Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:46:06.659Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Earliest Evidence for Geophyte Use in North America: 11,500-Year-Old Archaeobotanical Remains from California's Santarosae Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

Kristina M. Gill Open the ORCID record for Kristina M. Gill [Opens in a new window] ,
Todd J. Braje ,
Kevin Smith  and
Jon M. Erlandson
Kristina M. Gill*
Affiliation:
Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR97403, USA
Todd J. Braje
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA92182, USA
Kevin Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA95616, USA
Jon M. Erlandson
Affiliation:
Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR97403, USA
*
(kgill@uoregon.edu, corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is growing evidence for human use of geophytes long before the advent of agriculture. Rich in carbohydrates, geophytes were important in many coastal areas where protein-rich marine foods are abundant. On California's Channel Islands, scholars have long questioned how maritime peoples sustained themselves for millennia with limited plant resources. Recent research demonstrates that geophytes were heavily used on the islands for 10,000 years, and here we describe geophyte and other archaeobotanical remains from an approximately 11,500-year-old site on Santa Rosa Island. Currently the earliest evidence for geophyte consumption in North America, our data extend geophyte use on the Channel Islands by roughly 1,500 years and document a diverse and balanced economy for early Paleocoastal peoples. Experimental return rates for a key island geophyte support archaeological evidence that the corms of blue dicks (Dipterostemon capitatus) were a high-ranked staple resource throughout the Holocene.

Hay cada vez más evidencia del uso humano de geófitos mucho antes de la llegada de la agricultura. Al ser ricos en carbohidratos, los geófitos fueron importantes en muchas áreas costeras donde eran abundantes los productos marinos ricos en proteínas. En las Islas del Canal de California, vistas tradicionalmente como pobres en flora, los investigadores se han preguntado durante mucho tiempo cómo las poblaciones marítimas subsistieron durante milenios con recursos vegetales limitados. Las investigaciones recientes demuestran que los geófitos fueron usados de manera intensiva en las islas durante 10,000 años y en este artículo describimos los geófitos y otros restos arqueobotánicos de un sitio de ~11,500 años de antigüedad en la Isla Santa Rosa. Al ser actualmente la evidencia más temprana de consumo de geófitos en Norte América, nuestros datos extienden el uso de geófitos en las Islas del Canal al menos ~1500 años y documentan una economía diversa y balanceada en los grupos Paleocosteros tempranos. Presentamos también tasas experimentales de retorno de un geófito clave de las Islas que sustenta la evidencia arqueológica de que los bulbos de las covenas (Dipterostemon capitatus) fueron un recurso de subsistencia altamente valioso a lo largo del Holoceno.

Keywords

archaeobotanyPaleocoastalChannel IslandsCalochortusDipterostemonarqueobotánicaPaleocosterosIslas del Canal de CaliforniaCalochortusDipterostemon
Type
Report
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 625 - 637
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of 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

Anderson, M. Kat 1997 From Tillage to Table: The Indigenous Cultivation of Geophytes for Food in California. Journal of Ethnobiology 17:149–169.Google Scholar
Anderson, M. Kat 2005 Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, M. Kat 2016 Geophytes and Human Evolution. Fremontia 44(3):39–41.Google Scholar
Anderson, M. Kat, and Lake, Frank K. 2016 Beauty, Bounty, and Biodiversity: The Story of California Indians’ Relationship with Edible Native Geophytes. Fremontia 44(3):44–51.Google Scholar
