Earliest fish-trapping facility in Central America discovered in Maya lowlands

UNH archaeologists uncover ancient fishing canals in Belize

Archaeologists from the University of New Hampshire and the University of Vermont have uncovered a fish-trapping facility in Belize dating back to the Mayan era.

Earliest fish-trapping facility in Central America discovered in Maya lowlands

An archaeologist from the University of New Hampshire and her team have collected data which indicates the presence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility. Discovered in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary (CTWS), the largest inland wetland in Belize, the team dated the construction of these fisheries to the Late Archaic period (cal. 2000-1900 BCE), pre-dating Amazonian examples by a thousand years or more.

Ancient Central Americans built a massive fish-trapping system

Earthen channels directed fish into ponds that formed seasonally, providing a dietary bounty for Maya civilizations starting around 4,000 years ago.

Earliest Fishing Operation Found in Central America, Dating to 2,000

Even before the rise of the great Maya civilization, the people who occupied Central America’s Yucatan Peninsula were applying their engineering skills to make the land more productive and liveable. This was made crystal clear by a recent discovery by a team of archaeologists and anthropologists, who discovered the most ancient fish-trapping operation ever identified anywhere in the region inside Belize’s largest inland wetland.   Examining imag…