Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T09:08:54.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Extending the Phytolith Evidence for Early Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and Squash (Cucurbita sp.) in Central New York

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John P. Hart ,
Hetty Jo Brumbach  and
Robert Lusteck
John P. Hart
Affiliation:
Research and Collections Division, New York State Museum, 3140 Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230 (jph_nysm@mail.nysed.gov)
Hetty Jo Brumbach
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University at Albany, SUNY, Arts & Sciences Building, Room 237, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12222 (brumbach@albany.edu)
Robert Lusteck
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, 395 Hubert H. Humphrey Center, 301 19th Ave. S. , Minneapolis, MN 55455 (roblusteck@hotmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The timing of the adoptions of maize and squash across eastern North America has been a topic of long-standing interest among archaeologists and paleoethnobotanists. The use of flotation for macrobotanical remains beginning in the 1960s and 1970s coupled with the application of accelerator mass spectrometry dating beginning in the 1980s has led to substantial revisions of knowledge about the history of these crops in the region. A complementary source of evidence for the crops' histories in the eastern North America comes from opal phytoliths. Analysis of phytolith assemblages recovered from charred food residues has shown that maize and squash were being used in central New York well before the macrobotanical record indicates. In combination with previously analyzed samples, 16 additional residue assemblages help to clarify the history of maize and squash in central New York. The results indicate that maize and squash were being used in New York by 2270 B.P. and 2945 B.P., respectively.

Résumé

Résumé

El fechamiento de las adopciones del maíz y la calabaza a través del este de Norte America ha sido un tópico de interés por mucho tiempo para arqueólogosy paleobotánicos. La utilización del método de flotación para restos macrobotdáicos comenzó en los 1960s y 1970s, emparejó con la aplicación del fechamiento por Acelerador de Espectrómetro de Masa, el cual comenzó en los 1980s, esto ha llevado a revisiones substanciales en el conocimiento acerca de la historia de estos cultivos en la región. Una fuente complementaria de evidencia para las historias de los cultivos en el este de Norteamérica proviene de fitolitos de ópalo. Análisis de colecciones de fitolitos en residuos de alimentos han demostrado que el maíz y la calabaza fueron utilizados en el centro de Nueva York mucho antes de lo que el record macrobotánico indica. En combinación con muestras previamente analizadas, 16 colecciones de residuos adicionales ayudan a clarificar la historia del maíz y la calabaza en el centro de Nueva York. Los resultados indican que el maíz y la calabaza fueron utilizados en Nueva York en 2270 B.P. y 2945 B.P., respectivamente.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , July 2007 , pp. 563 - 583
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adair, Mary J. 2003 Great Plains Paleoethnobotany. In People and Plants in Eastern North America, edited by Paul E. Minnis, pp. 172–257. Smithsonian Books, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Adovasio, James M., and Johnson, William C. 1981 The Appearance of Cultigens in the Upper Ohio Valley: A View from the Meadowcroft Rockshelter. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 51(1):63–80.Google Scholar
Asch, David L., and Hart, John P. 2004 Crop Domestication in Prehistoric Eastern North America. In Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science, edited by Robert M. Goodman, pp. 314–319. Marcel Dekker, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, Leonard W., and Cutler, Hugh C. 2001 Plants from the Past. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Bozarth, Steven R. 1987 Diagnostic Opal Phytoliths from Rinds of Selected Cucurbita Species. American Antiquity 52:607–615.Google Scholar
Bozarth, Steven R. 1990 Diagnostic Opal Phytoliths from Pods of Selected Varieties of Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). American Antiquity 55:98–104.Google Scholar
