XII. Paleoethnobotany and Archaeology

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Agaves were important plants to many prehistoric cultures for food and other uses. In Arizona, Agave parryi was reported to be found outside of its normal distribution and in association with archaeological sites in 1976- presumably, as a result of prehistoric human introduction. We report numerous A. parryi plants also in close association with habitation and agricultural features from a site near Prescott, Arizona. Prescott Culture occupation of the site, estimated from A.D. 1250–1400, is indicated by Black-on-Gray ceramic sherds and the architecture. This site is within the natural range of A. parryi. However, no other agaves were observed in the vicinity. Given the importance of agave in the economy and subsistence of prehistoric peoples and the ease with which various species of agave can be vegetatively propagated, backyard gardens such as the one documented here provide insight into how the process of agave domestication may have taken place.

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Domestication often involved radical morphological changes as plants adapted to novel anthropogenic environments. Understanding the origin of genetic variants underlying these changes has long been of interest. Despite the dramatic morphological differences between maize and its wild relative teosinte, research on a handful of well-described genes has found that maize domestication relied on preexisting genetic variation in ancient teosinte. But, researchers had concluded that one key trait and the genetic variation that causes it – exposed kernels and a mutation in the tga1 gene – could exist only in cultivated populations. Using population genetic analysis of modern maize and teosinte genomes, we instead find that the key mutation in tga1 likely predates domestication. Our ongoing genome-wide analysis investigates the potential contributions of preexisting genetic variation beyond well-studied domestication genes. While these patterns may partially arise from maize biology, we anticipate that our findings will yield insight into people-plant relationships associated with domestication.

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Nixtamalization is a critical culinary practice that improves the nutritional content of maize by treating the kernels with an alkaline solution that converts niacin into a biologically absorbable form. Grinding the nixtamalized maize produces masa, which can then be transformed into foods such as tortillas and tamales. The role of maize as a staple food was essential to significant population increases, rising urbanism, and the expansion of political complexity in ancient Mesoamerica. Although UNESCO has recognized the significant cultural and nutritional impacts of nixtamalization dating back to at least the early Classic period (250-800 CE), there is a critical research gap related to the origin and dissemination of this culinary practice. As part of an ongoing project tracing the first uses of nixtamalization, the starch granule evidence presented here from the Soconusco region of Mexico suggests that nixtamalization was practiced far earlier than previously suggested.

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Over 2600 charred seeds from 107 soil samples were found at the site of Kenosewun, the “place of many fishes,” (also called Lockport, EaLf-1) situated along the Red River near Winnipeg, Manitoba. These plant finds cover more than three thousand years and include more than thirty genera, including goosefoot, amaranth, dock, hazelnut, and raspberry. Yet, the most noteworthy were over a hundred fragments of maize (Zea mays) dating to ca 1250-1450 CE. Apparently, maize was only grown and eaten during a couple of centuries at Kenosewun while small-seeded goosefoot and other plants were gathered or grown both before maize production began there and continued after it ceased. Archaeologists and historians have long hailed the introduction and ascendency of maize as a staple food. However, in many situations in North American history, maize was introduced but later abandoned, leaving many unanswered questions about such major changes in foodways.