1997 Ocampo Caves LAA - Anthropology

Transcription

RECONSIDERING THE OCAMPO CAVES AND THE ERA OF INCIPIENT CULTIVATION IN MESOAMERICA Bruce D. Smith
In northeastern Mexico, near Ocampo, Romerok and Valenzuela S caves have been central to explanations of agricultural
origins in Mesoamerica for more than four decades. Along with caves in Tehuacdn and Oaxaca, these "Ocampo caves" have
provided almost all of the available evidence for the initial appearance of a number of key Mesoamerican crop plants, including maize, beans, and squash. This article reanalyzes the cultural and temporal context offive crop plant assemblages in the
Ocampo caves: maize (Zea mays), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), and three species of squash (Cucurbita argyrosperma,
C. moschata, C. pepo). Fifteen AMS radiocarbon dates on early domesticates both confirm the stratigraphic integrity of the
two caves and substantially revise the temporal framework for initial appearance of core domesticates in northeastern
Mexico, showing the transition to food production in Tamaulipas took place more recently than previously thought. A suhstantially foreshortened chronology for Ocampo crop plants confirms the northern periphery role of Tamaulipas in the origins of agriculture in Mexico, while also underscoring the need for establishing AMS-based archaeobotanical sequences
across Mesoamerica to gain an adequate context for understanding the temporal, environmental, and cultural contexts of initial plant domestication in the region.
Situadas cerca de Ocampo, Tamaulipas, en el noreste de Mixico, las cuevas de Romero y Valenzuela fueron /as mds importantes para abordar las explicaciones sobre 10s origenrs de la agricultura en Mesoamerica por mus de cuatro dicadas. Junto
con las cuevas de San Marcos y Coxcatldn en Tehuacdn y la cueva de Guild Naquitz en Oaxaca, estas "cuevas de Ocampo"
han proporcionado casi toda la evidencia disponible desde el comienzo de la domesticacirin de numerosas plantas,
incluyendo maiz, frijol y calahaza. Este articulo reanaliza las dimensiones culturales y temporales de cinco plantas de
cosecha de las cuevas de Ocampo: maiz (Zea mays), calahaza vinatera (Lagenaria siceraria), y tres especias de calahaza
(Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. moschata, C. pepo). Quince fechas de radiocarbono obtenidas por acelerdor de 10s cultigenos
confirman la integridad estrategrdfica de las dos cuevas, y revisa considerahlemente la dimensirin temporal de la aparicirin
inicial de las principales plantas domisticas en noreste Mixico. La transicidn hacia la produccirin de alimentos en
Tamaulipas demuestra que este proceso se presentri en tiempos mas recientes de lo que se pensaba. Inicialmente presentada
en la cronologia de Ocampo desde 9000 a.R, por exemplo, Lagenaria siceraria y Cucurbita pepo no aparecen en la ocupacicin de las cuevas hasta 4 4 0 0 4 0 0 0 a.C. (fechas calihradas). Cucurbita argyrosperma esta presente desde 3000 a.C.
(fechas calibradas), el maiz desde 2400 a.C. (fechas calibradas), y la Cucurbita moschata desde 800 a.C. (fechas calibradas).
Esta cronologia recortada de plantas de Ocampo confirma el papel que tuvo la periferia norte de Tamaulipas en el origen
de la agricultura en Mixico, a1 mismo tiempo que subraya la necesidad de estahlecer bases de secuencias arqueobotunicas
fechadas por acelerador en toda Mesoamerica, para entender suficientemente el contexto temporal, medioambiental y cultural de la domesticacirin inicial de la regidn.
F
or more than a quarter of a century almost
all of the archaeological information available regarding the origins of agriculture in
Mesoamerica has come from a series of caves in
Tamaulipas (Romero's and Valenzuela's caves,
Ocampo), Puebla (Coxcatlbn and San Marcos
caves, Tehuacbn), and Oaxaca (Guilb Naquitz
cave) (Figure 1). A number of recent studies,
.
however, have called into question both the general cultural and chronological sequences of several of these caves (Hardy 1996; MacNeish and
Flannery 1997), as well as the timing of the initial
domestication of maize (Zea mays) (Long et al.
