Precursors of the Maya
The DVD “Hunters of the Caribbean Sea,” which is the third episode of a BBC Atlas of the Natural World production entitled Sprits of the Jaguar: The Definitive Portrait of the Land, Wildlife and Peoples of Central America explores the Taino, the people who were in the Yucatan Caribbean lands when the Maya arrived.
Modern-day researchers believe the Taino came from South America, traveled in dugout canoes to the Caribbean Islands, and from there, to the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, now known as Riviera Maya.
I found this documentary interesting because of visiting Dzibulchultun, a Zona Archeologica, in the northern Yucatan Peninsula. The ruins there are supposed to date from a time before the prominence of the Maya and were likely made by peoples in Yucatan before the Maya arrived. Would these have been the Taino?
