28Agricultural origins and dispersals are subjects of fundamental importance to archaeology as 29 well as many other scholarly disciplines. These investigations are world-wide in scope and 30 require significant amounts of paleobotanical data attesting to the exploitation of wild 31 progenitors of crop plants and subsequent domestication and spread. Accordingly, for the past 32 few decades the development of methods for identifying the remains of wild and domesticated 33 plant species has been a focus of paleo-ethnobotany. Phytolith analysis has increasingly taken its 34 place as an important independent contributor of data in all areas of the globe, and the volume of 35 literature on the subject is now both very substantial and disseminated in a range of international 36 journals. In this paper, experts who have carried out the hands-on work review the utility and 37 importance of phytolith analysis in documenting the domestication and dispersals of crop plants 38 around the world. It will serve as an important resource both to paleo-ethnobotanists and other 39 scholars interested in the development and spread of agriculture. 40
From examining the remains of charred cowpeas from rock shelters in Central Ghana, the authors throw light on the subsistence strategies of the Kintampo people of the second millennium BCE. Perhaps driven southwards from the Sahel by aridification, the Kintampo operated as both foragers and farmers, cultivating selected plants of the West African tropics, notably cowpea, pearl millet and oil palm.
Since the Formative times, maize is and has been a highly valued social commodity in the Andes, particularly in the form of a traditional beer called chicha. While chicha production is well attested in the archaeology and ethnohistory of Andean states, the emergence of maize symbolism in earlier societies has not been systematically addressed. In this study phytolith and starch grain analyses are used to trace production, processing, and consumption of maize at sites on the Taraco Peninsula of Bolivia and thus the entrance of maize into the region. We systematically examine the role of maize by addressing its rarity, use contexts, and preparation. The pattern of plant part representation and use suggest that maize was being consumed in the form of chicha at its earliest introduction to the Titicaca Basin (800–250 B.C.). Drinking of alcohol in ceremonial spaces embodies the process of commensality of public ceremony and the establishment of reciprocal relationships during the Formative period. These results demonstrate that contextual analysis of microbotanical remains has great potential to answer anthropological questions surrounding food, ritual, and identity.
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