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Cucurbits from Phillips Spring: New Evidence and Interpretations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Marvin Kay ,
Francis B. King  and
Christine K. Robinson
Marvin Kay
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK 72701
Francis B. King
Affiliation:
Quaternary Studies Center, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL 62706
Christine K. Robinson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80302
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Abstract

Excavations conducted since Chomko's initial discovery in 1974 of Cucurbita pepo seeds have clarified their stratigraphic and radiometric context as well as delineated an earlier archaeological unit, the Squash and Gourd Zone, where a second cucurbit, Lagenaria siceraria, was found. The two units are Late Archaic with dates (weighted averages of radiocarbon assays) of 4257 ± 39 and 3928 ± 41 radiocarbon years B.P., respectively, and are beneath stratigraphically superior Late Archaic and Woodland units also containing cucurbits. A comparison of the early Cucurbita pepo with others from later contexts demonstrates an increasing size with time and morphology similar between the early seeds and the historic cultivar "Mandan." Nutritional value of the cucurbits, both cultigens, may have been comparable to that of other wild plant foods consumed. In any event, the cucurbits are artifacts of regional exchange mechanisms operating some 4000 years ago; the most plausible mechanism being down-the-line exchange.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , October 1980 , pp. 806 - 822
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1980

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References

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