Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T19:36:22.998Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Plant Material from a Cave on the Rio Zape, Durango, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Richard H. Brooks
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Lawrence Kaplan
Affiliation:
Roosevelt University, Chicago, Ill.
Hugh C. Cutler
Affiliation:
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo.
Thomas W. Whitaker
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, La Jolla, Calif.

Abstract

Plant remains from La Cueva de los Muertos Chiquitos consist mostly of cultivated plants, beans, corn, and cucurbits. The inhabitants also gathered acorns, pinon nuts, black walnuts, and opuntia fruits for food, and used yucca, agave, and possibly cotton for fibers. The beans are unusually abundant and diverse: three species and 12 types or varieties. A type of lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) and two common beans (P. vulgaris), one of them similar to the cultivar Wells Red Kidney, are new to the Southwest and to northwestern Mexico. The lima bean is of interest because it belongs to the round-seeded Carib group with a center of diversification in the West Indies, whereas other lima beans from the prehistoric Southwest are mostly small-seeded and flat, probably derived from Central America. Five races of corn are represented: an ancient race called Chapalote; Cristalina de Chihuahua, the most numerous race in the collections; Onaveño, a race with medium-sized, hard-flint kernels; Pima-Papago, the common soft flour corn of the Arizona-Sonora border; and Toluca Pop, a central Mexican pyramidal, pointed popcorn. Cob fragments and grains show definite evidence of hybridization with Tripsacum or teosinte. Three species of cultivated Cucurbitaceae, a wild species of Cucurbita, and a species of Apodanthera were identified. Fragments of gourds, mostly Lagenaria siceraria, are relatively abundant. Seeds and peduncles of Cucurbita pepo occur in strata throughout the entire profile. Cucurbita mixta was found in the later strata, but remains of this species are meagre. Seeds of Apodanthera sp. may have been used for food. A single wood sample from near the base of the midden produced a radiocarbon date of A.D. 660 (1300 ± 100 B.P.).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1962

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

Allard, H. A. and Garner, W. W. 1940 Further Observations of the Response of Various Species of Plants to Length of Day. U.S. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin 727. Washington.Google Scholar
Allard, R. W. 1953 Inheritance of Some Seed-coat Colors and Patterns in Lima Beans. Hilgardia, Vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 167–77. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Anderson, Edgar 1944 Maize Reventador. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 301–10. St. Louis.Google Scholar
Anderson, Edgar and Carter, G. F. 1945 A Preliminary Survey of Maize in the Southwestern United States. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 32, pp. 297318. St. Louis.Google Scholar
Anderson, Edgar and Cutler, H. C. 1942 Races of Zea Mays: I, Their Recognition and Classification. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 29, pp. 6986. St. Louis.Google Scholar
Anonymous 1957 Nickerson Color Fan [color fan and manual distributed by American Horticultural Council, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Mass.]. Munsell Color Company, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Brand, D. D. 1939 Notes on the Geography and Archaeology of Zape, Durango. In So Live tke Works of Men: 70th Anniversary Volume Honoring Edgar Lee Hewett, edited by Brand, D. D. and Harvey, F. E., pp. 75105. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Cutler, H. C. 1960 Cultivated Plant Remains from Waterfall Cave, Chihuahua. American Antiquity, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 277–9. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Lawrence 1956 The Cultivated Beans of the Prehistoric Southwest. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 43, pp. 189251. St. Louis.Google Scholar
Kirchhoff, Paul 1954 Gatherers and Farmers in the Greater Southwest: A Problem in Classification. American Anthropologist, Vol. 56, pp. 529–60. Menasha.Google Scholar
Mackie, W. W. 1943 Origin, Dispersal and Variability of the Lima Bean, Phaseolus lunatus. Hilgardia, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 124. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Mangelsdorf, P. C. and Lister, R. H. 1956 Archeological Evidence on the Evolution of Maize in Northwestern Mexico. Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol. 17, No. 6, pp. 151–78. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Martin, P. S., Rinaldo, J. B., Bluhm, Elaine, Cutler, H. C., and Grange, Roger Jr. 1952 Mogollon Cultural Continuity and Change: the Stratigraphic Analysis of Tularosa and Cordova Caves. Pieldiana: Anthropology, Vol. 40. Chicago Natural History Museum, Chicago.Google Scholar
Tamayo, J. L. 1949 Atlas Geograjico General de México. Mexico.Google Scholar
Wellhausen, E. J., Roberts, L. M., and Hernandezx, E.. in cooperation with P. C. Mangelsdorf, 1952 Races of Maize in Mexico: Their Origin, Char' acteristics and Distribution. Bussey Institution, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar