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The Short, Unhappy Use Lives of Early Agricultural Period “Food Storage” Pits at the Las Capas Site, Southern Arizona

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael W. Diehl  and
Owen K. Davis
Michael W. Diehl*
Affiliation:
Desert Archaeology, Inc., 3975 N. Tucson Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85716
Owen K. Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85720 (odavis@email.arizona.edu)
*
mdiehl@desert.com
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Abstract

Were Early Agricultural period (2100 B.C.–A.D. 50) maize cultivators in Southern Arizona sedentary farmers or seasonally mobile forager-farmers? Ethnographic analogs and ethnographically derived middle range theory support both claims. One argument for sedentism has been the abundance of large subterranean storage pits. These are often presumed to have been used for long-term food storage. This study of wetlands-indicator spores recovered from those pits indicates that the pits were often saturated and could not have been used for long-term food storage; these findings support the general contention that Early Agricultural period maize cultivators were seasonally mobile and tried to fit early agriculture into a subsistence regime focused on wild foods.

¿Eran los cultivadores de maíz del período de Agricultura Temprana (2100 a.C.–50 d.C.) en el sur de Arizona sedentarios o forrajeadores-agricultores que se desplazaban estacionalmente? Los análogos etnográficos y la teoría de rango medio derivada etnográficamente apoyan ambas afirmaciones. Un argumento a favor del sedentarismo ha sido la abundancia de pozos grandes de almacenaje subterráneo. Muchas veces, se supone que éstos se utilizaban para el almacenaje de alimentos a largo plazo. Este estudio de esporas indicadoras de humedales recuperadas de aquellos pozos señala que los pozos estaban frecuentemente saturados y no se podían haber utilizado para el almacenaje de alimentos a largo plazo; estos resultados apoyan la afirmación general que los cultivadores de maíz del período de Agricultura Temprana se desplazaban estacionalmente e intentaban hacer caber la agricultura temprana dentro de en un régimen de subsistencia enfocado en los alimentos silvestres.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 333 - 344
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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References

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