The fourth millennium b.p. in the Maya lowlands provides an interesting case, with mobile, aceramic peoples documented, while ceramic-using villagers lived in other parts of Mesoamerica. Rather than ask why ceramic containers and village life took so long to reach the Maya lowlands, the question can be inverted to posit that a mixed horticultural-foraging adaptation was so effective that it persisted longer than elsewhere. I propose that the so-called 4.2 ka b.p. event was the ultimate cause of increased sedentism and the first adoption of ceramic containers in a limited number of regions of Mesoamerica. My musings are grounded in the comparisons of data from the Soconusco region of southern Mexico and evidence from northern Belize at Colha and Pulltrouser Swamp, as well as the Freshwater Creek drainage. I assume that proximate behavior must account for local adaptations and different rates of change in each region of Mesoamerica. Therefore, regional adaptation in northern Belize during the Late Archaic period provides the evidence with which to reconstruct local adaptation. Excavations and regional reconnaissance document a distinctive orange soil horizon at Progresso Lagoon associated with patinated chert tools and an absence of ceramics. Stone tool assemblages from the preceramic components of three sites in the region indicate a spatial separation of tool use and resharpening at island versus shore. Starch grains recovered from these stone tools indicate that preceramic peoples in northern Belize harvested maize and several other domesticated plant species. These data are consistent with local paleoenvironmental studies that document an extended period of horticultural activity during the fifth and fourth millennia b.p. prior to the adoption of ceramics. Lithic assemblages and associated dietary information from multiple sites provide glimpses of the data necessary to reconstruct Late Archaic period adaptation from a single locale. Such data will be required to understand the proximate causes for the transition to a more settled, village life.

中文翻译：

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来自伯利兹北部的一些证据对低地玛雅晚期古代时期的看法

第四个千年bp在玛雅低地提供了一个有趣的案例，记录了移动的陶瓷民族，而使用陶瓷的村民生活在中美洲的其他地区。与其问为什么陶瓷容器和乡村生活需要这么长时间才能到达玛雅低地，不如将问题倒过来假设混合的园艺-觅食适应非常有效，以至于它比其他地方持续的时间更长。我建议所谓的 4.2 kabp事件是久坐不动的最终原因，也是中美洲有限地区首次采用陶瓷容器的最终原因。我的想法基于对墨西哥南部 Soconusco 地区的数据与来自伯利兹北部 Colha 和 Pulltrouser Swamp 以及淡水河排水系统的证据的比较。我假设邻近行为必须考虑到中美洲每个地区的当地适应和不同的变化率。因此，古代晚期伯利兹北部的区域适应为重建当地适应提供了证据。挖掘和区域勘察记录了 Progresso Lagoon 独特的橙色土壤层，与锈蚀的燧石工具和没有陶瓷有关。来自该地区三个地点的前陶瓷组件的石制工具组合表明工具使用和重新打磨在岛屿与海岸之间的空间分离。从这些石器中回收的淀粉粒表明，伯利兹北部的前陶瓷民族收获了玉米和其他几种驯化的植物物种。这些数据与当地的古环境研究一致，该研究记录了五千年和四千年期间的园艺活动延长期bp在采用陶瓷之前。来自多个地点的石块组合和相关的饮食信息提供了从单一地点重建晚期古代时期适应所需的数据的一瞥。需要这些数据来了解过渡到更安定的乡村生活的直接原因。