Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:21:46.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Challenging the Evidence for Prehistoric Wetland Maize Agriculture at Fort Center, Florida

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Victor D. Thompson ,
Kristen J. Gremillion  and
Thomas J. Pluckhahn
Victor D. Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 250A Baldwin Hall, Jackson St. University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 ([email protected])
Kristen J. Gremillion
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 4078 Smith Laboratory, 174 W. 18th Ave. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 ([email protected])
Thomas J. Pluckhahn
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Ave, SOC107, Tampa, Florida 33620 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The early evidence (2400 ± 105 B.P.) for wetland maize agriculture at the archaeological site of Fort Center, a large earth-work site in South Florida, USA, is frequently cited in discussions of the emergence of agriculture in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. The evidence for maize, however, rests on controversial pollen data; some researchers accept it, others remain skeptical of its identification or chronological placement. We present microbotanical data (pollen and phytoliths), macrobotanical data, and radiocarbon dates from recent excavations from this site. We argue that maize agriculture did not occur until the historic period at this site and that the identification of maize in earlier deposits is likely a result of contamination.

Resumen

Resumen

La evidencia temprana (2400 ± 105 A.P.) para la práctica de agricultura de maíz (Zea mays L.) en humedales del sitio arqueológico de Fort Center, una gran obra construida en tierra en el sur del estado de Florida en Estados Unidos, es frecuentemente citada en las discusiones sobre la emergencia de la agricultura en los bosques del sureste de Norteamérica. Sin embargo, la evidencia de la presencia de maíz está basada en análisis de polen que han sido objeto de controversia. Si bien algunos investigadores aceptan esta evidencia, otros han permanecido escépticos sobre su correcta identificación o acerca de su contexto cronológico. En este artículo, nosotros presentamos los datos del análisis de restos de plantas microscópicos (polen y fitolitos), restos botánicos macroscópicos y dataciones radiocarbonicas de nuestras excavaciones recientes en el sitio. A partir de estos nuevos datos, nosotros argumentamos que la agricultura de maíz no ocurrió en este sitio hasta el Período Histórico y que la identificación de maíz en los depósitos más antiguos del sitio es probablemente el resultado de contaminación.