1989) and beans (Phaseolus) (Kaplan 1993,
1995). These studies in turn have prompted more
general questions regarding the geographical,
Bruce D. Smith Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
20560
Latin American Antiquity, 8(4), 1997, pp. 342-383. Copyright O by the Society for American Archaeology Smith]
RECONSIDERING INCIPIENT CULTIVATION IN MESOAMERICA
343
Figure 1. Map showing the location of Romero's and Valenzuela's caves in Ocampo, Tamaulipas; CoxcatIan and San
Marcos caves in Tehuacan, Puebla; and GuilP Naquitz cave in Oaxaca.
chronological, and cultural contexts of early
Mesoamerican food-producing societies (Fritz
1994a, 1994b; McClung de Tapia 1992, 1994;
Smith 1995a, 1995b). This article extends the
reassessment of existing collections of early
Mesoamerican domesticates by reconsidering the
maize (Zea mays) and cucurbit (Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. moschara, C.
pepo) materials recovered from Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves near Ocampo, Tamaulipas, in
1954.
Before turning to a discussion of these five
species, however, and the temporal and cultural
context of their initial occurrence in Romero's
and Valenzuela's caves, it is important to look at
the central role that these Ocampo caves played in
the first efforts to account for Mesoamerican agricultural origins. In a major synthetic article published in 1964, for example, the Ocampo caves
provided the bulk of the information then available on the origins of agriculture in Middle
America (Mangelsdorf et al. 1964). Even as this
1964 synthesis appeared in print, however,
research and attention had already shifted from
Tamaulipas to the Central Highlands of Mexico.
MacNeish and others (e.g., Mangelsdorf et al.
1964:431-432) had concluded that Tamaulipas
and the Ocampo caves were on the northern
periphery of agricultural origins in Mesoamerica
and had turned their attention farther south, where
subsequent research in Puebla (Tehuachn) and
then Oaxaca in fact did indicate an apparent earlier appearance of many domesticated crop plants
in those regions. In addition to having apparent
temporal and geographical precedence over the
Ocampo caves, the Tehuac6n caves and Guil6
Naquitz were also the subject of extensive,
detailed, and comprehensive publications, which
provided the basis for interpretive overviews of
Mesoamerican agricultural origins (e.g., Flannery
1973, 1986; MacNeish 1967, 1991).
Even though by the mid- 1960s the Ocampo
344
LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY
caves of Tamaulipas had been both overshadowed
by excavations in Tehuachn and Oaxaca, and
placed far to the north of the central and southern
highland "hearth" area of plant domestication,
Romero's and Valenzuela's caves still played an
important role in shaping the general account of
agricultural origins in Mesoamerica formulated
during the 1960s, which can be termed the Era of
Incipient Cultivation explanation. This explanation was based in large part on a comparison of
the Tehuachn and Tamaulipas sequences and the
timing and order of appearance of different crop
plants in the two regions (Figure 2).
The initial analysis of the archaeobotanical
sequence of the Ocampo caves (Figure 2) suggested that several domesticated plants made a
very early appearance in Tamaulipas, e.g., pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) and bottle gourd (Lagenaria
siceraria) at 9000 to 7000 B.P.' (Cutler and
Whitaker 1961; Mangelsdorf et al. 1964:430;
Whitaker et al. 1957:356). The common bean
(Phaseolus vulgaris) was added later, between
6000 and 4300 B.P. (Kaplan and MacNeish 1960:
44, 52, 54; Mangelsdorf et al. 1964:430), and
maize was not present until around 4300-3800
B.P. (Mangelsdorf et al. 1967a:33, 34). C.
moschata followed at about 3800-3400 B.P.
