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The Age of Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the Northeastern United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John P. Hart  and
C. Margaret Scarry
John P. Hart
Affiliation:
Anthropological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, NY 12230
C. Margaret Scarry
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
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Abstract

A radiocarbon date of A.D. 1070 ± 60 was linked to the remains of maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucñrbita pepo) at the Roundtop site in the Susquehanna River valley of New York by William Ritchie in 1969 and 1973 publications. This date established the presence of beans in the Northeast at an earlier time than in most other areas of the eastern United States, where they are generally rare before A.D. 1300. Subsequently beans have been reported in pre-A.D.1300 contexts from at least eight other sites in the Northeast. Recent calibrated AMS dates on beans from Roundtop are no earlier than A.D. 1300 (Hart 1999a). Given that the original Roundtop date was responsible for the acceptance of early beans in the Northeast, the AMS dates suggested that beans may not become archaeologically visible there until ca. A.D. 1300. AMS dates on beans from four other sites, reported here, substantiate the Roundtop results. Beans and by extension maize-beans-squash intercropping are not evident in the Northeast before ca. A.D. 1300.

Résumé

Résumé

William Ritchie (1969, 1973) establece una relación entre lafecha 1070 ± 60 A.D., determinada por análisis de radiocarbono, y los hallazgos de maíz (Zea mays), frijol (Phaseolus vulgaris) y curcúrbita (Cucurbita pepo) en el sitio Roundtop del valle del rió Susquehanna en Nueva York. Estafecha sugiere una temprana presencia del frijol en el noreste en relación a otras áreas del este de Estados Unidos, donde su hallazgo ha sido generalmente considerado raw antes de 1300 A.D. Posteriormente, la presencia del frijol antes de a 1300 A.D. ha sido registrada en por lo menos ocho otros sitios en el noreste. Fechas AMS calibradas recientemente indican la presencia del frijol en el sitio Roundtop después de a 1300 A.D. (Hart 1999a). Contrariamente a lo que lafecha original del sitio Roundtop sugiere, las fechas AMS indican que el frijol no es arqueologicamente detectable en el noreste hasta después de 1300 A.D. Fechas AMS correspondientes a la presencia del frijol en otras cuatro localidades apoyan los resultados del sitio Roundtop. No existe evidencia en el noreste de hallazgos de frijol y de intracultivo de maíz-frijol-curcúrbita con antes de 1300 A.D.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , October 1999 , pp. 653 - 658
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1999

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