Pre-columbian culinary landscapes: reconstructing elite gastronomy at Sihó, Yucatán

Novelo-Pérez, María J.; Herrera-Parra, Esteban Moisés; Fernández-Souza, Lilia; Ancona-Aragón, Iliana Isabel; Álvarez, Socorro del Pilar Jiménez

doi:10.1080/20548923.2019.1674508

Cited by 3 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Flaked lithic tools can provide significant numbers of microbotanical residues (Morell-Hart, Joyce, and Henderson 2014;Devio 2016). The same seems to hold true for ceramics (Ezra, Acosta, and García 2015;Cagnato and Ponce 2017;Novelo-Pérez et al 2019). However, not all plant foods need to be cut, nor are we certain about the array of ingredients prepared or served in a given ceramic vessel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Starch grain extraction in lime-plastered archaeological floors

Zimmermann

2021

STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research

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This paper focuses on the recovery of archaeological starch grains from building interiors at pre-Columbian Maya sites in southern Mexico. In an effort to render analytical protocols more effective, it examines the performance of chemical residue tests as prospective tools, proposes a customized extraction procedure for lime-plaster floors, and compares the efficacy of two mounting techniques. While the alleged predictive power of proxies like phosphate and carbohydrate tests could not be confirmed, the customized plaster processing protocol not only simplifies the extraction process but also results in the recovery of dense assemblages of individual starches as well as grain clusters. However, despite increases in protocol efficacy, architectural context and building history continue to be factors of utmost importance for microbotanical analyses.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Starch grain extraction in lime-plastered archaeological floors

Zimmermann

2021

STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research

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“…Yam family species have also been recovered from Belizean sites as macroremains (Miksicek 1990). Similarly, arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) has a fairly robust presence in Maya sites, found through extractions of phytoliths (Abramiuk et al 2011;Morgan 2010;Simms 2014) and starch grains (Novelo-Pérez et al 2019;cf. in Cagnato 2016;Morell-Hart et al 2018a, b;Simms 2014;Zimmermann 2019).…”

Section: Geophyte Cropsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Found at archaeological sites across southeastern Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, and through southern Central America (Hather and Hammond 1994;Lentz et al 1996;Morell-Hart 2014;Piperno and Holst 1998), manioc appears to have varied regionally in importance as a food resource among Maya communities. At sites across the Maya Lowlands, this tuber crop has been identified via a number of proxies including pollen (Jones 1994;Pohl et al 1996;Pope et al 2001;Santini 2016), carbonized stems (Miksicek 1991), starch grains on artifacts (Cagnato 2016(Cagnato , 2019Cagnato and Ponce 2017;Devio 2016;Novelo-Pérez et al 2019;Simms 2014;cf. in Bérubé 2018), starch grains in dental calculus (cf.…”

Section: Geophyte Cropsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas; Fig. 7d-f) has also been frequently recovered across the Maya Lowlands, as pollen (Rushton et al 2020), starch grains on artifacts (Cagnato 2016;Fernández Souza et al 2020;Lentz et al 2015;Novelo-Pérez et al 2019;Trabanino García and Meléndez Guadarrama 2016;Venegas Durán 2019;Venegas Durán et al 2020;Zimmermann 2019;cf. in Bérubé 2018), and as seeds and other diagnostic parts (Beltrán Frías 1987;Cagnato 2016).…”

Section: Geophyte Cropsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cocolmeca and ñame (Dioscorea spp.) have been recovered as starch grains from artifact residues in both the northern Yucatan Peninsula and the Petén region (Devio 2016;Novelo-Pérez et al 2019;Trabanino García 2012;Trabanino García and Liendo Stuardo 2012). Yam family species have also been recovered from Belizean sites as macroremains (Miksicek 1990).…”

Section: Geophyte Cropsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 1): Paleoethnobotanical Residues and New Perspectives on Plant Management

Morell-Hart¹,

Fedick

2022

J Archaeol Res

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We focus on pre-Columbian agricultural regimes in the Maya Lowlands, using new datasets of archaeological wood charcoal, seeds, phytoliths, and starch grains; biological properties of plants; and contemporary Indigenous practices. We address inherited models of agriculture in the lowlands: the limitations of the environment (finding more affordances than anticipated by earlier models); the homogeneity of agricultural strategies (finding more heterogeneity of strategies across the lowlands than a single rigid template); the centrality of maize in agriculture (finding more reliance on root crops and tree crops than historically documented); the focus on the milpa system as food base (finding more agroforestry, homegardening, horticulture, and wild resource management than previously documented); the dominance of swidden strategies in agricultural practices (finding more diverse practices than accounted for in most models); and the foregrounding of maize crop failure in collapse models (finding more evidence of resilience and sustainable agricultural practices than predicted).

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In Search of the Ancient Maya Foods. A Paleoethnobotany Study From a Non-elite Context in Sihó, Yucatán

Herrera-Parra

2023

EBL

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Food consumption is one of the primary activities of all cultural groups around the globe. The procurement of plants, their transformation, and consumption are some steps in which we can identify social repercussions such as identity, gender roles, labor division, worldview, and status differentiation, among many other archaeological approaches. In the Northern Maya Lowlands, paleoethnobotany research has included information regarding the consumption of plants by the ancient Mayas, which has helped us to broaden our knowledge about past feeding habits; nonetheless, we recognize some of the dishes and plants consumed by the elites due to the epigraphy and iconography records. It is least known what the commoners consumed during their day-to-day meals. In this vein, this research is immersed in identifying plants exploited by two low-strata domestic groups in the archaeological site of Siho, Yucatan, Mexico, during the Late-Terminal Classic. Through the recognition of starches recovered from soil samples, some staple crops like maize (Zea mays) and beans (Phaseolus spp.) were identified. More importantly, other plants least representative in the archaeobotanical record, like arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), and Mexican yam (Pachirhyzus erosus), were also recognized. This research contributes to the identification and study of starches that generates information for the broad discussion of food-related activities in non-elite household contexts.

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Pre-columbian culinary landscapes: reconstructing elite gastronomy at Sihó, Yucatán

Abstract: In archaeological research about feeding modes of past societies, different interests and methodologies have been developed. In their search for knowledge about Mayan foods and cooking methods, scholars such as Herrera Flores and Götz [2014. "La alimentación de los

Cited by 3 publications

References 21 publications

Starch grain extraction in lime-plastered archaeological floors

Starch grain extraction in lime-plastered archaeological floors

Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 1): Paleoethnobotanical Residues and New Perspectives on Plant Management

In Search of the Ancient Maya Foods. A Paleoethnobotany Study From a Non-elite Context in Sihó, Yucatán

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