(Cutler and Whitaker 1961; Whitaker et al.
1957:356-357), and C. argyrosperma (then called
C. mixta, see Merrick and Bates 1989) appeared
at 1800-1 100 B.P. (Whitaker et al.
1957:356-357), along with the sieva bean
(Phaseolus lunatus) (Kaplan and MacNeish
1960:44, 55).
This pattern in the Ocampo caves-of a few
early domesticates followed by the appearance of
other domesticated crops at widely spaced intervals-also was observed in the archaeobotanical
sequence of the Tehuachn caves, but the Tehuachn
sequence differed considerably in terms of both
the temporal spacing and the sequence of appearance of various species. In the Tehuachn Valley,
five crop plants (bottle gourd, common bean,
maize, and two squash species [C. moschata and
C. argyrospema]) first occurred in Coxcatlhnphase zones (7000-5500 B.P.) in Coxcatlhn and
San Marcos caves (Figure 2). Within the 1,500year span covered by the Coxcatlhn phase, radiocarbon dates on materials associated with the
bottle gourd and C. argyrospema specimens that
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
were recovered in zone XI11 of Coxcatlhn Cave
(Cutler and Whitaker 1967:218) yielded a date of
7000 B.P. The earliest C. moschata (Cutler and
Whitaker 1967:214,218) and common bean specimens occurred in zone XI of the same cave
(Kaplan 1967:204). Four radiocarbon dates from
this zone were averaged to 6070 B.P. (Johnson
and MacNeish 1972:17). The earliest maize,
assigned wild status at the time (Mangelsdorf et
al. 1967b:180), was recovered from zones E and
F of San Marcos cave, with zone E providing a
radiocarbon date of 6100 B.P. The underlying
zone F was thought to represent "only a very
slightly earlier part of the Coxcatlhn Phase"
(Mangelsdorf et al. 1967b:179). Just above zone
E, zone D in San Marcos cave yielded both a
radiocarbon date of 5300 B.P. (Johnson and
MacNeish 1972:23) and an assemblage of larger
maize cobs identified as "early cultivated
(Mangelsdorf et al. 1967b:181). Following maize
in the Tehuachn archaeobotanical sequence, C.
pep0 appeared at 3500-2900 B.P. (Cutler and
Whitaker 1967:215, 218; MacNeish 1967:294)
and sieva bean (Phaseolus lunatus) at 1,300 to
400 years ago (Kaplan 1967:204-205).
As shown in Figure 2, the original Ocampo
and Tehuachn archaeobotanical sequences, formulated in the 1950s and 1960s, were quite different in terms of when various crop plants made
their initial appearance in the two regions. They
did fit fairly comfortably, however, with what was
thought at the time regarding where different
plants were likely first brought under domestication, based on known areas of species distribution
and greatest diversity of modern cultivars.
Cultivated Cucurbita pepo, for example, exhibited little present-day cultivar diversity in southem Mexico and was far more variable to the north
(Cutler and Whitaker 1967:219); the earliest evidence for its domestication came from the
Ocampo caves, leading MacNeish to conclude
that "considerable evidence indicates that it was
first domesticated in Tamaulipas between 7000
and 5500 B.C." and subsequently spread northwest into the southwestern United States by 2500
to 1000 B.C. and south to Tehuachn, arriving
there about 1000 B.C. (MacNeish 1967:294). In
contrast, Cutler and Whitaker (1967:219) and
MacNeish (1967:293) considered the heartland of
domestication of C. moschata to be in warm
THOUSANDS OF YEARS B.P.