Bozarth, Steven R. 1993 Maize (Zea mays) Cob Phytoliths from a Central Kansas Great Bend Aspect Archaeological Site. Plains Anthropologist 38:279–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, Christopher 2005 OxCal Program v3.10. Oxford: University of Oxford Radiocarbon Unit, http://www.rlaha.ox.ac.uk/oxcal/oxcal.htm accessed 6/26/06.Google Scholar
Cassedy, Daniel and Webb, Paul 1999 New Data on the Chronology of Maize Horticulture in Eastern New York and Southern New England. In Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany, edited by John P. Hart, pp. 85–100. New York State Museum Bulletin 494. The University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Chapman, Jefferson, and Crites, Gary D. 1987 Evidence for Early Maize (Zea mays) from the Icehouse Bottom Site, Tennessee. American Antiquity 52:352–354.Google Scholar
Chapman, Jefferson, and Watson, Patty Jo 1993 The Archaic Period and the Flotation Revolution. In Foraging and Farming in the Eastern Woodlands, edited by C. Margaret Scarry, pp. 27–38. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Conard, Nicholas, Asch, David L., Asch, Nancy B., Elmore, David, Gove, Harry, Rubin, Mayer, Brown, James A., Wiant, Michael D., Farnsworth, Kenneth B., and Cook, Thomas G. 1984 Accelerator Radiocarbon Dating of Evidence for Prehistoric Horticulture in Illinois. Nature 308:443–446.Google Scholar
Crawford, Gary W., and Smith, David G. 2003 Paleoethnobotany in the Northeast. In People and Plants in Ancient North America, edited by Paul E. Minnis, pp. 172–257. Smithsonian Books, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Crawford, Gary W., Smith, David G., and Bowyer, Vandy E. 1997 Dating the Entry of Corn (Zea mays) into the Lower Great Lakes. American Antiquity 62:112–119.Google Scholar
Dorweiler, Jane E., and Doebley, John 1997 Developmental Analysis of Teosinte Glume Architecture: A Key Locus in the Evolution of Maize (Poaceae). American Journal of Botany 84:113–1322.Google Scholar
Engelbrecht, William 2003 Iroquoia: The Development of a Native World. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.Google Scholar
Eubanks, Mary 1996 Reevaluation of the Identification of Ancient Maize Pollen from Alabama. American Antiquity 62:139–145.Google Scholar
Fearn, Miriam L., and Liu, Kam-biu 1995 Maize Pollen of 3500 B.P. from Southern Alabama. American Antiquity 60:109–117.Google Scholar
Ford, Richard I. (editor) 1985 Prehistoric Food Production in North America. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, No. 75. Ann Arbor, Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, Richard I. 1987 Dating Early Maize in the Eastern United States. Paper presented at the tenth Ethnobotany Meetings, Gainesville, Florida.Google Scholar
Fritz, Gayle J. 1990 Multiple Pathways to Farming in Precontact Eastern North America. Journal of World Prehistory 4:387–476.Google Scholar
Fritz, Gayle J., and Smith, Bruce D. 1988 Old Collections and New Technology: Documenting the Domestication of Chenopodium in Eastern North America. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 13:3–27.Google Scholar
Funk, Robert E., and Kuhn, Robert D. 2003 Three Sixteenth-Century Mohawk Iroquois Village Sites. New York State Museum Bulletin 503. The University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Gallinat, W C. 1967 Plant Habit and the Adaptation of Corn. Bulletin 565, Experimental Station, College of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Gilmore, Melvin R. 1931 Vegetal Remains of the Ozark Bluff-Dwellers Culture. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 14:83–102.Google Scholar
Green, William (editor) 1994 Agricultural Origins and Development in the Mid-continent. Report 19, Office of the State Archaeologist. The University of Iowa, Iowa City.Google Scholar
Hard, Robert J., Mauldin, Raymond P., and Raymond, Gerry R. 1996 Mano Size, Stable Carbon Isotope Ratios, and Macrobotanical Remains as Multiple Lines of Evidence of Maize Dependence in the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 3:253–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Roman C., and Anne Katzenberg, M. 2003 Paleodiet Studies Using Stable Carbon Isotopes from Bone Apatite and Collagen: Examples from Southern Ontario and San Nicolas Islands, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 22:227–244.Google Scholar
