Long before the ancient Maya built templeswere their predecessors already transforming the landscape of Central America’s Yucatán Peninsula.
Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen channels in what is now Belize. The findings were published Friday in the journal Science Advances.
“The aerial images were crucial to identifying this really distinctive pattern of zigzag linear channels” that run for several kilometers through wetlands, said study co-author Eleanor Harrison-Buck of the University of New Hampshire.
The team then did some digging in Belize’s Crooked Tree Game Reserve. The ancient canals, accompanied by retention ponds, were used to channel and catch freshwater species such as catfish.
Barbed points found nearby may have been attached to sticks and used to spear fish, said study co-author Marieka Brouwer Burg of the University of Vermont.
The canal networks were built by semi-nomadic people in the Yucatán coastal plain as early as 4,000 years ago. According to the study, the canals were used for about 1,000 years or more, including during the “formative” period when the Maya began to settle into permanent farming villages and a distinctive culture began to emerge.
“It’s really interesting to see such large-scale changes of the landscape so early — it shows people were already building things,” said University of Pittsburgh archaeologist Claire Ebert, who was not involved in the study.
At the height of the Mayan civilization, people in this region built temples, roads, pyramids and other monuments. They also developed complex systems of writing, mathematics and astronomy. Scientists know a lot more about this era because there are many other important archaeological sites, Ebert said.
But this new study reveals a connection between the earlier people on the landscape and the later rise of Mayan culture. These ancient channels for catching fish may have played a role in helping later Mayan pyramids rise above the Yucatán rainforest.
“It shows continuity,” said University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Jeremy Sabloff, who was not part of the research.
On a practical level, the fishing canals helped the early people in the region diversify their diet and feed a growing population, building a foundation for later cultural heights.