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
I
I
1
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
TEHUACAN
i:
5
IzzI
8W Z
S
5 ?i
,a
a o
m 8
%
8
a Ln
W m
7000
L. siceraria
C. pep0
Phaseolus vulgaris
Zea mays
C. moschata
7000
tv.z////////////1
C. argyrosperma
Phaseolus lunatus
OCAMPO
9
8
7
I
I
I
6
9
5
4
3
2
I
I
I
I
0
I
m
RZ aZ
_
ag
$%
Figure 2. A comparison of the archaeobotanical sequences from the Ocampo and TehuacBn caves, as originally constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, showing the estimated initial appearance of different species of domesticated plants
(based on Cutler and Whitaker 1961,1967; Johnson and MacNeish 1972; Kaplan 1967; Kaplan and MacNeish 1960;
MacNeish 1967; Mangelsdorf et al. 1967a, 1967b; Mangelsdorf et al. 1964; Whitaker et al. 1957).
coastal regions south of Tehuachn. MacNeish
(1967:293) also proposed that, based on modem
distributional patterns, Phaseolus vulgaris arrived
in both Tehuachn and Tamaulipas at about the
same time, after being first domesticated in an
area west of both regions. The Tehuachn Valley,
on the other hand, was situated in an area of considerable variability of modem cultivar forms of
Cucurbita argyrosperma; given its early appearance in the region's archaeobotanical sequence,
Cutler and Whitaker (1967:218) and MacNeish
(1967:293) suggested that C. argyrosperma was
first brought under domestication near the
Tehuachn region. Finally, TehuacAn also was considered as a likely heartland for the initial domestication of maize (MacNeish 1967:294), since it
(1) offered a habitat that "may in fact have been
almost ideal for wild corn" (Mangelsdorf et al.
1967b:178); (2) had produced "the first ears of
wild maize so far discovered" (Mangelsdorf et al.
1967b:180), as well as (3) very primitive cobs of
"early cultivated" maize (Mangelsdorf et al.
1967b:181), which predated the appearance of
maize in the Ocampo caves by more than 1,000
years (Figure 2).
Era of Incipient Cultivation Explanation
All of these observed differences between the
Tamaulipas and Tehuachn archaeobotanical
sequences in terms of the timing, sequence, and
temporal spacing of the first appearance of key
domesticates, and the degree to which they fit
comfortably with available information regarding
the likely geographical areas of their initial
domestication, led directly to two more general
conclusions regarding the initial domestication of
plants in Mesoamerica. These two conclusions,
derived directly from the comparative analysis of
346
the Tamaulipas and Tehuachn caves, became the
twin central themes used to characterize agricultural origins in Mesoamerica and to further define
the Era of Incipient Cultivation in the region.'
The first of the central themes of the Era of
Incipient Cultivation explanation of agricultural
origins in Mesoamerica involves the temporal and
spatial isolation of domestication of different
plant species. The Ocampo and Tehuachn
sequences appeared to show that each of the key
domesticates had its own separate history of
domestication-that maize, squashes, and beans
were independently domesticated in different
regions of Mexico at different times. As early as
1957, for example, based on the late appearance
of maize in the Ocampo sequence, Whitaker et al.
(1957:357) would conclude that: "These . . .
observations are significant because they suggest
that corn and the three squash species did not
originate at the same place, or if they did originate
in the same area, that they were not domesticated
simultaneously." Writing a decade later, after the
Tehuachn caves had been excavated and a comparative analysis of the Tehuachn and Tamaulipas
sequences had been carried out, MacNeish
(1967:295) was able to draw an even more
sweeping conclusion: "There was no single unilinear development of agriculture in any hearth or
hearths but a series of small developments of
plant domestication in many regions that stimulated and contributed to the evolution of agriculture over a wide area."
The second central theme of the Era of
Incipient Cultivation explanation of Mesoamerican agricultural origins is that, within these
different regions of Mesoamerica, a long period
of low-level "incipient" reliance on cultivated
plants could be recognized during which only a
few, mostly local, crops were grown in regionally
specialized economies by societies still based
largely on hunting and gathering economies
(Mangelsdorf et al. 1964:432). This era of "incipient cultivation" and regionally specialized
economies, extending from around 90004000
B.P., also was viewed as a five-millennia-long
"period of transition from food collecting to
sedentary agriculture" (Flannery 1968:68), during
which cultivated plants gradually became increasingly important in economic systems (Flannery
1968:68; Mangelsdorf et al. 1964:427, 431, 432).
