A team of researchers from the University of Vermont has uncovered a complex network of fishing structures that helped shape the development of the Maya civilization in Central America and present-day Mexico around 4,000 years ago.
What Did the Researchers Discover?
The ancestors of the Maya—hunter-gatherers—built the structures to catch fish and feed their families during droughts. The team found the intricate system of fishing devices in Belize.
Thanks to these structures, the Maya ancestors were able to catch enough fish to feed approximately 15,000 people each year. The network consisted of channels and ponds that directed fish to areas where people could easily catch them.
A report in the journal Science Advances dates the networks to about 4,000 years ago. At that time, people in the region had not yet taken up large-scale agriculture, Live Science notes.
“This is the oldest large-scale archaic fishing structure recorded in ancient Mesoamerica. The success of these hunter-gatherers likely helped shape the Maya, a civilization that later became dominant in Central America and present-day southern Mexico,” the team wrote. “These fishing traps encouraged people to gather and create permanent settlements, and eventually cities.”
“It seems that these channels allowed for a consistent fish catch and facilitated community gatherings, prompting people to return to this area year after year and stay for longer periods,” said co-author Marieke Brauer Burg, a professor of anthropology and the study’s lead researcher. She believes that “such intensive investments in the landscape could ultimately have led to the development of the complex society characteristic of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization that later emerged in this region.”
When the structures were built, the region was drying out, forcing people to deal with drought. That pressure may have pushed people to work together to build the traps and secure food.
The team used satellite images and drone photography to identify the channels and ponds. They also excavated and radiocarbon-dated organic deposits and charcoal to establish the structures’ age. The team found that people continued using them during the formative period of Maya civilization—about 2000 to 200 B.C.
“Honestly, this discovery was astonishing. We always thought that large-scale landscape alteration projects occurred during the classic Maya period, from 250 to 900 A.D.,” said Thomas Gooderham, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Tyler.
Gooderham, who wasn’t involved in the study, said the discovery could prompt researchers to rethink what the Maya were like around 4,000 years ago.
The University of Vermont team plans to continue their research in the region.