Hart, John P. 1999a Maize Agriculture Evolution in the Eastern Woodlands of North America: A Darwinian Perspective. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6:137–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, John P. 1999b Dating Roundtop’s Domesticates: Implications for Northeastern Late Prehistory. In Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany, edited by John P. Hart, pp. 47–68. New York State Museum Bulletin 494. The University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Hart, John P. (editor) 1999 Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany. New York State Museum Bulletin 494. The University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Hart, John P., Asch, David L., Margaret Scarry, C., and Crawford, Gary W. 2002 The Age of the Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in the Northern Eastern Woodlands of North America. Antiquity 76:377–385.Google Scholar
Hart, John P., and Sidell, Nancy Asch 1997 Additional Evidence for Early Cucurbit Use in the Northern Eastern Woodlands East of the Allegheny Front. American Antiquity 62:523–537.Google Scholar
Hart, John P., and Brumbach, Hetty Jo 2003 The Death of Owasco. American Antiquity 68:737–752.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, John P., and Brumbach, Hetty Jo 2005 Cooking Residues, AMS Dates, and the Middle-to-Late-Woodland Transition in Central New York. Northeast Anthropology 69:1–34.Google Scholar
Hart, John P., and Margaret Scarry, C. 1999 The Age of Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the Northeastern United States. American Antiquity 64:653–658.Google Scholar
Hart, John, P., Thompson, Robert G., and Brumbach, Hetty Jo 2003 Phytolith Evidence for Early Maize (Zea mays) in the Northern Finger Lakes Region of New York. American Antiquity 68:619–640.Google Scholar
Keegan, William F. (editor) 1987 Emergent Horticultural Economies of the Eastern Woodlands. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 7. Carbondale, Illinois.Google Scholar
Kelly, Jennifer A., Tykot, Robert H., and Milanich, Jerald T. 2006 Evidence for Early Use of Maize in Peninsular Florida. In The Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize, edited by John Staller, Robert Tykot, and Bruce Benz, pp. 249–261. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Kovach, W.L. 1999 MVSP—A Multivariate Statistical Package for Windows, Ver. 3.1. Kovach Computing Services, Pentraeth, Wales, United Kingdom.Google Scholar
Lusteck, Robert 2006 The Migrations of Maize into the Southeastern U.S. In The Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize, edited by John Staller, Robert Tykot, and Bruce Benz, pp. 521–528. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Means, Bernard K. 2005 New Dates for New Deal-Excavated Monongahela Villages: Some Implications for the Chronology of Late Prehistoric Southwestern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 75(1):49–61.Google Scholar
Messner, Tim, and Dickau, Ruth 2005 New Directions, New Interpretations: Paleoethnobotany in the Upper Delaware Valley and the Utility of Starch Grain Research in the Middle Atlantic. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 21:71–82.Google Scholar
Minnis, Paul E. (editor) 2003 People and Plants in Ancient Eastern North America. Smithsonian Books, Washington.Google Scholar
Monaghan, G. William, Lovis, William A., and Egan-Bruhy, Kathryn C. 2006 Earliest Cucurbita from the Great Lakes, Northern USA. Quaternary Research 65:216–222.Google Scholar
Mulholland, Susan C. 1993 A Test of Phytolith Analysis at Big Hidatsa, North Dakota. In Current Research in Phytolith Analysis: Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology, edited by Deborah M. Pearsall and Dolores R. Piperno, pp. 131–145. MASCA, The University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Mulholland, Susan C., and Rapp, George Jr. 1992 A Morphological Classification of Grass Silica Bodies. In Phytolith Systematics: Emerging Issues, edited by George Rapp Jr. and Susan C. Mulholland, pp. 65–89. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ollendorf, Amy L. 1992 Towards a Classification Scheme of Sedge (Cyperaceae) Phytoliths. In Phytolith Systematics. Emerging Issues, edited by George Rapp Jr. and Susan C. Mulholland, pp. 91–111. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Overpeck, J. T., Webb, T. III, and Prentice, I. C. 1985 Quantitative Interpretation of Fossil Pollen Spectra: Dissimilarity Coefficients and the Method of Modern Analogues. Quaternary Research 23:87–108.Google Scholar