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Estimates for the gradual increase in importance
of domesticated plants through the 5,000-yearlong period of incipient cultivation have been
offered for both Tehuachn (MacNeish 1967:301)
and Tamaulipas (Mangelsdorf et al. 1964:43 1).
This transitional era of incipient cultivation ended
by about 4000 B.P., with the coalescence of a
Mesoamerican crop complex composed of maize,
beans, squashes, and chili peppers "that revolutionized the whole nature of plant growing from a
level of incipient cultivation to one of village
agriculture" (Mangelsdorf et al. 1964:432).
Kent Flannery's 1966 excavation of Guilh
Naquitz cave in Oaxaca (Flannery 1986) provided
further evidence for the longevity of the era of
incipient cultivation that led to the appearance of
Mesoamerican village agricultural economies
around 4000-3500 B.P. The early occupation layers of Guilh Naquitz (zones D-B 1) yielded radiocarbon dates of 9800 to 8500 B.P. (Flannery
1986: 175), as well as more than 100 specimens of
Cucurbita seeds, rinds, and peduncles (Whitaker
and Cutler 1986). Most of these were believed to
have come from a species of wild Cucurbita
gourd, but nine seeds and six peduncle fragments,
including a seed recovered from a zone D context
that had been assigned an age of 9800 B.P., were
identified as domesticated Cucurbita pep0
(Whitaker and Cutler 1986). Seven rind fragments of bottle gourd also were recovered from
zones D-B 1 at Guil6 Naquitz.
In addition to pushing the onset of the Era of
Incipient Cultivation back to almost 10,000 B.P.,
the Early Holocene occupational episodes of
Guilh Naquitz also fit comfortably within, and
provided support for, the general profile that had
been developed for the incipient cultivator societies of 9 0 0 W 0 0 0 B.P., based on earlier analyses
of the Ocampo and Tehuachn caves. The Early
Holocene habitation zones at Guilh Naquitz produced evidence of only two plant species identified as domesticated (Cucurbita pep0 and
Lugenaria siceraria), which represented only a
very minor element in an overall economy that
was otherwise based entirely on wild species of
plants and animals. Thus, even though the early
pumpkin remains from GuilA Naquitz indicated
that C. pep0 likely had been first domesticated in
the Southern Highlands of Mexico rather than, as
had been previously proposed, in northern
Smith]
Mexico (Whitaker and Cutler 1986), Guilii
Naquitz still fit the general profile of an early,
regionally specialized, food production economy
based on the isolated and independent domestication of a local plant species that initially played
only a small economic role. Since Guil6 Naquitz
is thought to have been occupied on a seasonal
basis by a small single family group or
"microband," it also provided further support for
the characterization of typical societies during the
Era of Incipient Cultivation as small seminomadic
bands.
By the close of the 1960s, then, all of the
salient features of the Era of Incipient Cultivation
had been identified and articulated, and it stood as
the first general overall account or explanation for
the origin of agriculture in Mesoamerica. In summary, the essential elements of this explanatory
framework were the following.
Time-spanning the Archaic. Reaching across
five to six millennia, the Era of Incipient
Cultivation bridged much of the Early and Middle
Holocene periods. It was anchored on the later
end by the emergence of corn-bean-squash crop
complexes and village-based agricultural
economies at 4000 B.P. and on the early end by
the initial domestication of a number of plant
species (cucurbits, maize, beans) at 10,000 to
7000 B .P. (Figure 2).
Location-a central heartland vs. small parallel regional hearths. Although the Central and
Southern Highlands of Mexico are, on the one
hand, often mentioned as the center of plant
domestication and agricultural origins during the
Era of Incipient Cultivation, there is at the same
time a strong emphasis on the geographically dispersed nature of plant domestication-"of
small
developments of plant domestication in many
regionsv-that marked the parallel long-term
existence of regionally specialized economies,
each of which began with the domestication of
one or several local crop plants.
