New research published this week by University of New Mexico archeologist Keith Prufer shows that a site in Belize was critical in studying the origins of the ancient Maya people and the spread of maize as a staple food. According to the paper titled South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region, published this week in Nature Communications and co-led by Prufer, excavations in Belize, along with ancient DNA analysis, indicate a previously unknown migration of people–carrying maize–from an area of South America northward to the Maya region.