In sum, sediments sampled in the Sipacate locality appear to document two distinct waves of deforestation associated with early horticulture. The earliest began shortly after 3500 cal B.C. and involved multiple episodes of forest clearance over the next 800 years. The second began after 1700 cal B.C. and coincides with the archaeologically documented presence of Early Formative populations.〔Hector Neff, Deborah M. Pearsall, John G. Jones, Bárbara Arroyo, Shawn K. Collins, Dorothy E. Freidel, (''Early Maya Adaptive Patterns: Mid-Late Holocene Paleoenvironmental Evidence from Pacific Guatemala.'' ) Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 2006)〕