Pace of change-a gradual transition. The fiveto-six-millennia-long Era of Incipient Cultivation
was considered to be a period of slow transition
and change during which the crop plants of various specialized regional economies were more
widely dispersed and food production gradually
increased from a minor role to gain greater overall importance, with the broad-based coalescence
347
of a Mesoamerican crop complex occurring by
4000 B.P.
Cultural context-small
seasonally mobile
families. Throughout much of the period from
10,000-4,000 B.P., the basic socioeconomic unit
of incipient cultivator societies was the
microband, comprising one to three nuclear families that relocated their settlements during different seasons of the year to take advantage of
locally available wild resources. By 7000 B.P. a
number of such microbands were coalescing into
larger macroband settlements during the seasons
of greatest resource abundance; over time, the
size and duration of such seasonal settlements
gradually increased, as did reliance on stored
agricultural crops. MacNeish (1972) provides a
detailed summary of changing settlement and
subsistence patterns in the Tehuac6n Valley
throughout the Era of Incipient Cultivation (see
also MacNeish 1991).
Many of the basic elements essential to an
explanation of agricultural origins were included
in the Era of Incipient Cultivation as it was formulated and refined during the 1960s. It identified the first domesticated crop plants and
provided hard evidence of where and when they
were first brought under domestication, and it
offered archaeological information regarding the
cultural context and 5,000- to 6,000-year-long
developmental trajectory of the transition from
hunting and gathering to village-based agriculture. Attention and interest were rather quickly
drawn away from the Era of Incipient Cultivation
explanation of agricultural origins in
Mesoamerica, however, because of what it did not
include-a consideration of process, of why agriculture emerged in Mesoamerica.
Processual Explanations
At the moment we know a good deal about the order
in which various plants were domesticated in several
regions . . .[of Mesoamerica]. We still do not know
why they were domesticated, and it will certainly be
a long time before we do [Flannery 1973:287].
In several landmark articles, Kent Flannery
addressed this central processual question of why
(Flannery 1968, 1973), and in so doing, opened
up a broad new alternative perspective on explaining agricultural origins. Flannery's alternative
approach employed systems theory and ecosys-
348
tem analysis in an effort to "see aspects of this
prehistoric culture change which were not superficially apparent" (Flannery 1968:81). Combining
knowledge of present-day plant and animal communities in the Central and Southern Highlands
of Mexico with the Archaic period floral and faunal assemblages recovered from caves in
Tehuacin and Oaxaca, he identified a set of six
procurement systems employed by preceramic
hunter-gathererlincipient cultivator societies.
These six procurement systems focused on "a
small series of plant and animal genera whose
ranges cross-cut several environments" (Flannery
1968:82): (1) maguey, (2) cactus fruit, (3) tree
legumes, (4) white-tailed deer, (5) cottontail rabbit, and (6) wild grasses.
Flannery (1968:82-93) described the attributes
and seasonal availability of the species included
in these six procurement systems, as well as the
technology, scheduling, and settlement patterns
employed by hunter-gathererlincipient cultivator
societies in utilizing them. He also proposed that
the initial transition to food production could be
explained in terms of positive feedback and a
deviation-amplifying process that dramatically
expanded the importance of one of these procurement systems, that involving wild grasses. This
dramatic expansion, which "caused one minor
system to grow all out of proportion to the others,
and eventually to change the whole ecosystem of
the southern Mexican highlands" (Flannery
1968:94), began with early experiments with
plant cultivation sometime between 7000 and
4000 B.P., combined with a series of genetic
changes in a few key genera that, acting as a
"kick," allowed a deviation-amplifying system to
be established: "Starting with what may have
been (initially) accidental deviations in the system, a positive feedback network was established
which eventually made maize cultivation the
most profitable single subsistence activity in
Mesoamerica" (Flannery 1968:95).
