Middle Preclassic Landscapes and Aquatic Resource Use at Cuello, Belize

Abstract

The aquatic animals identified among the vertebrate faunal remains recovered in the 1990-1993 excavations at the Maya site of Cuello, Belize, are examined. The detected patterns of aquatic resource use are comparable to those described by Elizabeth Wing and Sylvia Scudder in their faunal analysis from previous excavations. These zooarchaeological findings, combined with paleoecological data, suggest that the people of Cuello focused their aquatic resource procurement efforts primarily on local wetland habitats, which may have formed part of a managed landscape surrounding their community in the Middle Preclassic period.