A new study published by University of New Mexico archaeologist Keith Prufer brings to the fore that an area in Belize was crucial in researching on the beginnings of the ancient Maya civilization and the propagation of maize as a predominant food source.
As per the paper “South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region,” published in Nature Communications and co-led by Prufer, digging in Belize, alongside old DNA investigation, demonstrate a formerly unrevealed relocation of people carrying maize from South America toward the north to the Maya region.
Prufer and his associates unearthed 25 burials dating from 10,000 to 3,700 years ago from two caves situated in the isolated Maya Mountains of Belize, in Central America. The sites were situated underneath the overhang of the tall limestone ridge that shielded individuals living below and safeguarded the sediments of the debris and burying of the dead for more than 7,000 years.
The unearthed skeletons uncovered a scope of ancient DNA data on the course of early populaces in the Americas. An early toward the south relocation of individuals from the north by 9,600 to 7,300 years ago shows distant relatedness to the current day Mesoamericans, including the Maya-speaking populaces.
Then, a formerly uncharted movement from the south beginning around 5,600 years ago had a significant geographical effect on the region, bestowing in excess of 50 percent of the family line of all individuals that came later on. This new lineage obtained from a source ancestral to present day Chibchan speakers residing in the stretch from Costa Rica to Colombia, as indicated by Prufer, whose lab drove the archeological and isotope study.
The hereditary ancestry of human populaces in Central America was generally undiscovered, leaving a significant interlude in our insights into the worldwide diversification of people, which is the reason this study is truly interesting and disruptive, Prufer commented.
The excavations and DNA research “support a situation in which Chibchan-based horticulturalists moved toward the north into the southeastern Yucatan taking with them further enhanced assortments of maize, and perhaps even manioc and chili peppers, and blended in with the locals to fabricate new horticultural practices that eventually prompted more concentrated types of maize farming a lot later in time… “
“We see the relocation of these individuals as fundamentally significant for the growth of cultivation and, in the long run, for Maya speaking communities,” Prufer said, taking note that maize supplemented the required protein and sugar energy, and could be easily stored in dry conditions. When the population had a dependable source of food in the form of maize, they began cultivating and staying in the same spot, prompting bigger, entrenched communities.
Maize wasn’t historically an essential part of the eating regimen of these individuals, Prufer said. The earliest migrants most likely amassed and ate the minuscule cobs of a grass called the teosinte, as well as the earliest maize domesticates, despite the fact that the cobs were tiny, alongside different plants, shellfish, and game. By choosing the greatest and best seeds, they started to tame the plant, developing bigger cobs, and in the process ever changing the landscape and biodiversity, a process that probably happened mostly in South America.
In the long run, the utilization of maize grew until it turned into a staple food, similar to the Europeans who utilized wheat, Prufer said. The propagation of maize developed, moving from the south to the north, to the Maya people, and at last across the two continents to such an extent that when the Spanish showed up in around 1500 AD, maize or corn, was a staple food of every Native American group’s diet.
Journal Reference: Douglas J. Kennett, Mark Lipson, Keith M. Prufer, David Mora-MarÃn, Richard J. George, Nadin Rohland, Mark Robinson, Willa R. Trask, Heather H. J. Edgar, Ethan C. Hill, Erin E. Ray, Paige Lynch, Emily Moes, Lexi O’Donnell, Thomas K. Harper, Emily J. Kate, Josue Ramos, John Morris, Said M. Gutierrez, Timothy M. Ryan, Brendan J. Culleton, Jaime J. Awe, David Reich. South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region. Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29158-y
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