Data from rock shelters in southern Belize show evidence of tool making, hunting, and aquatic resource exploitation by 10,500 cal b.c.; the shelters functioned as mortuary sites between 7600 and 2000 cal b.c. Early Holocene contexts contain stemmed and barbed bifaces as part of a tradition found broadly throughout the neotropics. After around 6000 cal b.c., bifacial tools largely disappear from the record, likely reflecting a shift to increasing reliance on plant foods, around the same time that the earliest domesticates appear in the archaeological record in the neotropics. We suggest that people living in southern Belize maintained close ties with neighbors to the south during the Early Holocene, but lagged behind in innovating new crops and farming technologies during the Middle Holocene. Maize farming in Belize intensified between 2750–2050 cal b.c. as maize became a dietary staple, 1000–1300 years later than in South America. Overall, we argue from multiple lines of data that the Neotropics of Central and South America were an area of shared information and technologies that heavily influenced cultural developments in southeastern Mesoamerica during the Early and Middle Holocene.

中文翻译：

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中美洲东南部通过全新世中期占领的终端更新世：在新热带觅食者和早期农民的背景下将生态与文化联系起来

来自伯利兹南部岩石避难所的数据显示，工具制造、狩猎和水生资源开采量增加了 10,500 大卡公元前; 在 7600 到 2000 cal 之间，这些避难所充当了太平间公元前全新世早期的背景包含带茎和带刺的双面，作为在整个新热带地区广泛发现的传统的一部分。大约 6000 大卡后公元前, 双面工具在很大程度上从记录中消失了，这可能反映了人们对植物性食物越来越依赖的转变，大约在同一时间，最早的驯化动物出现在新热带地区的考古记录中。我们建议居住在伯利兹南部的人们在全新世早期与南部的邻居保持密切联系，但在全新世中期在创新新作物和农业技术方面落后。伯利兹的玉米种植在 2750-2050 大卡之间加强公元前随着玉米成为主食，比南美洲晚了 1000-1300 年。总体而言，我们从多条数据线论证中美洲和南美洲的新热带地区是一个共享信息和技术的区域，在全新世早期和中期全新世期间严重影响了中美洲东南部的文化发展。