LEGACY LANDSCAPES: HUMAN–ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS IN SOUTHERN BELIZE

People have resided in the mountains and foothills of southern Belize for at least 10,000 years. By the Preclassic, small settlements were being transformed into larger communities with stone architecture, followed by investments in landscape alterations to accommodate increasing farming, water, and political needs. Preferences for settlement locations were guided by agriculture with major centers located primarily on two prominent landforms, the Toledo Beds of the foothills and the interior valleys of the Maya Mountains. These are locations of well-drained fertile soils and abundant water. Later centers infilled the region, with some located along riverine trade routes or with access to mineral and plant resources not found elsewhere in the southern Lowlands. Here we discuss the diversity of land-use strategies in differing physiographic regions in southern Belize. We evaluate long-term dynamic associations between settlement locations, resource availability, and agricultural potential of ancient Maya communities. We connect our findings to aspects of ancient inequality as well as the practices of modern Mopan and Q’eqchi’ Maya communities residing on the same landscapes today.