Archaic Middle American Agriculture and Settlement: Recent Pollen Data from Honduras

Data on Late Archaic period (5000-1000 B.C.) agriculture and settlement in SE Mesoamerica and Lower Central America are reassessed in view of recent findings. Pollen data from Lake Tojoa in western Honduras are presented to support a re-synthesis of views on the development of food production systems in the region. Traditional interpretations of the cultural sequence suggest that the area was colonized by agriculturalists relatively late (1000 B.C.). Pollen from a core taken at Tojoa indicate that the region was inhabited by people practicing slash-and-burn maize horticulture by 3000 B.C., probably as a supplement to hunting and gathering systems. These and other data from throughout Middle America show that diffusion of maize cultivation from Mexico occurred earlier than expected to many areas of the Central American tropics.