Anderson, M. Kat, and Rowney, David L. 1999 The Edible Plant Dichelostemma capitatum: Its Vegetative Reproduction Response to Different Indigenous Harvesting Regimes in California. Restoration Ecology 7:231–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R. Scott, Starratt, Scott, Brunner-Jass, Renata M., and Pinter, Nicholas 2010 Fire and Vegetation History on Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands, and Long-Term Environmental Change in Southern California. Journal of Quaternary Science 25:782–797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ascension, Antonio de la, and Wagner, Henry R. 1928 Spanish Voyages to the Northwest Coast in the Sixteenth Century, Chapter XI: Father Antonio de la Ascension's Account of the Voyage of Sebastian Vizcaino. California Historical Society Quarterly 7:295–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, Graeme, Hunt, Chris, Barton, Huw, Gosden, Chris, Jones, Sam, Lloyd-Smith, Lindsay, Farr, Lucy, Nyirí, Borbala, and O'Donnell, Shawn 2017 The “Cultured Rainforests” of Borneo. Quaternary International 448:44–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basgall, Mark E. 1987 Resource Intensification among Hunter-Gatherers: Acorn Economies in Prehistoric California. Research in Economic Anthropology 9:21–52.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L., and Wohlgemuth, Eric 2006 California Plants. In Environment, Origins, and Population: 3. Handbook of North American Indians, edited by Ubelaker, Douglas H., pp. 274–283. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Braje, Todd J., and Erlandson, Jon M. (with contributions by Gill, Kristina and Brown, Gary) 2019 From Paleoindians to Pioneers: Archaeological Data Recovery Excavations at CA- SRI-997/H, the Vail & Vickers Ranch House Site, Santa Rosa Island, California. Final report submitted to Channel Islands National Park. Manuscript on file, Central Coast Information Center, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
De Vynck, Jan C., Cowling, Richard M., Potts, Alastair J., and Marean, Curtis W. 2016 Seasonal Availability of Edible Underground and Aboveground Carbohydrate Resources to Human Foragers on the Cape South Coast, South Africa. PeerJ 4. DOI:10.7717/peerj.1679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dillehay, Tom D., Ramírez, C., Pino, M., Collins, M. B., Rossen, J., and Pino-Navarro, J. D. 2008 Monte Verde: Seaweed, Food, Medicine, and the Peopling of South America. Science 320:784–786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dolman, Brock 2016 Mending the Wild at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. Fremontia 44(3):52–56.Google Scholar
Erlandson, Jon M. 1988 The Role of Shellfish in Coastal Economies: A Protein Perspective. American Antiquity 53:102–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, Jon M. 1994 Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, Jon M. 2010 Food for Thought: The Role of Coastlines and Aquatic Resources in Human Evolution. In Human Brain Evolution: The Influence of Freshwater and Marine Food Resources, edited by Cunnane, Stephen and Stewart, Kathlyn, pp. 125–136. Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, Jon M., Braje, Todd J., and Gill, Kristina M. 2019 A Paleocoastal Site Complex from Santarosae Island, California. PaleoAmerica 5:1–6. DOI:10.1080/20555563.2019.1653157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, Jon M., Rick, Torben C., Ainis, Amira, Gill, Kristina M., Jew, Nicholas, and Reeder-Myers, Leslie 2019 The Archaeology of CA-SRI-666: Shellfish, Geophytes, and Sedentism on Early Holocene Santa Rosa Island, Alta California, USA. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 15:1–21.Google Scholar
Erlandson, Jon M., Rick, Torben C., Braje, Todd J., Casperson, Molly, Culleton, Brendan, Fulfrost, Brian, Garcia, Tracy, Guthrie, Daniel, Jew, Nicholas, Kennett, Douglas, Moss, Madonna, Reeder, Leslie, Skinner, Craig, Watts, Jack, and Willis, Lauren 2011 Paleoindian Seafaring, Maritime Technologies, and Coastal Foraging on California's Channel Islands. Science 441:1181–1185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Florin, S. Anna, Fairbairn, Andrew S., Nango, May, Djandjomerr, Djaykuk, Marwick, Ben, Fullagar, Richard, Smith, Mike, Wallis, Lynley A., and Clarkson, Chris 2020 The First Australian Plant Foods at Madjedbebe, 65,000–53,000 Years Ago. Nature Communications 11. DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-14723-0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gamble, Lynn H. 2017 Feasting, Ritual Practices, Social Memory, and Persistent Places: New Interpretations of Shell Mounds in Southern California. American Antiquity 82:427–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, Kristina M. 2014 Seasons of Change: Using Seasonal Morphological Changes in Brodiaea Corms to Determine Season of Harvest from Archaeobotanical Remains. American Antiquity 79:638–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, Kristina M. 2015 Ancient Plant Use and the Importance of Geophytes among the Island Chumash of Santa Cruz Island, California. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Gill, Kristina M. 2016 10,000 Years of Geophyte Use among the Island Chumash of the Northern Channel Islands. Fremontia 44(3):34–38.Google Scholar
