MIGRATION AND CONFLICT, OR EMULATION AND INTERACTION? The Belize Valley during the Middle Preclassic

The populations that occupied these early villages practiced maize agriculture and engaged in long-distance interactions at an ever-increasing frequency. The Middle Preclassic period also was characterized by important changes in the local pottery tradition of the Belize Valley, reflecting increasing contact and interaction with other regions of the Maya lowlands. War and other forms of conflict play central roles in theories that explain the development of sociopolitical complexity, in part because they achieve political and ideological objectives. Archaeologists have used settlement pattern data to infer the practice of ancient Maya warfare as well as to investigate strategies and tactics. The identification of profaning or violent termination rituals also has been used by some researchers as evidence for warfare. Changes in the production and distribution of goods, including pottery, also have been used as data to identify and interpret ancient warfare.