Cuello

Diet and Animal Husbandry of the Preclassic Maya at Cuello, Belize Isotopic and Zooarchaeological Evidence... 

Cuello was excavated by Hammond and co-workers between 1975 and 1993. It is the earliest known Preclassic Maya site, with a Preclassic occupation from ca. 1200 BC to AD 300 as well as later Classic period (AD 300-900) remains the earliest pottery-using phase (Swasey, 1200-900 BC) has not yet been found at other Preclassic sites, but the Bladen (900-600 BC) and subsequent phases match occupations elsewhere in date and material culture. The Cuello excavations have been extensively described in the report edited by Hammond (1991). Of particular relevance here are the chapters on the ecology and subsistence economy (Ch. 4) by Miksicek and by Wing and Scudder, and on the human burials (Ch. 7), by Frank and Julie Saul. More recent publications have focused on the subsistence economy (Crane and Carr 1994) and on the human skeletal remains (Saul and Saul 1997). 

We wished to establish the nature of the Preclassic Maya diet at Cuello, with special interest in the extent to which maize was a staple, and whether its importance increased over time as it became more productive. Given the importance of maize to Maya civilization, a measure of its consumption in the Preclassic is a high priority. 

The 8 C values of the Preclassic humans at Cuello (Table 2.1) average -12.9 0.9%o (n = 28) in collagen, -9.8 1.0 in bone apatite (n = 16), and -8.7 2.3%o in tooth enamel apatite (n = 33) the S N values in collagen average 8.9 1.0%o (n = 23). The discrepancy in the number of specimens is due to the fact that more teeth were available than post-cranial material, while some of the specimens contained insufficient collagen to measure the nitrogen isotope ratios. Additional bone apatite analyses are in progress. 

Table 2.1. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of animal and human skeletal remains from the Predassic archaeological deposits at Cuello. Belize.

It is perhaps more instructive to compare the Preclassic 8 C collagen values with those of modern residents. The hair of the camp cook at the Cuello excavations had a 5 C value of-16.4%o and a 8 N value of 9.8%o (Table 2.3). 

Table 2.3. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values in hair of modern human and canid residents of the Cuello area Orange Walk, Belize. 1992.

Five other isotope studies of Maya skeletal populations in Belize are available for comparison with Cuello (Table 2.4 Fig. 2.3). These include a time series from Preclassic to Historic at Lamanai (White and Schwarcz 1989), an Early through Terminal Classic sequence at Pacbitun (White et al. 1993),... 

Figure 2.4. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values in human bone collagen from Preclassic Belize (Cuello and Lamanai) and from the Preclassic Peten (Altar de Sacrificios and Seibal).

Clutton-Brock, J. and Hammond, N. 1994 Hot dogs comestible canids in Preclassic Maya culture at Cuello, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science 21 819-826. 

Hammond, N. 1991 Cuello. An Early Maya Community in Belize. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 

Miksicek, C.H. 1991 The ecology and economy of Cuello the natural and cultural landscape of Preclassic Cuello. In Hammond, N., ed., Cuello An Early Maya Community in Belize. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 70-84. 

Saul, J.M. and Saul, F.P. 1997 The Preclassio skeletons from Cuello. In Whittington, S.L. and Reed, D.M., eds., Bones of the Maya Studies of Ancient Skeletons. Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution Press 28-50. 

Tykot, R.H., van der Merwe, N.J. and Hammond, N. 1996 Stable isotope analysis of bone collagen, bone apatite, and tooth enamel in the reconstruction of human diet. A case study from Cuello, Belize. In Orna, M.V., ed., Archaeological Chemistry Organic, Inorganic, and Biochemical Analysis. ACS Symposium Series 625, Washington, DC, American Chemical Society 355-365. 

A partial solution to this dilemma could be that a large proportion of the protein-rich foods (meat, eggs) consumed by these people came from animals that were themselves fed a C4 diet. We know that dogs typically share the same diet as humans (Katzenberg 1989 Cannon et al. 1999) and are important components of the diet in some sites (eg., Cuello Hammond 1991 van der Merwe et al, this volume). It is unlikely that all the meat consumed by Maya peoples was derived from pure C4 consumers, however, as we have evidence for at least some C3-based animal bones that are presumed to be waste from food preparation. This should a subject of future study to test for the degree of domestication (and consequent feeding on maize) of meat-supplying animals such as turkeys. 

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