Pearsall, Deborah M. 1978 Phytolith Analysis of Archaeological Soils: Evidence for Maize Cultivation in Formative Ecuador. Science 199:177–178.Google Scholar
Pearsall, Deborah M. 1982 Phytolith Analysis: Applications of a New Paleoethnobotanical Technique in Archeology. American Anthropologist 84:862–871.Google Scholar
Pearsall, Deborah M., Chandler-Ezell, Karol, and Chandler-Ezell, Alex 2003 Identifying Maize in Neotropical Sediments and Soils Using Cob Phytoliths. Journal of Archaeological Science 30:611–627.Google Scholar
Petersen, James B., and Sidell, Nancy Asch 1996 Mid-Holocene Evidence for Cucurbita sp. from Central Maine. American Antiquity 61:685–698.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores R. 2004 Crop Domestication in the American Tropics: Phytolith Analyses. In Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science, edited by Robert M. Goodman, pp. 326–329. Marcel Dekker, New York.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores R., Clary, Karen H., Cooke, Richard G., Ranere, Anthony J., and Weiland, Doris 1985 Preceramic Maize in Central Panama: Phytolith and Pollen Evidence. American Anthropologist 87:871–878.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores R., and Flannery, Kent V. 2001 The Earliest Archaeological Maize (Zea mays L.) from Highland Mexico: New Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Dates and Their Implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98:2101–2103.Google Scholar
Piperno, Delores R., and Pearsall, Deborah M. 1998 The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores R., Ranere, Anthony J., Hoist, Irene, and Hansell, Patricia 2000 Starch Grains Reveal Early Root Crop Horticulture in the Panamanian Tropical Forest. Nature 407:894–897.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piperno, Dolores R., Holst, Irene, Wessel-Beaver, Linda, and Andres, Thomas C. 2002 Evidence for the Control of Phytolith Formation in Cucurbita fruits by the Hard Rind (Hr) Genetic Locus: Archaeological and Ecological Implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 99:10923–10928.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores R., and Stothert, Karen E. 2003 Phytolith Evidence for Early Holocene Cucurbita Domestication in Southwest Ecuador. Science 299:1054–1057.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reber, Eleanora A., Dudd, Stephanie N., van der Merwe, Nikolas J., and Evershed, Richard P. 2004 Direct Detection of Maize in Pottery Residues via Compound Specific Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis. Antiquity 78:682–691.Google Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Baillie, Mike G. L., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Warren Beck, J, Bertrand, Chanda J. H., Blackwell, Paul G., Buck, Caitlin E, Burr, George S., Cutler, Kirsten B., Damon, Paul E., Lawrence Edwards, R., Fairbanks, Richard G., Friedrich, Michael, Guilderson, Thomas P., Hogg, Alan G., Hughen Bernd, Konrad A., Kromer, Gerry McCormac, Manning, Sturt, Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Reimer, Ron W., Remmele, Sabine, Southon, John R., Stuiver, Minze, Talamo, Sahra, Taylor, F. W., van der Plicht, Johannes, Weyhenmeyer, Constanze E. 2004 IntCal04 Terrestrial Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 0–26 Cal Kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46:1029–1058.Google Scholar
Riley, Thomas J., Edging, Richard, and Rossen, Jack 1990 Cultigens in Prehistoric Eastern North America: Changing Paradigms. Current Anthropology 31:525–541.Google Scholar
Riley, Thomas J., Waltz, Gregory R., Bareis, Charles J., Fortier, Andrew C., and Parker, Kathryn E. 1994 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Dates Confirm Early Zea mays in the Mississippi River Valley. American Antiquity 59:490–497.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William A. 1944 The Pre-Iroquoian Occupations of New York State. Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences. Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William A. 1969 The Archaeology of New York State Revised Edition. Natural History Press, Garden City, New York.Google Scholar
