The Preclassic or Formative period of Belizean, Maya, and Mesoamerican history began with the Maya development of ceramics during 2000 BC900 BC, and ended with the advent of Mayan monumental inscriptions in AD 250.

Geography During the pre-Columbian era, Belize formed part of Mesoamerica. Traditionally, the first-order subdivisions of the latter follow cultural or political boundaries of Preclassic, Classic, or Postclassic civilisations, e.g. Mayas and Aztecs. The Maya Region of Mesoamerica is one such. It, in turn, is further subdivided physiographically into at least three regions, i.e. the Maya Lowlands, Highlands, and Pacific. The first of these second-order subdivisions, which fully encompassed Belize, is still further subdivided into northern, central, and southern portions, called the Northern, Central, and Southern Lowlands. Belizean territory north of Indian Creek i.e. Nim Li Punit is often included within the Central Lowlands, fully encompassing five of Belize's districts, and an upper portion of Toledo. Territory south of Indian Creek, including Nim Li Punit, is often placed within the Southern Lowlands, encompassing the central and lower portions of Toledo.

Climate It has been suggested that a global climatic drying event may have prompted the development of ceramics, monumental structures, and farming across the Maya Region of Mesoamerica during 1200 BC900 BC.

Demographics The ancestral homeland or urheimat of Mayan speakers, i.e. of proto-Mayas, is most often located either near Soloma, in the southwestern highlands i.e. Sierra Cuchumatanes of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, or in the El Quiche valley, in the central lowlands of Quiché, Guatemala. However, details of proto-Maya or Maya emigration from urheimat into the rest of the Maya Region of Mesoamerica remain uncertain. Generally, though, it is thought that proto-Mayas remained in urheimat, with only their Maya descendants emigrating abroad. For instance, Yukatekan speakers, who are thought to have diverged from proto-Mayan speakers in circa 1900 BC, are not thought to have emigrated from urheimat until several centuries after divergence.

The first Maya settlers of the Lowlands are thought to have co-inhabited said region with pre-existing non-Maya settlers, e.g. Palaeoindians, Xincans, Lenkans, and Tols or Jicaques. However, details of their interactions with these pre-existing settlers remain unclear. In central and southern Belize, the disappearance of lithic technology around 1900 BC has been taken as evidence that Maya settlers replaced or displaced pre-existing Palaeoindian ones. However, in northern Belize, particularly given Preceramic and Preclassic lithic technology at Colha, it has been suggested that Palaeoindian and Maya settlers co-inhabited the region.

Technology Ceramic It is uncertain whether the earliest ceramic traditions i.e. complexes of the Lowlands were foreign imports or local innovations. It has been suggested that all early ceramic complexes of Belize and the surrounding Lowlands were indigenous developments with few or no connections to previously existing traditions outside the Maya Region. However, it has also been suggested that some of these, i.e. the Cunil and Jenney Creek complexes of the Upper Belize River Valley, were developed by MixeZoquean speakers of Honduras and subsequently imported. By the Middle Preclassic, however, population growth and interaction lead to the harmonisation of ceramic traditions. The first widespread ceramic tradition is thought to be Mamon, characterised by red-slipped or Juventud Red bowls, and commonly dated to 600 BC.

The earliest pre-Mamon ceramic traditions in Belize and surrounding Lowlands are most often dated to at least 1000 BC, though there is still much debate regarding details. Pre-Mamon ceramic complexes have been discovered in Cuello and Cahal Pech, and more recently in Colha, Blackman Eddy, and Xunantunich. Finely-made tecomates and non-utilitarian ceramics, especially figurines and ocarinas, appear upon the advent of non-nomadic hamlets in Belize and surrounding Lowlands. These are taken as indicative of increasing socioeconomic complexity, as they are believed to have been employed in symbolic or ritual functions, like feasts and burials.

+ Prominent Preclassic ceramic complexes of Belize. Complex Start Unit End Unit Sites Notes Cunil 1200 cal BC 900 cal BC Cahal Pech, Upper Belize River Valley aka Kanocha Swasey 1000 cal BC 800 cal BC Cuello Jenney Creek 900 cal BC 300 cal BC Cahal Pech, Upper Belize River Valley aka Kaluk, Kanluk Bladen 800 BC 600 BC Cuello Lopez 600 BC 400 BC Cuello Barton Creek 300 cal BC 300 cal AD Upper Belize River Valley

Lithic The use of Preceramic lithic tools continued into the Preclassic. Colha, for instance, is known to have produced and distributed burin-spall drills, macroblades, bifacial celts, wedge-form adzes, T-shaped adzes, and constricted unifaces throughout northern and central Belize. A lack of standardised forms, and absence of identifiable workshops, have been taken to suggest that lithic tool production was organised as a cottage industry, with manufacturing based within residences, alongside other domestic activities. The production of bifaces and adzes has been taken as indicative of 'an increased need for tools used for land clearance and field maintenance associated with horticulture.'

