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Indigenous Agave Use in the Ocampo Caves Vicinity, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2023

J. Kevin Hanselka Open the ORCID record for J. Kevin Hanselka [Opens in a new window]
J. Kevin Hanselka*
Affiliation:
Texas Department of Transportation, Environmental Affairs Division, Archeological Studies Branch, Austin, TX, USA
*
Corresponding author: J. Kevin Hanselka, Email: khanselk@yahoo.com
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Abstract

The symbiotic relationship between people and the genus Agave spans millennia and a vast geographical area encompassing Mexico, the southwestern United States, and the Texas borderlands. In the early 1950s, Richard MacNeish's investigations in Tamaulipas yielded evidence of past agave use in the mountains of northeastern Mexico. Excavations in the Ocampo Caves revealed 9,000 years of sporadic occupations by hunter-gatherers, mixed forager-farmers, and finally, periodic visits by residents of nearby agricultural villages. Although these discoveries are incompletely published—and existing publications largely underemphasize the range of utilized wild resources in favor of domesticated maize, beans, and squash—agave is among the wild plant taxa most often mentioned in use throughout the Holocene. Unpublished field notes, curated plant assemblages recovered during MacNeish's excavations, and data from recent archaeological survey complement the published literature to explore the role of this prominent plant in this important archaeological region.

Resumen

Resumen

La relación simbiótica entre los humanos y el género Agave abarca milenios y una vasta área geográfica que incluye México, el suroeste de los Estados Unidos y la zona fronteriza de Texas. A principios de la década de 1950, las investigaciones de Richard MacNeish en Tamaulipas arrojaron evidencia del uso de agave en el pasado en las montañas del noreste de México. Las excavaciones en las cuevas de Ocampo revelaron 9.000 años de ocupaciones esporádicas por cazadores-recolectores, recolectores-agricultores mixtos y, finalmente, visitas periódicas de pueblos agrícolas cercanos. Aunque estos descubrimientos están publicados de forma incompleta, y las publicaciones existentes subestiman en gran medida la gama de recursos silvestres utilizados a favor de plantas domesticadas como el maíz, frijol y calabaza--entre los taxones de plantas silvestres, el agave es el taxón que se mencionan con mayor frecuencia a lo largo del Holoceno. Notas de campo inéditas, conjuntos de plantas recuperadas durante las excavaciones de MacNeish y datos de estudios arqueológicos recientes complementan la literatura publicada para explorar el papel económico de esta planta prominente en esta importante región arqueológica.

Keywords

AgaveOcampoTamaulipasancient Mexicointensificationlow-level food productionAgaveOcampoTamaulipasMéxico antiguointensificaciónproducción de alimentos de baja escala
Type
Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , July 2023 , pp. 344 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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