Data on Late Archaic period (5000-1000 BC) agriculture and settlement in southeast Mesoamerica and lower Central America are reassessed in view of recent findings. Pollen data from Lake Yojoa in western Honduras are presented to support a re-synthesis of views on the development of food production systems in the region. Traditional interpretations of the cultural sequence suggest that the area was colonized by agriculturalists relatively late (1000 BC). Pollen from a core taken at Yojoa indicate that the region was inhabited by people practicing slash-and-burn maize horticulture by 3000 BC, probably as a supplement to hunting and gathering systems. These and other data from throughout Middle America show that diffusion of maize cultivation from Mexico to many areas of the Central American tropics occurred earlier than had been thought.