Ritchie, William A., and Funk, Robert E. 1973 Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in the Northeast. New York State Museum and Science Service Memoir 20. The University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Rovner, Irwin 1983 Plant Opal Phytolith Analysis: Major Advances in Archaeobotanical Research. In Advances in Archaeological Method andTheory Vol. 6, edited by Michael B.Schiffer, pp. 225–266. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Scarry, C. Margaret (editor) 1993 Foraging and Farming in the Eastern Woodlands. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Sears, William S. 1982 Fort Center: An A rchaeological Site in the Lake Okeechobee Basin. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Smith, Bruce D. 1992 Rivers of Change: Essays on Early Agriculture in Eastern North America. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Snow, Dean R. 1995 Migration in Prehistory: The Northern Iroquoian Case. American Antiquity 60:59–79.Google Scholar
Staller, John E., and Thompson, Robert G. 2002 A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Initial Introduction of Maize into Coastal Ecuador. Journal of Archaeological Science 29:33–50.Google Scholar
Starna, William A., and Funk, Robert E. 1994 The Place of the In Situ Hypothesis in Iroquoian Archaeology. Northeast Anthropology 47:45–54.Google Scholar
Starna, William A., and Kane, Donald A. 1983 Phytoliths, Archaeology, and Caveats: A Case Study from New York. Man in the Northeast 26:21–32.Google Scholar
Struever, Stuart 1962 Implication of Vegetal Remains from an Illinois Hopewell Site. American Antiquity 27:584–587.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, and Reimer, Paula J. 1993 Extended 14C Database and Revised CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration Program. Radiocarbon 35:215–230.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, R. W. 2005 CALIB 5.0. Manual, www.calib.qub.ac.uk/crev50/ accessed 3/30/2005.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Warren Beck, J., Burr, G. S., Hughen, Konrad A., Kromer, Bernd, McCormac, Gerry, van der Plicht, Johannes, and Spurk, Marco 1998 INTCAL98 Radiocarbon age calibration 24,000-0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40:1041–1083.Google Scholar
Telford, R. J., Heegaard, E., and Birks, H. J. B. 2004 The Intercept is a Poor Estimate of a Calibrated Radiocarbon Age. TheHolocene 14:296–298.Google Scholar
Thompson, Robert G. 2006 Tracing the Diffusion of Maize into South America through Phytolith Analysis of Food Residues. In Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms, edited by Melinda A. Zeder, Eve Emshwiller, Bruce D. Smith, and Daniel G. Bradley, pp. 82–96. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.Google Scholar
Thompson, Robert G., Hart, John P., Brumbach, Hetty Jo, and Lusteck, Robert 2004 Phytolith Evidence for Twentieth-Century B.P. Maize in Northern Iroquoia. Northeast Anthropology 68:25–39.Google Scholar
Thompson, Robert G., Kluth, Rose A., and Kluth, David W. 1994 Tracing the Use of Brainerd Ware Through Opal Phytolith Analysis of Food Residues. Minnesota Archaeologist 53:86–95.Google Scholar
Thompson, Robert G., and Mulholland, Susan C. 1994 Identification of Corn in Food Residues on Utilized Ceramics at the Shea Site (32CS101). The Phytolitarien Newsletter 8(2):7–11.Google Scholar
Tuck, James A. 1978 Northern Iroquoian Prehistory. In Northeast, Volume 15, Handbook of North American Indians, edited by B. G. Trigger, pp. 322–333. The Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Wang, Huai, Nussbaum-Wagler, Tina, Li, Bailin, Zhao, Qiong, Vigouroux, Yves, Faller, Marianna, Bomblies, Kirsten, Lukens, Lewis, and Doebley, John. 2005 The Origin of the Naked Grains of Maize. Nature 436:714–719.Google Scholar
Ward, G. K., and Wilson, S. R. 1978 Procedures for Comparing and Combining Radiocarbon Age Determinations: A Critical Review. Archaeometry 20:19–31.Google Scholar
Whitehead, Donald R. 1965 Prehistoric Maize in Southeastern Virginia. Science 150:181–182.Google Scholar
Whitehead, Donald R., and Sheehan, Mark C. 1985 Holocene Vegetational Changes in the Tombigbee River Valley, eastern Mississippi. American Midland Naturalist 113:122–137.Google Scholar
Woods, William I. (editor) 1992 Late Prehistoric Agriculture: Observations from the Midwest. Studies in Illinois Archaeology No. 8. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield, Illinois.Google Scholar
Yarnell, Richard Asa 1964 Aboriginal Relationships Between Culture and Plant Life in the Upper Great Lakes Region. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, No. 23. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar