Ancient Mitogenomes from Belize Provide Insights into the Mobility and Migration of Ancient Communities in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.
- 1Baylor University
Abstract
Maya peoples have undergone several largescale demographic transformations over the past 3000 years, including the formation and depopulation of large urban centers, climatic events, and multiple colonial regimes. Archaeological and stable isotope evidence from across the Maya lowlands throughout these periods paints a picture of a demographically mobile population with complex and dynamic relationships among some of the largest urban polities in antiquity. The nature of the genomic relationship between ancient Maya urban centers, as well as their relationship with present-day Maya communities, however, remains under-characterized. Here, we present mitogenomic data of 16 ancient Maya Ancestors recovered from interments in the ancient Maya cities of Caracol and Santa Rita Corozal located in Western and Northern Belize. These ancient data were combined with 110 newly collected contemporary individuals from Northern Belize, along with nearly 600 previously published ancient and contemporary comparative mitogenomes recovered from sites spanning Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to reconstruct paleodemographic and mobility patterns of maternal lineages through time. Our results are consistent with broadly interconnected Maya populations that have maintained maternal genetic continuity across much of the Holocene, and which are not structured by linguistic family.
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BibTeX
@misc{cleary2026ancient,
title = {{Ancient Mitogenomes from Belize Provide Insights into the Mobility and Migration of Ancient Communities in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.}},
author = {C. D. Cleary and L. C. Springs and A. J. Locker and D. Z. Chase and A. F. Chase and A. S. Chase and M. M. Badillo and A. Pederson Vallejos and G. Cano and R. Rodriguez and H. Garcia-Ortiz and L. Orozco and J. Benn Torres and R. W. Smith and A. W. Reynolds},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.06.756460},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756460v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Ancient Mitogenomes from Belize Provide Insights into the Mobility and Migration of Ancient Communities in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.
AU - C. D. Cleary
AU - L. C. Springs
AU - A. J. Locker
AU - D. Z. Chase
AU - A. F. Chase
AU - A. S. Chase
AU - M. M. Badillo
AU - A. Pederson Vallejos
AU - G. Cano
AU - R. Rodriguez
AU - H. Garcia-Ortiz
AU - L. Orozco
AU - J. Benn Torres
AU - R. W. Smith
AU - A. W. Reynolds
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.06.756460
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756460v1
AB - Maya peoples have undergone several largescale demographic transformations over the past 3000 years, including the formation and depopulation of large urban centers, climatic events, and multiple colonial regimes. Archaeological and stable isotope evidence from across the Maya lowlands throughout these periods paints a picture of a demographically mobile population with complex and dynamic relationships among some of the largest urban polities in antiquity. The nature of the genomic relationship between ancient Maya urban centers, as well as their relationship with present-day Maya communities, however, remains under-characterized. Here, we present mitogenomic data of 16 ancient Maya Ancestors recovered from interments in the ancient Maya cities of Caracol and Santa Rita Corozal located in Western and Northern Belize. These ancient data were combined with 110 newly collected contemporary individuals from Northern Belize, along with nearly 600 previously published ancient and contemporary comparative mitogenomes recovered from sites spanning Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to reconstruct paleodemographic and mobility patterns of maternal lineages through time. Our results are consistent with broadly interconnected Maya populations that have maintained maternal genetic continuity across much of the Holocene, and which are not structured by linguistic family.
ER -