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 imagery collected by drones and Google Earth, the researchers from the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project were fascinated by an interconnected network of zigzag lines they saw running through the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. Their concluded that this was likely a network of pre-Columbian canals , which had probably been constructed in Belize thousands of years ago (but had never been noticed at ground level). To verify this theory the researchers carried out a series of excavations inside the wildlife sanctuary, and their discoveries confirmed that a series of canals had indeed been dug there a long time ago, to guide and trap freshwater fish in holding ponds where they could be easily harvested. Excavations at Maya Settlement in Belize Tell Story of Maya Golden Age The Horrifying History of the Midnight Terror Cave in Belize Notably, the researchers found several barbed spearpoints within the boundaries of the fish-trapping system during their excavations, which presumably would have been tied to sticks to make spears for killing the fish. The size of the fish-trapping system was quite impressive, the researchers said. “The network of canals was designed to channel annual flood waters into source ponds for fish trapping and would have yielded enough fish to feed as many as 15,000 people year-round, conservatively," said University of New Hampshire anthropologist Eleanor Harrison-Buck, in a press release issued by her university. Researhers excavating sediment that will help them date the evidence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility. ( Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project ). Harrison-Buck is the director of the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project, and has been leading the ongoing study of ancient fishing practices in Central America. She has been joined by colleagues from the United States and Australia, in a pursuit of knowledge about how ancient humans in the region interacted with wetlands and used them to help meet their survival needs. A Fish Harvesting Legacy from Deep in Prehistory At first, the researchers assumed they’d discovered a fish harvesting operation that had been set up by the Maya . But a series of radiocarbon dating tests carried out at various spots inside the canal network proved this wasn’t true. How Many Maya Gods Were Worshipped? Hint: There Were Hundreds Mexican Mayor Weds Alligator in Colorful Ancient Indigenous Ceremony! It seems the fish-trapping network was conceived of and constructed by the people who occupied the land before the rise of the great Maya civilization. These were a semi-nomadic people who settled along the Yucatan Peninsula coastal plain, and who constructed the canal system approximately 4,000 years ago. “Data collected from the largest inland wetland in Belize, Central America, demonstrate the presence of large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facilities built by Late Archaic hunter-gatherer-fishers, which continued to be used by their Maya descendants during Formative times (approximately 2000 BCE to 200 CE),” the study authors wrote in an article published by Science Advances . The researchers believe the early practice of fish trapping on such a significant scale was an adaption to changes in environmental conditions in ancient Central America . Researchers searching for evidence of ancient fishing activity in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize. ( Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project ) . “ We suggest that such landscape-scale intensification may have been a response to long-term climate disturbance recorded between 2200 and 1900 BCE,” they wrote. “Agricultural intensification after 2000 BCE has been credited for supporting the rise of pre-Columbian civilizations in Formative Mesoamerica, but we suggest that some groups relied more heavily on the mass harvesting of aquatic resources.” Sediment samples were collected along the walls of the excavation units, and they were tested for chemical elements that might reveal the types of environment changes that occurred in prehistoric times. These tests showed that tropical forests had dominated the landscapes of the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary 4,000 years ago, and that no cultivation of maize or any other crops had taken place during that time. Along with a lack of pollen from domesticated crops, there were no signs of the ditching or draining that would have been needed to prepare the land for agricultural use. As for the fish-trapping network, analysis showed it was used for approximately 1,000 years, or from approximately 2,000 to 1,000 BC. "It seems likely that the canals allowed for annual fish harvests and social gatherings, which would have encouraged people to return to this area year after year and congregate for longer periods of time," said study co-author Marieka Brouwer Burg, a professor of anthropology at the University of Vermont and the BREA project co-director. "Such intensive investments in the landscape may have led ultimately to the development of the complex society characteristic of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, which subsequently occurred in this area by around 1200 BCE." Did Their Predecessors Help the Maya Thrive? The so-called “ Formative Period ” of the Maya civilization overlapped with the fishing system’s time in use. This suggests the Maya took advantage of this ingenious creation of their predecessors, relying on the harvest of freshwater fish to supplement what they were able to produce their their early ventures into agriculture. If this is so, the existence of this ancient fishing operation may have been a hidden factor that helps explains the rise of the Maya civilization , which grew to be the most advanced and sophisticated in all of ancient Mesoamerica . With the support of the local population, the BREA research team plans to return to Crooked Tree to continue their investigations soon. They will be looking for more signs of prehistoric land modification, which could reveal some fascinating facts about how ancient fishing practices led to significant cultural development in the Yucatan region later on. Top image: Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize. Source: Bernt Rostad/ CC BY 2.0 . By Nathan Falde News Ancient Places History Belize maya Central America pre-columbian In a recent discovery, a team of researchers has uncovered what appears to be an underwater portal to the Maya underworld . The team had set out to explore the sacred pools of the ancient Maya,... Not even 50 years ago, Belize, in Central America, gained independence on September 21, 1981, but its history dates back to 9,000 years. In prehistory the territory was home to several ancient... Archaeologists studying Belize’s “Midnight Terror Cave” have discovered mysterious blue fibers in the tooth plaque of sacrificed teenagers, which suggests the young sacrifice victims had been gagged... Representatives of the Belize Institute of Archaeology have been working with graduate students from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on a series of excavations in Central America. During... Something of a hidden gem, Caracol is one of the largest Maya sites of Central America, and certainly the largest in Belize, yet it receives far less footfall than other ruins in the region. The... A fresh analysis of artifacts collected from a salt-making facility submerged beneath a lagoon in Belize has revealed enlightening details about the organization and functioning of the Maya salt...