Gill, Kristina M., Erlandson, Jon M., Niessen, Ken, Hoppa, Kristin M., and Merrick, Dustin 2019 Where Carbohydrates Were Key: Reassessing the Marginality of Terrestrial Plant Resources on the California's Islands. In An Archaeology of Abundance: Reevaluating the Marginality of California's Islands, edited by Gill, Kristina M., Fauvelle, Mikael, and Erlandson, Jon M., pp. 98–134. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, Kristina M., and Hoppa, Kristin M. 2016 Evidence for an Island Chumash Geophyte-Based Subsistence Economy on the Northern Channel Islands. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 36:51–71.Google Scholar
Gilliland, Linda E. 1985 Proximate Analysis and Mineral Composition of Traditional California Native American Foods. Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Gusick, Amy E., and Erlandson, Jon M. 2019 Paleocoastal Landscapes, Marginality, and Early Human Settlement of the California Islands. In An Archaeology of Abundance: Reevaluating the Marginality of California's Islands, edited by Gill, Kristina M., Fauvelle, Mikael, and Erlandson, Jon M., pp. 59–97. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imper, David 2016 Declining Species Diversity on the North Coast: The Role of Disturbance. Fremontia 44(3):27–33.Google Scholar
Institute of Medicine 2005 Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. National Academies Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Jew, Nicholas, and Erlandson, Jon M. 2013 Paleocoastal Flaked Stone Heat Treatment Practices on Alta California's Northern Channel Islands. California Archaeology 5:79–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junak, Steve, Ayers, Tina, Scott, Randy, Wilken, Dieter, and Young, David 1995 A Flora of Santa Cruz Island. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Kulaga, Nicole D. 2020 Paleocoastal Mobility Patterns: Implications of a Lithic Analysis of CA-SRI-997/H, Northern Channel Islands, California. Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Northridge.Google Scholar
Larbey, Cynthia, Mentzer, Susan M., Ligouis, Bertrand, Wurz, Sarah, and Jones, Martin K. 2019 Cooked Starchy Food in Hearths ca. 120 kya and 65 kya (MIS 5e and MIS 4) from Klasies River Cave, South Africa . Journal of Human Evolution 121:210–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louderback, Lisbeth A., and Pavlik, Bruce M. 2017 Starch Granule Evidence for the Earliest Potato Use in North America. PNAS 114:7606–7610.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marean, Curtis W., Bar-Matthews, Miryam, Bernatchez, Jocelyn, Fisher, Erich, Goldberg, Paul, Herries, Andy I. R., Jacobs, Zenobia, Jerardino, Antonieta, Karkanas, Panagiotas, Minichillo, Tom, Nilssen, Peter J., Thompson, Erin, Watts, Ian, and Williams, Hope M. 2007 Early Human Use of Marine Resources and Pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. Nature 499:905–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Alexander C., and Barkley, William D. 2000 Seed Identification Manual. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Martin, Steve L. 2009 The Use of Marah macrocarpus by the Prehistoric Indians of Coastal Southern California. Journal of Ethnobiology 29:77–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Steve L., and Popper, Virginia S. 2001 Paleoethnobotanical Investigations of Archaeological Sites on Santa Cruz Island. In The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: The Chumash of the Channel Islands, edited by Arnold, Jeanne E., pp. 245–259. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Molina, Alonso de 1571 Vocabulario en lengua castellana y Mexicana. Casa de Antonio de Spinola, Mexico. Electronic document, https://www.doaks.org/resources/rare-books/vocabulario-en-lengua-castellana-y-mexicana, accessed February 7, 2014.Google Scholar