Exotic Preclassic shell beads and other ornaments have been excavated at sites in northern and central Belize, including Colha, Blackman Eddy, K'axob, and Pacbitun. As marine shell beads have also been excavated at Preclassic settlements further inland, like Tikal and Seibal in Guatemala, it is thought that at least some of their production in Belize was destined for long-distance trade. The Preclassic further saw the development of greenstone and obsidian tools and ritual artefacts, and cotton textiles. Greenstone polished celts, beads, and triangulates have been recovered in sites across the country. The earliest obsidian tools, appearing first as hard-hammer flakes, then as prismatic blades, were introduced in circa 1000 BC, with raw or worked obsidian likely sourced from the Guatemalan Highlands. Preceramic floral remains indicate the presence of cotton in northern and central Belize by 2200 cal BC1000 cal BC, to which period are dated ceramic spindle whorls and bone needles recovered from the same regions. Additionally, plaster with a textile impression recovered from Cahal Pech, thought to date to 1200 cal BC900 cal BC, revealed that the impressed 'fabric was constructed of single-ply yarns with a Z-twist.'

The appearance of exotic goods, particularly in dedicatory and terminatory deposits or caches across Belize and the surrounding Lowlands, is often taken to signal an increase in socioeconomic complexity, social inequality, and power among an emerging elite class.

Economy Agriculture Preclassic floral remains provide evidence of increasing deforestation and development of slash-and-burn milpas or farms in Belize and the wider Maya Lowlands, with maize, cassava, beans, chili peppers, calabash, and squash as main cultivars. The intensification of agriculture during the Preclassic necessitated extensive landscaping beyond forest clearance, including the construction of canals, raised fields, and terraces. These features have proven difficult to date, though their first appearance in northern Belize is thought to date to circa 1000 BC.

Trade Settlements in Belize and the surrounding Lowlands are thought to have engaged in long-distance, riverine or overland trade, particularly in tools and ritual artefacts of exotic materials like marine shells, greenstone, and obsidian. For instance, Cahal Pech is thought to have begun importing exotic goods from outside the Lowlands as early as 1200 cal BC900 cal BC, including obsidian from the Highlands, greenstone from the Motagua Valley in southeastern Guatemala, and queen conch shells from coastal Caribbean settlements. Northern Belize, particularly Colha, is thought to have engaged in short-distance trade i.e. trade within the Lowlands, particularly in lithic tools.

Society Language The ancestral form of all Mayan languages is called proto-Mayan. Its history, phonology, syntax, grammar, and lexicon have been studied since at least the 1960s, and 'have now been worked out in great detail.' It is thought to have been in close contact with proto-MijeSokean, a language most often associated with the Locona people of the Gulf, Isthmus, and Soconusco regions of Mesoamerica, given that later Mayan languages exhibit loanwords of proto-MijeSokean origin.

The divergence of proto-Mayan into distinct Mayan languages is most commonly dated to circa 2200 BC. This date, however, was obtained from glottochronological analysis, a linguistic tool which is 'now largely abandoned, given its many difficulties and its uncorroborated founding assumptions.' More recent attempts to date the divergence have employed disparate methods, and yielded widely disparate results, ranging from circa 6600 BC to circa 209 BC.

Arts and sciences The Late Preclassic saw the adoption or diffusion of various arts and sciences across the Lowlands, including hieroglyphic script writing, vigesimal arithmetic, and Long Count calendar time-keeping. Furthermore, during this sub-period, non-hieroglyphic artistic illustrations and portrayals increasingly tended towards a characteristically distinct Maya style. These developments have been described as 'the first blossoming of what is often called civilisation.' Notably, the introduction of mathematical zero during this sub-period has been deemed 'the earliest known instance of this concept.'

Culture The Preclassic is generally characterised by increasing socioeconomic and ideological complexity in Belize and surrounding Lowlands. Details of the increase in social complexity and inequality in the Early to Middle Preclassic have proven difficult to ascertain, though broad strokes are often gleaned from architecture, burials, and material culture. For instance, the period saw the production and long-distance trade of non-functional, exotic goods, of ceramic, marine shells, greenstone, and obsidian, employed in increasingly standardised rituals, such as feasts and burials.

Mortuary Mortuary practices are thought to have become increasingly more complex, standardised, and public throughout the Preclassic. Grave goods, often ceramic and shell artefacts, e.g. carved jute snail-shells, have been excavated in early burials, which are first documented as simple pits or cist graves below private residences, and later as public interments in round structures, E-Groups, and platforms. At Cuello, Middle Preclassic burials dated to circa 900 BC600 BC, particularly graves of children, have been found with exotic items of ceramic, marine shell, and greenstone. Wealthier graves first appear by the end of the Middle Preclassic, including, for instance, graves unearthed at Cahal Pech with jade, slate plaques, drilled animal teeth, marine shell discs, and ceramic figurines.

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