Northern Arizona University. ProQuest 1915986377.

Print

1. Adams, Richard E. W.; Macleod, Murdo J., eds. (2000a). Mesoamerica, Part 1. The Cambridge history of the native peoples of the Americas. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521351652. ISBN 9781139053778. S2CID 163512332.
2. Adams, Richard E. W.; Macleod, Murdo J., eds. (2000b). Mesoamerica, Part 2. The Cambridge history of the native peoples of the Americas. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521652049. ISBN 9781139053464.
3. Braswell, Geoffrey E., ed. (2022). 3,000 Years of War and Peace in the Maya Lowlands : Identity, Politics, and Violence. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781351268004. ISBN 9781351268004. S2CID 246542762.
4. Lohse, Jon C.; Borejsza, Aleksander; Joyce, Arthur A., eds. (2021). Preceramic Mesoamerica. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429054679. ISBN 9780429054679. LCCN 2020053761. OCLC 1227789483. S2CID 242526375.
5. Pearsall, Deborah M., ed. (2008). Encyclopedia of Archaeology. San Diego, Calif.: Elsevier. OCLC 714030453.
6. Sharer, Robert J.; Traxler, Loa P., eds. (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th ed.). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. hdl:2027/mdp.39015062626216. OCLC 57577446.
7. Tiesler, Vera, ed. (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429341618. ISBN 9780429341618. S2CID 248676019.

Other

1. Witschey, Walter R. T.; Brown, Clifford T. (2010). The Electronic Atlas of Ancient Maya Sites (Map). . Corvallis, Oreg.: Heidi Hausman & Conservation Biology Institute.

External links

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Mesoamerica	Mesoamerican chronology Acolhua Capacha Chalcatzingo Cholula Chupícuaro Coclé Cuicuilco Diquis Epi-Olmec Huastec Izapa Mezcala Mixtec Nicoya Olmecs Pipil Purépecha Quelepa Shaft tomb tradition Teotihuacan Tepanec Teuchitlán Tlatilco Tlaxcaltec Toltec Totonac Veracruz Veraguas Xochipala Zapotec
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Aztec Maya Muisca Inca Capital Tenochtitlan Multiple Hunza and Bacatá Cusco Language Nahuatl Mayan Languages Muysc Cubun Quechua Writing Script Script (Numerals) Numerals Quipu Religion Religion (Human Sacrifice) Religion (Human Sacrifice) Religion Religion Mythology Mythology Mythology Mythology Mythology Calendar Calendar Calendar (Astronomy) Calendar (Astronomy) Mathematics Society Society Society (Trade) Economy Society Warfare Warfare Warfare Warfare Army Women Women Women Women Gender Roles Architecture Architecture Architecture Architecture Architecture (Road System) Art Art Art Art Art Music Music Music Music Andean Music Agriculture Chinampas Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture Cuisine Cuisine Cuisine Cuisine Cuisine History History History History Inca history Neo-Inca State Peoples Aztecs Mayans Muisca Incas Notable Rulers Moctezuma I Moctezuma II Cuitláhuac Cuauhtémoc Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I Nemequene Quemuenchatocha Tisquesusa Tundama Zoratama Manco Cápac Pachacuti Atahualpa Manco Inca Yupanqui Túpac Amaru Conquest Spanish Conquest (Hernán Cortés) Spanish Conquest Spanish Conquest of Yucatán (Francisco de Montejo) Spanish Conquest of Guatemala (Pedro de Alvarado) Spanish Conquest (Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada) (Hernán Pérez de Quesada) (List of Conquistadors) Spanish Conquest (Francisco Pizarro) See also Category: Archaeological sites in the Americas Portal:Indigenous peoples of the Americas Portal:Mesoamerica Ceramics of Indigenous peoples of the Americas Columbian exchange Indigenous cuisine of the Americas Mesoamerican writing systems Painting in the Americas before European colonization Population history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas Pre-Columbian art Civilizations portal

• History of Mesoamerica
• History of Belize by period
• History of the Yucatán Peninsula
• Paleo-Indian period