Nutritional adaptations to early maize cultivation: Earliest isotopic evidence of maize-based animal provisioning in...

The adoption of maize as a dietary staple shaped human societies. While a reliable carbohydrate-rich source, its inherent nutritional limitations posed substantial challenges. Maize is deficient in lysine, an essential amino acid crucial for maintaining balanced health. Maize-dependent diets, therefore, necessitated complementary dietary strategies. We report amino acid stable carbon isotope data from 39 directly dated humans from southern Belize [6100 to 1100 before present (B.P.)] to investigate how early populations mitigated nutritional deficiencies. Concentration-dependent mixing model results indicate that protein supplementation from maize-eating animals contributed maize-derived lysine to human diets through trophic magnification (elevated proportions of isotopically distinct nutrients in tissues from trophic transfer). Our results indicate that such strategies were in place by 6100 B.P., consistent with evidence of early maize cultivation but predating reliance by ~2000 years. Our findings highlight early coevolutionary dynamics linking maize cultivation and human-animal provisioning relationships, deepening understandings of adaptive food systems during agricultural transitions and offering insights into nutritional strategies underpinning sustainable subsistence.