4,000-Year-Old Canals Identified in Belize

WASHINGTON, D.C.—According to an Associated Press report, a 4,000-year-old network of canals has been spotted in Belize using drones and Google Earth imagery of the Yucatán coastal plain. Eleanor Harrison-Buck of the University of New Hampshire said that the earthen canals zigzag for several miles through wetlands, and would have been used to channel freshwater fish for a period of about 1,000 years. Barbed spearpoints found nearby were likely used to spear fish, added Marieka Brouweer Burg of the University of Vermont. The fish would have helped to diversify the diets of the seminomadic people who lived in the region during the Maya Formative Period, the researchers concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about an ancient Maya city, go to "Off the Grid: El Pilar, Belize."