Early Paleoindian to Late Archaic Lithic Technology at Nancy Bight, Crooked Tree Island, Northern Belize

Abstract

Evidence of Early Paleoindian occupation of the Maya lowlands has recently expanded through the recovery of numerous fluted bifaces from northern Belize, Central America. Here, we report on one such addition: a fluted lanceolate biface fragment found in association with other chipped stone tools and debitage along the shoreline of Crooked Tree Lagoon. Technological, morphological, and use-wear analyses of these lithics suggest they were used for various purposes including wood working and animal processing, similar to previously analyzed preceramic lithic assemblages found along the inland, freshwater lagoon. The volatile nature of the shoreline has undoubtedly disturbed these lithics from their primary contexts; yet, the presence of these lithic clusters along lagoonal margins provides indisputable evidence that multiple visits to this wetland system were made throughout the Preceramic period, beginning as early as the Late Pleistocene.

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