Although Flannery focused on the expansion
of the wild grasses procurement system, and the
eventually central role to be played by maize in
the fanning economies of incipient cultivators, he
also included beans in his explanation, noting
both the nutritional advantages of combining the
two crops, and the settlement-subsistence system
changes necessitated by an increasing reliance on
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
"early maize-bean cultivation" between 7000 and
4000 B.P. (Flannery 1968:95-96).
In his 1973 article, Flannery again focused primarily on maize, but also provided a longer list of
early crop plants that were selected for cultivation, including beans, squashes, amaranth, chiles,
tomatoes, avocados, and numerous semitropical
fruits (Flannery 1973:287). He also expanded his
causal explanation in another direction by offering a possible answer to the core question of why
incipient cultivators first began selecting and
planting maize:
Highland Mesoamerica has great contrasts in wild
productivity between wet and dry years. Cultivation
might have arisen as an attempt to "even out" the difference between these extremes by increasing the
range of weedy, pioneer annuals, but we just don't
know for sure. Whatever the cause, the origins of Zea
cultivation amount to a deliberate increase in the
availability of an "emergency ration7'-one of the
few that could be increased on a yearly basis
[Flannery 1973:296].
Teosinte, the wild ancestor of maize, in turn:
"responded to cultivation and selection with a
series of favorable genetic changes which moved
it in the direction of maize. And this may have
tipped the balance in favor of increased attention
to the genus Zea on the part of man" (Flannery
1973:297). In his volume on Guili Naquitz,
Flannery (1986) considerably refined and
expanded the explanatory framework for
Mesoamerican agricultural origins outlined in his
1968 and 1973 publications and employed it in a
detailed consideration of the transition to food
production in Oaxaca.
In summary, Flannery's processual, causal
explanation, focused and refined over the years,
fell squarely within the larger cultural historylculture process debate of the 1960s and 1970s in
which explanatory frameworks such as the Era of
Incipient Cultivation were recognized as providing answers to a set of basic preliminary culture
history questions, while setting the stage for the
formulation of processual, causal explanations.
Flannery's processual explanation for the origin
of agriculture in Mesoamerica thus in large measure both replaced and "covered" the earlier Era
of Incipient Cultivation explanation and shifted it
to a supporting role.
This processual explanation, however, was not
firmly anchored to the cultural-historical founda-
Smith]
tion of "already answered" questions. While
accommodating a number of its general elements,
Flannery's account did not accept or rely on all of
the specifics of the Era of Incipient Cultivation
explanation and, in fact, took issue with it in a
number of respects. Two of the most important
general issues raised by Flannery had to do with
the accuracy of age estimates for the initial
appearance of domesticated crop plants and the
criteria employed to identify such early archaeobotanical specimens as domesticated plants.
Flannery cautioned archaeologists about
accepting the age assigned to early domesticates
by: "sensation-seeking opportunists who were
more concerned with finding the 'oldest domesticated plant' than with clarifying the processes by
which agriculture began" (1973:271), and suggested that "When they [archaeologists] see a
chart showing 'domestic beans' at 5000 B.C., and
only one single cotyledon is indicated-separated
by 2,000 years from the next oldest bean-they
might take it with a grain of salt." Flannery also
cautioned botanists regarding the various ways in
which plant materials can be moved down through
deposits: "I wish I could explain to every botanist
that while an archaeologist looks the other way for
one minute, a pack rat can bury an intrusive bean
50 centimeters deeper in his favorite dry cave"
(Flannery 1973:272). In terms of assigning
domesticated status to early plant materials,
Flannery (1973:272) also questioned
claims for domestication based on a single burned
seed, a single trampled rind, or a single crumpled pod.
