On the eve of the rise of the Maya civilization, people living in what’s now Belize turned a whole wetland into a giant ...

a civilization that later came to dominate the Maya Lowlands in Central America and modern-day southern Mexico. These fish-trapping facilities would have encouraged people to gather and develop ...

Earthen channels directed fish into ponds that formed seasonally, providing a dietary bounty for Maya civilizations starting around 4,000 years ago.

Credit: AP At the height of Maya civilization, people in this region built temples, roads, pyramids and other monuments. They also developed complex systems of writing, mathematics and astronomy.

At the height of Maya civilization, people in this region built temples, roads, pyramids and other monuments. They also developed complex systems of writing, mathematics and astronomy. Scientists ...

The findings, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, reveal that the semi-nomadic people who constructed this system may have laid the groundwork for the rise of the Maya civilization.