Evidence for a winter-snowpack derived water source for the Fremont maize farmers of Range Creek Canyon, Utah, USA

We present results of multiproxy analysis of a sediment core collected from Billy Slope Meadow, a spring-fed wet meadow in Range Creek Canyon, Utah. Range Creek Canyon was the home to Fremont maize farmers between roughly 1200 and 800 cal BP (AD 750–1150). Stable carbon isotope analysis of core sediments from Billy Slope Meadow indicate the Billy Slope Meadow site was used as a field for maize agriculture during that time. Some scholars have suggested the florescence of the Fremont culture may have been driven by increased summer precipitation, which improved the economic profitability of dry farming maize. But analysis of pollen, macroscopic charcoal and sediment geochemistry from Billy Slope Meadow, and a comparison with a local tree-ring chronology indicate the Fremont period in Range Creek Canyon was probably marked by reduced summer precipitation, and not an invigorated monsoon. The Fremont maize farmers of Range Creek Canyon therefore likely used winter snowpack-derived water from Range Creek for maize agriculture. This observation has significant implications, as using creek water rather than direct precipitation and runoff necessitates the construction of dams irrigation infrastructure, limited evidence for which has been reported by archaeologists working in the Fremont region.

THE HOUSEHOLD FUNCTIONS OF OBSIDIAN TOOLS FROM THE EARLY–MIDDLE FORMATIVE VILLAGE OF ALTICA, MEXICO

Functional determinations of stone tools gleaned through high-magnification usewear analysis enable archaeologists to reconstruct ancient household practices and identify diversity across regional domestic economies. A systematic obsidian usewear study with 300 specimens from the site of Altica, Mexico presented here reveals that tools from the Early–Middle Formative (1250–800 cal. b.c.) occupation were used for woodworking and subsistence-related activities. The high frequency of woodworking usewear patterns can be attributed to the construction and maintenance of the newly established settlement's households and agricultural plots. Combined with previous analyses of the site's paleoethnobotanical, osteological, and isotopic datasets, the usewear data further indicate a subsistence strategy that balanced foraging and non-intensive maize agriculture. Thanks to their proximity to the Otumba source and other sites exploiting it, Altica residents were able to employ a unifunctional tool-use approach with expedient percussion tools, which contrasts the multifunctional tool-use approaches documented at other Middle Formative sites.

Pre-Columbian agriculture, fire, and Spanish contact: A 4200-year record from Laguna Los Mangos, Costa Rica

We present a lake-sediment record of pre-Columbian agriculture and fire history from the lowlands of southern Pacific Costa Rica that captures the arrival of maize agriculture at ca. 3360 cal yr BP in the Diquís subregion of the Gran Chiriquí archeological region. Our 4200-year record from Laguna Los Mangos begins 1000 to 2000 years earlier than other lake records from the region and provides the first microfossil and geochemical evidence of vegetation and fire prior to the establishment of maize agriculture. This early portion of the record shows evidence of fire events associated with land clearance or field preparation and maintenance for subsistence activities. Alternatively, these were wildfires ignited unintentionally by people or naturally by lightning or volcanism. Evidence of early maize by ca. 3200 cal yr BP was found at Laguna Zoncho in the southeastern section of the Diquís subregion. Our discovery of early maize agriculture at ca. 3360 cal yr BP in the Laguna Los Mangos watershed in the northwestern portion of the Diquís subregion indicates a rapid adoption of maize agriculture in the region after initial introduction. Pre-Columbian agriculture and fire activity at Los Mangos is nearly continual until historic times, but with a decline after ca. 1170 cal yr BP, coincident with the early Terminal Classic Drought (TCD). We infer a pronounced drying of the lowland environment at Laguna Los Mangos based on a depositional hiatus in the record at ca. 950 during late TCD. Agricultural proxies indicate reduced watershed activity during the ‘Little Ice Age’ following Spanish contact in southern Central America until the 20th century.

The impact of soil salinity on maize agriculture: An experimental archaeology approach

This article uses experimental archaeology to provide empirical data on the impact of soil salinization on ancient maize agriculture. Hopi blue maize was experimentally grown in a drought-prone soil containing an extremely high level (50%) of evaporite mineral salts (CaCO3, CaSO4, and NaCl) in order to evaluate their effect on agricultural productivity. A control group of plants was grown in the absence of mineral salts. All of plants, which were companion planted with beans and squash, were adversely impacted by evaporite mineral salts. Maize grown alone in CaCO3−, CaSO4−, and NaCl-enriched soil exceeded the height of the control plants because the mineral salts acted as a fertilizer. Plants grown in NaCl-enriched soil produced cobbs that were reduced in size and kernel number. These findings suggest that CaCO3 and CaSO4, the most common evaporite mineral salts found in soil, would not have adversely impacted Ancestral Puebloan maize agriculture.

THEORETICAL AND SOCIOECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF FIRE FOODWAYS

Archaeological investigations of the effects of anthropogenic fire on the subsistence economies of small-scale societies, particularly those of the prehispanic northern American Southwest, are embryonic in scope and disciplinary impact. When burning has been mentioned in such studies it typically has been with reference to its alleged effectiveness in clearing land or deforesting areas for maize agriculture. In this article, in contrast, we present the results of our initial efforts to estimate the yield and socioecological consequences of cultivating a common fire-responsive ruderal—amaranth—whose growth is enabled by anthropogenic burning of understory vegetation in the Southwest's pinyon-juniper ecosystems. With data from the Upper Basin (northern Arizona), we show that, in an area that is not environmentally conducive to maize production, populations could be supported with systematic, low-intensity anthropogenic fires that promoted the growth of amaranth and other ruderals, such as chenopodium, which consistently dominate archaeobotanical and pollen assemblages recovered from a variety of archaeological and sedimentary contexts in the region. Based on this evidence, as well as modern fire ecological data, we propose that fire-reliant ruderal agriculture, in contrast to maize agriculture, was a widespread, sustainable, and ecologically sound practice that enhanced food supply security independently of variation in soil fertility and precipitation.

Status-Based Differences in Health in the Late Prehistoric East Tennessee

Late prehistoric eastern Tennessee polities provide a setting to examine relationships between biological stress and increasing emphasis on intensive maize agriculture, sedentism, population size, and differential access to protein-based dietary resources. This chapter compares bioarchaeological patterns between two Mississippian palisaded sites in Eastern Tennessee during the local Dallas Phase, A.D. 1300–1500. Toqua was a multi-mound center likely home to the main chief or chiefs of the region, while Citico was a smaller, palisaded locale with a single mound. Statistically significant patterns demonstrate that non-elites from Toqua possessed higher prevalence of all stress markers. Sex-based divisions are also noted in their mortuary program, with males typically interred in mounds and women in the village; Betsinger attributes this to simultaneous heterarchical expressions of different activity spheres. Further, there are few biological disparities between elite and non-elite females, which is considered the result of elite-sponsored, male-centered feasting that drove expressions of inequality during the twilight of the Mississippian era.