Early and Middle Holocene evidence for plant use and cultivation in the Middle Cauca River Basin, Cordillera Central (Colombia)

Radiocarbon chronology of terminal Pleistocene to middle Holocene human occupation in the Middle Cauca Valley, Colombia

“…The presence of domesticates indicates the early adoption of plant cultivation and horticultural practices in the region, reflecting patterns observed elsewhere in R. Dickau et al / Quaternary International xxx (2014) 1e12 2 the humid lowland Neotropics (Piperno and Pearsall, 1998;Piperno, 2011). The Cauca Valley appears to have been an important route of early crop dispersals between Central and South America during the early to middle Holocene (Aceituno and Loaiza, 2014a). This paper presents a radiocarbon chronology of the preceramic period in the Middle Cauca region, from the terminal Pleistocene to the middle Holocene, based on sites excavated between the Cauca River and the Cordillera Central.…”

“…Evidence of significant ash falls, documented by an elevated percentage of phenocrysts in the soil, coincide with those levels (12e16) which contain the highest density of archaeological materials, interpreted as the most intensive occupation of the site (Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007). At El Jazmín, Aceituno and Loaiza (2007:43;2014a) observed a similar pattern in Levels 14e21. Mineralogical analysis of the site sediments indicates that there was relatively low volcanic activity during the initial occupation phase, but increased volcanic activity between 7200 and 5400 BP (Orozco, 2001).…”

“…Starch grains from tools confirm the availability of maize by 7000 BP, and show that Manihot sp., Dioscorea sp., and Phaseolus sp. were used even earlier, by 7600 BP (Aceituno and Loaiza, 2014a).…”

“…Based on our data, this appears to have occurred during the preceramic, at least in some parts of the Middle Cauca Valley region (Cano et al, 2013). As they weathered, the fertility of these andisols played an important role in a region where there is evidence for early plant cultivation (Aceituno and Lalinde, 2011;Aceituno and Loaiza, 2014a).…”

Method and Theory of Early Farming: The Orinoco and Caribbean Coasts of South America

“…The few Formative individuals from the Amazon and middle Orinoco show a pattern of robust good health, lacking the enamel hypoplasias and caries of some late prehistoric Andean and Mesoamerican populations heavily reliant on starchy food (Storey, 1992;Whittington & Reed, 2006). The Corozal-phase skeletons have rugged frames and crania like some Saladoid populations in the Antilles (Drew, 2009 Many of the sites in the Columbian uplands whose rivers drain to the Caribbean have firm evidence of maize microfossils by the early Formative, along with sparse examples identified to the local plants that could be either background or cultivated (Aceituno & Loaiza, 2014Dickau et al, 2015).…”