Identification of Cultigen Amaranth and Chenopod from Rockshelter Sites in Northwest Arkansas

Fritz, Gayle J.

doi:10.2307/280360

Cited by 29 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Support for this suggestion is provided both by the extent to which wild C. berlandieri dominates earlier Titterington phase (4400 B.P.) seed assemblages from sites in Illinois (9) as well as the frequency with which domesticated chenopod dominates subsequent Late Archaic and Woodland period seed crop assemblages (17,18,20,25,26).…”

Section: The Developmental Context Of An Initial Crop Complexmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Initial formation of an indigenous crop complex in eastern North America at 3800 B.P

Smith

Yarnell

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

157

118

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Although geneticists and archaeologists continue to make progress world-wide in documenting the time and place of the initial domestication of a growing number of plants and animals, far less is known regarding the critically important context of coalescence of various species into distinctive sets or complexes of domesticates in each of the world's 10 or more independent centers of agricultural origin. In this article, the initial emergence of a crop complex is described for one of the best-documented of these independent centers, eastern North America (ENA). Before 4000 B.P. there is no indication of a crop complex in ENA, only isolated evidence for single indigenous domesticate species. By 3800 B.P., however, at least 5 domesticated seed-bearing plants formed a coherent complex in the river valley corridors of ENA. Accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon dates and reanalysis of archaeobotanical assemblages from a short occupation of the Riverton Site in Illinois documents the contemporary cultivation at 3800 B.P. of domesticated bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), marshelder (Iva annua var. macrocarpa), sunflower (Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus), and 2 cultivated varieties of chenopod (Chenopodium berlandieri), as well as the possible cultivation of Cucurbita pepo squash and little barley (Hordeum pusillum). Rather than marking either an abrupt developmental break or a necessary response to population-packing or compressed resource catchments, the coalescence of an initial crop complex in ENA appears to reflect an integrated expansion and enhancement of preexisting hunting and gathering economies that took place within a context of stable long-term adaptation to resource-rich river valley settings.agriculture ͉ archaeology ͉ Chenopodium ͉ domestication M arking a major evolutionary episode in human history, the transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural economies spanned several millennia and occurred independently in 10 or more different world regions, including eastern North America (ENA) (1) (Fig. 1). In each of these independent centers, this long transition began with the initial domestication of a number of indigenous wild progenitor species. These different domesticates eventually were coalesced to form regionally distinctive complexes of domesticates and low-level food production economies. As a result of parallel and often crossilluminating efforts by geneticists and archaeologists over the past several decades, we are gaining a much clearer idea of where and when domestication of different individual species of plants and animals occurred (3, 4). Much less is currently known, however, about the equally important process that led to numbers of different species being brought together to form coherent distinctive domesticate complexes in different world regions. When did such domesticate complexes initially develop? What was the identity and relative importance of each complex's different constituent species? What can be said regarding the environmental and cultural context of coalesc...

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Section: The Developmental Context Of An Initial Crop Complexmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This loss leaves only the thin, translucent inner epiderm layer through which the white perisperm can be observed (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). Similar in morphology to a modern Mexican domesticated chenopod, C. berlandieri ssp.…”

Section: Domesticated C Berlanderi At the Riverton Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Initial formation of an indigenous crop complex in eastern North America at 3800 B.P

Smith

Yarnell

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

157

118

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“…In part, this has been advanced by systematic work, but also by applying new technologies to previously collected plants. Bruce Smith, Gayle Fritz, and others have published a series of articles on Chenopodium and Amaranthus in the eastern United States (Fritz, 1984;Fritz and Smith, 1988;Gremillion, 1993a;Smith, 1987;Smith and Cowan, 1987) in which they have found early and indigenous domestication of those crops by measuring the thickness of the seed's testa, making eastern North America another independent center for Chenopodium domestication. As mentioned above, there also is new evidence for squash domestication in that region as well.…”

Section: Origins Of Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Recent research in paleoethnobotany

Hastorf

1999

J Archaeol Res

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This article discusses paleoethnobotanical research and results presented in the recent literature. Although archaeobotany is a fairly recent addition to the study of the past, it now encompasses a diverse range of techniques, analyses, and new results. Issues that are prominent in this archaeological subdiscipline include the origins of agriculture, resource use, environmental reconstruction, anthropogenic environmental change, political-economic change, plant cultivation and crop production, plant processing, consumption (diet), and site deposition. Some of the plant identification methods for macrobotanical remains include morphology using light microscopes, histology with the scanning electron microscope, and statistics. The study of microbotanical remains has expanded greatly and now includes pollen, phytolith, chemica~ and molecular analyses.

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“…While the chenopodium from Cerro Juanaqueña is nondomesticated, scanning electron microscope work indicates thin seed coats on some of the amaranth specimens from Cerro Juanaqueña, Cerro Vidal, and Cerro los Torres, suggesting that at least some of the amaranth may represent a domesticated variety. Domesticated amaranth has been documented from a number of Hohokam sites throughout the American Southwest and in Late Archaic contexts at Fresnal Shelter in southern New Mexico (Fritz 1984;Tagg 1996). However, if some of the amaranth from Cerro Juanaqueña proves to be domesticated, it would be the first documented case of domesticated amaranth in northwestern Mexico at such an early date.…”

Section: Macrobotanical Remainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Archaeological Investigation of Late Archaic Cerros de TrincherasSites in Chihuahua, Mexico

Hard¹,

Roney²

1999

ITA

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Identification of Cultigen Amaranth and Chenopod from Rockshelter Sites in Northwest Arkansas

Cited by 29 publications

References 10 publications

Initial formation of an indigenous crop complex in eastern North America at 3800 B.P

Initial formation of an indigenous crop complex in eastern North America at 3800 B.P

Recent research in paleoethnobotany

An Archaeological Investigation of Late Archaic Cerros de TrincherasSites in Chihuahua, Mexico

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