Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:12:04.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Crop and Weed in Prehistoric Eastern North America: The Chenopodium Example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kristen J. Gremillion*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, 244 Lord Hall, 124 W. 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210

Abstract

Analysis of seed morphology in paleoethnobotany typically focuses on identification of domesticates. However, the wild and weed forms that are sometimes recognized in archaeological contexts can provide pertinent information about garden ecology. Morphometric studies of Chenopodium from the eastern United States have revealed patterns of variation compatible with the coexistence and interaction of crop and weed populations. The character of this interaction reflects considerable flexibility and diversity in prehistoric agricultural systems. In addition, the frequency of weed seeds in archaeological collections can be used to assess the nature of selection in managed habitats and the husbandry practices associated with it.

Resumen

Resumen

Un análisis paleoetnobotánico de la morfología de semillas, normalmente se enfoca a la identificación de las semillas domesticadas. Sin embargo, por medio de las semillas silvestres se puede rendir información pertinente en el contexto arqueológico sobre la ecología de huertas prehistoóricas. Estudios morfométricos de Chenopodium, desde el este de los estados unidos, se ha revelado modelos de variación similares cosechas agrícolas y hierbas que manifiestan coexistencia e interacción. El cáracter de la interacción refleja flexibilidad y diversidad dentro del sistema agrícola de la prehistoria. Además, la frequencia de semillas silvestres dentro de colecciones arqueológicas se pueda utilizar hacia una evaluación de la naturaleza de selección dentro de habitates manejados y métodos agrícolas con que se asocia.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1993

