Institute of Maya Studies

Multiproxy methods for identifying early farming and food management in the Maya lowlands at 6000 BP.

with Keith Prufer and Nadia Neff

Findings suggest that maize cultivation and animal management developed together much earlier than previously recognized. Instead of viewing maize farming and animal management as separate innovations, their study shows that they likely formed complementary parts of a greater adaptive food system as early as 6,100 years ago.

Keith Prufer and tree
Keith Prufer
Keith Prufer is an archaeologist, isotope ecologist, and core faculty in the Center for Stable Isotopes (CSI) at University of New Mexico. He has directed long-term interdisciplinary field and laboratory studies for the past two decades focused on human adaptation in the neotropics throughout the Holocene. Since 2015, he has worked collaboratively combining archaeometric and genomic data on tropical foragers and farmers in Central America. He has also worked extensively public archaeology outreach and consultations with Indigenous Maya communities and other stakeholders. His current research addresses issues of mobility, migration, diet, and social organization.


Keith is a Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Harvard University, Washington DC,

Nadia Neff

is a PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of New Mexico, specializing in bioarchaeology and stable isotope analysis. Her research focuses on reconstructing ancient human diets, health, nutrition, and environmental interactions in Mesoamerica, particularly in southern Belize, using compound-specific isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating. Since 2019, she has been a bioarchaeologist with the ROOTS project and the Bladen Legacy project. Her work combines cutting-edge biochemical techniques with traditional archaeological methods to study the interplay between dietary strategies, social organization, and human health and nutrition.

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