Muhs, Daniel R., Budahn, James, Reheis, Marith, Beann, Jossh, Skipp, Gary, and Fisher, Eric 2007 Airborne Dust Transport to the Eastern Pacific Ocean off Southern California: Evidence from San Clemente Island. Journal of Geophysical Research 112:D13203. DOI:10.1029/2006JD007577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearsall, Deborah M. 2000 Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Reddy, Seetha N. 2016 Changing Palates and Resources: Regional and Diachronic Trends in Plant Use in Prehistoric California. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 36:227–244.Google Scholar
Reddy, Seetha, and Erlandson, Jon M. 2012 Macrobotanical Food Remains from a Trans-Holocene Sequence at Daisy Cave (CA-SMI-261), San Miguel Island, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 39:33–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeder-Myers, Leslie A., Erlandson, Jon M., Muhs, Daniel, and Rick, Torben C. 2015 Sea Level, Paleogeography, and Archaeology on California's Northern Channel Islands. Quaternary Research 83:263–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Austin, William E. N., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Blackwell, Paul G., Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Butzin, Martin, Cheng, Hai, Lawrence Edwards, R., Friedrich, Michael, Grootes, Pieter M., Guilderson, Thomas P., Hajdas, Irka, Heaton, Timothy J., Hogg, Alan G., Hughen, Konrad A., Kromer, Bernd, Manning, Sturt W., Muscheler, Raimund, Palmer, Jonathan G., Pearson, Charlotte, van der Plicht, Johannes, Reimer, Ron W., Richards, David A., Marian Scott, E., Southon, John R., Turney, Christian S. M., Wacker, Lukas, Adolphi, Florian, Büntgen, Ulf, Capano, Manuela, Fahrni, Simon M., Fogtmann-Schulz, Alexandra, Friedrich, Ronny, Köhler, Peter, Kudsk, Sabrina, Miyake, Fusa, Olsen, Jesper, Reinig, Frederick, Sakamoto, Minoru, Sookdeo, Adam, and Talamo, Sahra 2020 The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon 62:725–757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, Jeffrey S., and Hildebrandt, William R. 2019 Acorns in Pre-Contact California: A Reevaluation of Their Energetic Value, Antiquity of Use, and Linkage to Mortar-Pestle Technology. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 39:1–23.Google Scholar
Rundel, Philip W. 1996 Monocotyledonous Geophytes in the California Flora. Madroño 43:355–368.Google Scholar
Schiffer, Michael B. 1986 Radiocarbon Dates and the “Old Wood” Problem: The Case of the Hohokam Chronology. Journal of Archaeological Science 13:13–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiner, Mary C. 1994 Honor among Thieves: A Zooarchaeological Study of Neandertal Ecology. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, Ron W. 2021 CALIB 8.2. Electronic document, http://calib.org, accessed May 3, 2021.Google Scholar
Thakar, Heather B. 2014 Risk Reducing Subsistence Strategies and Population Growth, A Case Study from Santa Cruz Island. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Timbrook, Jan 2007 Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge among Chumash People of Southern California. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Heyday Books, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Timbrook, Jan, Johnson, John R., and Earle, David D. 1982 Vegetation Burning by the Chumash. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 4:163–186.Google Scholar
Todt, Donn L. 1997 Cross-Cultural Folk Classifications of Ethnobotanically Important Geophytes in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 19:250–259.Google Scholar
Ugan, Andrew, and Rosenthal, Jeffrey 2016 Brodiaea Return Rates and Their Ethnographic and Archaeological Implications for Occupation of the Northwestern Mojave Desert of North America. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 36:73–90.Google Scholar
Ugent, Donald, Dillehay, Tom, and Ramirez, Carlos 1987 Potato Remains from a Late Pleistocene Settlement in Southcentral Chile. Economic Botany 41:17–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadley, Lyn, Backwell, Lucinda, d'Errico, Francesco, and Sievers, Christine 2020 Cooked Starchy Rhizomes in Africa 170 Thousand Years Ago. Science 367:7–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wohlgemuth, Eric 2016 The California Archaeological Record and Brodiaea Complex Conservation. Fremontia 44(3):42–43.Google Scholar