Archaeologists discover 4,000-year-old canals used to fish by predecessors of Maya

WASHINGTON: Long before the ancient Maya built tem ples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central Amer ica’s Yucatan peninsula. Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeolo gists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen canals in what’s now Belize. The findings were published Friday in Science Advances. “The aerial imagery was crucial to identify this really distinctive pattern of zigzag linear canals” running for several miles through wet lands, said study co-author Eleanor Harrison-Buck of the University of New Hampshire. The team then conducted digs in Belize’s Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanc tuary. The ancient fish canals, paired with holding ponds, were used to channel and catch freshwater species such as catfish. “Barbed spearpoints” found nearby may have been tied to sticks and used to spear fish, said study co author Marieka Brouwer Burg of the University of Vermont. The canal networks were built as early as 4,000 years ago by semi-nomadic people in the Yucatan coastal plain. According to the study, the canals were used for around 1,000 years or longer, in cluding during the “forma tive” period when the Maya began to settle in permanent farming villages and a dis tinctive culture started to emerge. “It’s really interest ing to see such large-scale modifications of the land scape so early — it shows people were already build ing things,” said University of Pittsburgh archaeologist Claire Ebert, who was not involved in the study.