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Labour plans to make spiking a specific offence and has laid out plans for venue staff to be trained in relation to spiking, with a pilot to begin within weeks before a wider rollout next year. Ms Davies-Jones, asked about why it was worthwhile to make spiking a new offence when it is already illegal, said: “Spiking is a crime already. “A lot of people don’t realise that it is a crime already, which is part of the problem.” She said there were around 6,000 reports of spiking last year but that because it is an underreported crime, it is not clear how big of a problem it is. 'Legislation won't fix this on its own...this is about a culture shift' challenges Minister for Victims on the govt plan to change the spiking law even though it is already a criminal offence. 📺 Sky 501 — Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) “Part of the problem we’ve got is around the data collection, so you don’t know if you’ve been spiked with a drink, a needle, a vape, for example,” she told Politics Hub on Sky News. Modernising the offence and giving police the tools to get accurate data allows a clearer picture of where, how and how often spiking is happening, she said. It is about “clarifying it, modernising it, making sure that people know exactly what this is...the law isn’t quite, it isn’t up to date. “It isn’t modern enough.” Sir Keir Starmer earlier said he hopes the change will give people “the confidence to come forward”, in a meeting of police bosses, transport figures and hospitality executives in Downing Street. Spiking will be made a criminal offence. My government was elected to take back our streets, central to this mission is making sure women and girls can feel safe at night. Perpetrators of spiking will feel the full force of the law. — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) Ms Davies-Jones and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper were among the attendees at the round-table discussion on Monday morning. Labour pledged in its manifesto to introduce a new offence for spiking, but there was no detail in the King’s Speech this year about a specific crime, though it promised to ensure an improved police response to cases. According to information published by the Metropolitan Police, spiking offences are currently covered by more than one law, but most come under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. Sir Keir told the meeting: “There are a number of measures that we are setting out this morning – we want to talk it through with you. “The first is to make spiking a specific offence so that it counts, it’s reported.” He said that such a measure would mean that it “enables everybody to have the confidence to come forward” and also “it allows perpetrators to know that it’s a specific offence”. Detailing the training scheme, he went on: “We’re beginning the piloting of training for staff in venues.” He said the scheme would be “partly to spot what’s happening, but also to know what to do in the event that there is an incident in a venue”. “That will start in December with a pilot then it will be rolled out from March of next year,” Sir Keir added. He also said that the “final” point of discussion for the morning was “police indexing – (the) way that we count it across different police forces”. Sir Keir added: “At the moment it’s quite hard to get your arms around the pure numbers.” Plain clothes officers are being deployed in areas around bars and clubs to spot predatory behaviour. The text-to-report number, 61016, that allows women to contact British Transport Police to report harassment on the train, is due to be relaunched. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Spiking is a disturbing and serious crime which can have a damaging and long-lasting impact on victims. “That’s why today we are taking decisive action to prevent this devastating crime and to crack down on perpetrators, by introducing a new criminal offence for spiking and launching specialist training for thousands of bar staff nationwide. “People shouldn’t have to worry about the safety of their drinks on a night out. “These changes are about giving victims greater confidence to come forward, and ensuring that there is a robust response from the police whenever these appalling crimes take place.”Trump says fate of TikTok should be in his hands when he returns to White House