The number of Mayan finds in recent years is staggering. It is surprising because we are talking about a civilization with a history of more than 3,500 years and one of the most developed cultures of ancient times. There have been many discoveries that tell us how practical they were at building their empires, and now archaeologists have found a key to their origin through vast wetlands.

Ancestral innovation. At the dawn of the Mayan civilization, before the construction of the iconic temples, their predecessors were already changing the environment on the Yucatan Peninsula. Communities in what is now Belize transformed vast wetlands into a network of canals and ponds designed to catch freshwater fish large enough to feed thousands of people each year.

Located in Crooked Tree Wildlife Refuge, this system was recently mapped by archaeologist Eleanor Harrison-Buck and her team. Using drones and data from Google Earth, the team analyzed up to 108 kilometers of channels covering 42 square kilometers. Radiocarbon dating suggests that this infrastructure of kilometers-long zigzag linear patterns is at least 4,000 years old.

The ultimate cheat system. In their studies, researchers say that swampy areas are flooded during the rainy season and fish spawn in wetlands. During excavations in the area, barbed spearheads and tools probably tied to sticks and used for fishing were unearthed. This system made it easier to direct fish to ponds where they were trapped when the water receded during the dry season, thus making them easier to catch.

The system also took advantage of the fish’s natural behavior, allowing residents to easily harvest fish when fish were scarce. According to the study’s calculations, the net could produce enough fish per year to meet the needs of about 15,000 people, requiring preservation methods such as salting, drying or smoking. These channels reflect not only innovation but also early adaptation to ensure food security.

Canal construction and use. The team explains that, as we said at the beginning, the canals were built by semi-nomadic communities in the coastal plain of Yucatan about 4,000 years ago. They were used for at least 1,000 years, including the Formative period when the Maya began to establish permanent agricultural villages and develop a distinctive culture.

The scale of these early landscape changes also suggests that societies of this time were already organized and had advanced abilities to transform their environments.

Effect on the emergence of yeasts. While the Maya economy was known for maize farming and the draining of wetlands to create raised fields, as they recall in this study, this network suggests that fishing was equally fundamental to the development of settled settlements and Maya social complexity itself.

In other words, the trap system discovered complementary agricultural production and showed how these communities modified their environments to maximize food resources.

Archaeological evidence and continuity over time. But there is so much more. Archaeologists apparently found remains of Preclassic Maya ceramics in the sediments of the canals; this suggests that the system continued to be used even during the growth of major Mayan cities.

Although many of the canals have filled with sediment over time, research shows that the ponds are still concentrated with fish during the dry season, according to reports from locals.

Engineering and historical relevance. There is no doubt that the Crooked Tree network once again reflects the ancient Mayans’ ability to transform landscape, in this case, into permanent infrastructure. Built around 2000 BC, at the end of the Archaic Period and before the Formative Period, this innovation marked, according to the authors, a turning point in the evolution of their society.

Although there is no evidence that the Preclassic Maya provided ongoing maintenance to the network, its design and early functionality left a legacy that is still visible from the air during the dry season, when denser vegetation reveals the location of the channels.

In short, it is a testament to the ability of the ancient Mayans to adapt to their environment and guarantee food security through innovative strategies. The system, together with already known agricultural techniques, reaffirms the civilization’s ingenuity in restructuring vast tracts of land for its own survival and cultural development, and demonstrates that fish, like corn, were essential to the rise of society.

Image | Fernando Flores, Google Earth

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