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

Asch, D. L., and Asch, N. B. 1977 Chenopod as Cultigen: A Reevaluation of Some Prehistoric Collections from Eastern North America. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 2: 345.Google Scholar
Asch, D. L., and Asch, N. B. 1985a Prehistoric Plant Cultivation in West-Central Illinois. In Prehistoric Food Production in North America, edited by Ford, R. I., pp. 149203. Anthropological Papers No. 75. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Asch, D. L., and Asch, N. B. 1985b Archeobotany. In Excavations at the Smiling Dan Site: Delineation of Site Structure and Function During the Middle Woodland Period, edited by Stafford, B. D. and Sant, M. B., pp. 327401. Research Series Vol. 2. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville Archeological Center, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Asch, N. B., and Asch, D. L. 1985a Archeobotany. In Deer Track: A Late Woodland Village in the Mississippi Valley, edited by McGimsey, C. R. and Conner, M. D., pp. 44117. Technical Reports No. 1. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville Archeological Center, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Asch, N. B., and Asch, D. L. 1985b Archeobotany. In The Hill Creek Homestead and the Late Mississippian Settlement in the Lower Illinois Valley, edited by Conner, M. D., pp. 115170. Research Series Vol. 1. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville Archeological Center, Kampsville, Illinois.Google Scholar
Baker, H. G. 1974 The Evolution of Weeds. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 5: 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bye, R. A., Jr. 1981 Quelites— Ethnoecology of Edible Greens— Past, Present, and Future. Journal of Ethnobiology 1: 109123.Google Scholar
Cowan, C. W. 1978 Seasonal Nutritional Stress in a Late Woodland Population: Suggestions from Some Eastern Kentucky Coprolites. Tennessee Anthropologist 3: 117128.Google Scholar
Cowan, C. W. 1979 Excavations at the Haystack Rock Shelters, Powell County, Kentucky. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 4: 133.Google Scholar
de Wet, J. M. J. 1975 Evolutionary Dynamics of Cereal Domestication. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 102: 307312.Google Scholar
de Wet, J. M. J., and Harlan, J. R. 1975 Weeds and Domesticates: Evolution in a Man-Made Habitat. Economic Botany 29: 99107.Google Scholar
Doggett, H. 1965 Disruptive Selection in Crop Development. Nature 206: 279280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doggett, H., and Majisu, B. N. 1968 Disruptive Selection in Crop Development. Heredity 23: 123.Google Scholar
Faulkner, C. T. 1991 Prehistoric Diet and Parasitic Infection in Tennessee: Evidence from the Analysis of Dessicated Human Paleofeces. American Antiquity 56: 687700.Google Scholar
Fritz, G. J. 1986 Prehistoric Ozark Agriculture, The University of Arkansas Rockshelter Collections. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Fritz, G., and Smith, B. D. 1988 Old Collections and New Technology: Documenting the Domesticaton of Chenopodium in Eastern North America. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 13: 327.Google Scholar
Gardner, P. S. 1987 New Evidence Concerning the Chronology and Paleoethnobotany of Salts Cave, Kentucky. American Antiquity 52: 358366.Google Scholar
Gremillion, K. J., and Yarnell, R. A. 1986 Plant Remains from the Westmoreland-Barber and Pittman-Alder Sites, Marion County, Tennessee. Tennessee Anthropologist 11: 120.Google Scholar
Harlan, J. R. 1965 The Possible Role of Weed Races in the Evolution of Cultivated Plants. Euphytica 14: 173176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harlan, J. R. 1982 Relationships Between Weeds and Crops. In Biology and Ecology of Weeds, edited by Holzner, W. and Numata, M., pp. 9196. Junk, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harlan, J. R., and de Wet, J. M. J. 1965 Some Thoughts About Weeds. Economic Botany 19: 1624.Google Scholar
Harlan, J. R., de Wet, J. M. J., and Price, E. G. 1973 Comparative Evolution of Cereals. Evolution 27: 311325.Google Scholar
Harper, J. L. 1977 Population Biology of Plants. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Harper, J. L., Lovell, P. H., and Moore, K. G. 1970 The Shapes and Sizes of Seeds. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1: 327356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holzner, W., Hayashi, I., and Glauninger, J. 1982 Reproductive Strategy of Annual Agrestals. In Biology and Ecology of Weeds, edited by Holzner, W. and Numata, M., pp. 111121. Junk, The Hague.Google Scholar
Oka, H. I., and Chang, W. T. 1959 The Impact of Cultivation on Populations of Wild Rice, Oryza sativa f. spontanea. Phyton 13: 105— 117.Google Scholar
Pickersgill, B. 1981 Biosystematics of Crop-Weed Complexes. Kulturpflanze 29: 377388.Google Scholar
Small, E. 1984 Hybridization in the Domesticated-Wild-Weed Complex. In Plant Biosystematics, edited by Grant, W. F., pp. 195210. Academic Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Smith, B. D. 1984 Chenopodium as a Prehistoric Domesticate in Eastern North America: Evidence from Russell Cave, Alabama. Science 226: 165167.Google Scholar
Smith, B. D. 1985a Chenopodium berlandieri ssp. jonesianum: Evidence for a Hopewellian Domesticate from Ash Cave, Ohio. Southeastern Archaeology 4: 107133.Google Scholar
Smith, B. D. 1985b The Role of Chenopodium as a Domesticate in the Pre-Maize Garden Systems of the Eastern United States. Southeastern Archeology 4: 5172.Google Scholar
Smith, B. D., and Funk, V. A. 1985 A Newly Described Subfossil Cultivar of Chenopodium (Chenopodiaceae). Phytologia 57: 445448.Google Scholar
Watson, P. J. 1974 Prehistoric Horticulturalists. In Archaeology of the Mammoth Cave Area, edited by Watson, P. J., pp. 233238. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Williams, J. T., and Harper, J. L. 1965 Seed Polymorphism and Germination. Weed Research 5: 141150.Google Scholar
Wilson, H. D. 1980 Artificial Hybridization Among Species of Chenopodium sect. Chenopodium. Systematic Botany 5: 253263.Google Scholar
Wilson, H. D. 1981 Domesticated Chenopodium of the Ozark Bluff Dwellers. Economic Botany 35: 233239.Google Scholar
Wilson, H. D. 1990 Quinua and Relatives (Chenopodium sect. Chenopodium subsect. Cellulata). Economic Botany A A (supplement): 92-l 10.Google Scholar
Wilson, H. D., and Heiser, C. B. 1979 The Origin and Evolutionary Relationships of'Huazontle’ (Chenopodium nuttalliae Safford), Domesticated Chenopod of Mexico. American Journal of Botany 66: 198206.Google Scholar
Yarnell, R. A. 1969 Contents of Human Paleofeces. In The Prehistory of Salts Cave, Kentucky, by Watson, P. J., pp. 4154. Reports of Investigations No. 16. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.Google Scholar