Type
Report
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 181 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Austin, Daniel F. 2006 Florida Ethnobotany. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
Crawford, Gary W., Smith, David G., and Bowyer, Vandy E. 1997 Dating the Entry of Corn (Zea mays) into the Lower Great Lakes Region. American Antiquity 62:112–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummings, Linda Scott, and Yost, Chad 2011 Pollen and Phytolith Analysis of Circular Earthwork Samples from the Fort Center Site, 8GL13, Glades County, Florida. PaleoResearch Institute Technical Report 10–133. Submitted to the Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.Google Scholar
Dickau, Ruth, Ranere, Anthony J., and Cooke, Richard G. 2007 Starch Grain Evidence for the Preceramic Dispersals of Maize and Root Crops into Tropical Dry and Humid Forest of Panama. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:3651–3656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearn, Miriam L., and Liu, Kam-biu 1995 Maize Pollen of 3500 B.P. from Southern Alabama. American Antiquity 60:109–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, Cynthia, and Konopik, Evelyn 2007 The History of Fire in the Southeastern United States. Human Ecology Review 14(2):165–176.Google Scholar
Fritz, Galye J. 1990 Multiple Pathways to Farming in Precontact Eastern North America. Journal of World Prehistory 4:387–435.Google Scholar
Gleason, Patrick J.,and Stone, Peter 1997 Age, Origin, and Landscape Evolution of the Evergldes Peatland. In Everglades: The Ecosystem and Its Restoration, edited by Steven M. Davis and John C. Ogden, pp. 149–197. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Google Scholar
Goggin, John M., and Sturtevant, William T. 1964 The Calusa: A Stratified Non-Agricultural Society (with Notes on Sibling Marriage). In Explorations in Cultural Anthropology: Essays in Honor of George Peter Murdock, edited by Ward Goodenough, pp. 179–219. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Gremillion, Kristen J. 2011 Ancestral Appetites: Food in Prehistory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hall, Robert T. 1976 Water Barriers, Com, and Sacred Enclosures in the Eastern Woodlands. American Antiquity 41:360–364.Google Scholar
Hart, John P. 1999 Maize Agriculture Evolution in the Eastern Woodlands of North America: A Darwinian Approach. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6:137–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoist, Irene, Enrique Moreno, J., and Piperno, Dolores R. 2007 Identification of Teosinte, Maize, and Tripsacum in Mesoamerica by Using Pollen, Starch Grains, and Phytoliths. Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America 104:17608–17613.Google Scholar
Iriarte, Jose 2003 Assessing the Feasability of Identifying Maize through the Analysis of Cross-Shaped Size and Three-Dimensional Morphology of Phytoliths in the Grasslands of Southeastern South America. Journal of Archaeological Science 30:1085–1094.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iriarte, Jose, Hoist, Irene, Marozzi, Oscar, Listopad, Claudia, Alonso, Ed-uardo, Rinderknecht, Andres, and Montana, Juan 2004 Evidence for Cultivar Adoption and Emerging Complexity during the Mid-Holocene in the La Plata basin. Nature 432:614–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, William G. 1990 The Role of Maize in South Florida Aboriginal Societies’. An Overview. Florida Anthropologist 43:209–214.Google Scholar
Keegan, William F. 1987 Diffusion of Maize from South America: The Antil-lean Connection Reconstructed. In Emergent Horticultural Economies of the Eastern Woodlands, edited by William. F. Keegan, pp. 329–344. Occasional Papers 7. Southern Illinois University, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Kelly, Jennifer A., Tykot, Robert H., and Milanich, Jerald T. 2006 Evidence for Early Use of Maize in Peninsular Florida. In Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize, edited by John E. Staller, Robert H. Tykot and Bruce F. Benz, pp. 249–262. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam and Boston.Google Scholar
Lathrap, Donald 1987 The Introduction of Maize in Prehistoric Eastern North America: The View from Amazonia and the Santa Elena Peninsula. In Emergent Horticultural Economies of the Eastern Woodlands, edited by Williman Keegan, pp. 345–369. Occasional Papers 7. Southern Illinois University, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Lusteck, Robert 2006 The Migrations of Maize into the Southeastern United States. In Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize, edited by John E. Staller, Robert H. Tykot and Bruce F. Benz, pp. 521–528. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam and Boston.Google Scholar
Marquardt, William 1986 The Development of Cultural Complexity in Southwest Florida: Elements of a Critique. Southeastern Archaeology 5:63–70.Google Scholar
Milanich, Jerald T. 1994 Archaeology ofPrecolumbian Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Milanich, Jerald T. 2004 Prehistory of Florida after 500 B.C. In Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast, edited by Raymond Fogelson, pp. 191–203. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Pearsall, Deborah M., Chandler-Ezell, Karol, and Chandler-Ezell, Alex 2003 Identifying Maize in Neotropical Sediments and Soils Using Cob Phytoliths. Journal of Archaeological Science 30:611–627.Google Scholar
Pearsall, Deborah M., Chandler-Ezell, Karol, and Zeidler, James A. 2004 Maize in Ancient Ecuador: Results of Residue Analysis of Stone Tools from the Real Alto Site. Journal Of Archaeological Science 31:423–442.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores 2006 Phytoliths. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores, and Pearsall, Deborah M. 1998 The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Piperno, Dolores R., Ranere, Anthony J., Hoist, Irene, Iriarte, Jose, and Dickau, Ruth 2009 Starch Grain and Phytolith Evidence for Early Ninth Millennium B.P. Maize from the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106:5019–5024.Google Scholar
Riley, Thomas J., Edging, Richard, and Rossen, Jack 1990 Cultigens in Prehistoric Eastern North America: Changing Paradigms. Current Anthropology 31:525–541.Google Scholar
Sassaman, Kenneth E. 2010 The Eastern Archaic, Historicized. AltaMira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Sears, William H. 1977 Seaborne Contacts between Early Cultures in Lower Southeastern United States and Middle through South America. In The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 1–15. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Sears, William H. 1982 Fort Center: An Archaeological Site in the Lake Okeechobee Basin. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Smith, Bruce 1989 Origins of Agriculture in Eastern North America. Science 246:1566–1571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Bruce 1992 Rivers of Change: Essays on Early Agriculture in Eastern North America. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Staller, John E., Tykot, Robert H., and Benz, Bruce F. (editors) 2006 Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam and Boston.Google Scholar
Steponaitis, Vincas P. 1986 Prehistoric Archaeology in the Southeastern United States, 1970–1985. Annual Review of Anthropology 15:363–404.Google Scholar
Thompson, Victor D., and Worth, John E. 2011 Dwellers by the Sea: Native American Adaptations along the Southern Coasts of Eastern North America. Journal of Archaeological Research 19:51–101.Google Scholar
Thompson, Victor D., and Pluckhahn, Thomas J. 2012 Monumentahzation and Ritual Landscapes at Fort Center in the Lake Okeechobee Basin of South Florida. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31:49–65.Google Scholar
Wagner, Gail E. 2003 Eastern Woodlands Anthropogenic Ecology. In People and Plants in Ancient Eastern North America, edited by Paul Minnis, pp. 126–171. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Widmer, Randolph J. 2002 The Woodland Archaeology of South Florida. In The Woodland Southeast, edited by David G. Anderson and Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., pp. 373–397. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Yarnell, Richard A., and Jean Black, M. 1985 Temporal Trends Indicated by a Survey of Archaic and Woodland Plant Food Remains from Southeastern North America. Southeastern Archaeology 4:93–106.Google Scholar