In cases where the range of variation of the wild ancestor was not known (in fact, even in cases where the
actual species of wild ancestor was not known), we had
prestigious botanists assigning a single crushed specimen to a modern race-a race which in some cases
may have taken thousands of years to stabilize. These
were botanists who, under normal conditions, would
have argued that nothing less than 100 specimens-with a mean and standard deviation-was an adequate
sample, but perhaps the search for agricultural origins
is not a normal condition.
Citing Pickersgill, Flannery also raised the
possibility that early bottle gourd (Lagenaria
siceraria) remains in the Americas represent a
long-established wild plant of the American tropics, rather than, by default, an introduced domesticated crop (Flannery 1973:303, 306). Caution
was similarly urged in assessing the domesticated
349
status of early squashlpumpkin (Cucurbita) seeds
recovered from Mesoamerican caves (Flannery
1973:288). The scattered and isolated nature of
these early specimens was noted, as was the
potential difficulties involved in trying to distinguish the seeds of early domesticated Cucurbita
from wild plants, given that the range of variation
in seed size and shape in as yet unidentified wild
ancestor species remains undocumented
(Flannery 1973:300-301).
In addition to raising questions regarding the
true age and/or wild vs. domesticated status of
early bottle gourd, bean, and squash specimens,
Flannery also provided a lengthy overview of the
debate surrounding the antiquity and identity of
the wild ancestor of maize (Flannery
1973:290-300). Summarizing the views of
George Beadle and Walton Galinat, Flannery
joined them in concluding, for a variety of reasons, that teosinte is the wild ancestor of Zea
mays, and that the early maize cobs from
Tehuacin represent an early domesticated form of
the crop plant rather than evidence for a "wild
maize" progenitor. All of these concerns raised by
Flannery can now be seen to have pointed to a
number of promising research pathways. Almost
two decades would pass, however, before these
areas of inquiry identified by Flannery would be
pursued. The analytical tools and approaches
needed to address questions surrounding the
actual age and domesticated status of early
Mesoamerican crop plants, as well as the identity
of their wild ancestors, had not yet been developed.
Recent Reconsideration of the Antiquity of
Mesoamerican Domesticates
Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating (Gowlett 1987) is the most important
of the analytical advances made since Flannery's
1973 article. Increasingly employed in archaeology through the 1980s, AMS dating requires only
very small samples. Since it allows small specimens of early crop plants to be dated directly and,
therefore, bypasses all of the potential problems
inherent in relying on conventional radiocarbon
dates obtained on assumedly associated and contemporary organic materials, it has clear and
obvious applications to the issue of when plant
species were initially domesticated.
350
AMS dating was not employed in a reconsideration of the actual age of any Mesoamerican
domesticates until 1989 (Long et al. 1989), when
a series of 12 AMS dates were obtained on the
earliest maize cobs from Coxcatlin and San
Marcos caves in Tehuacin. Initially dated to 7000
B.P. based on conventional radiocarbon dates
obtained on material from the same habitation
layers (Figure 2), the earliest maize from
Tehuacin proved to date only to 3500 cal B.C. In
a parallel study (Benz and Iltis 1990), a detailed
morphological analysis of the early cobs from
San Marcos cave confirmed in detail earlier opinions (see Flannery 1973:293-294)-that the early
Tehuacin maize represented a domesticated
rather than a wild plant.
Even though these two related studies focused
on a single domesticate-maize-and
a single
region-Tehuacin-their
results served to rekindle the concerns raised much earlier by Flannery
regarding the actual age and domesticated status
of early Mesoamerican crop plants, in general,
and to draw attention to all of the associated temporal, geographical, and cultural aspects of the
Era of Incipient Cultivation. If the early primitive
maize from Tehuacin was not nearly as old as
previously thought, for example, then perhaps
other Mesoamerican crop plants also had a much
shorter history of domestication. This in turn
would call into question the long-term existence
of distinct and regionally specialized economies
in which a few local crop plants played minor
roles in otherwise hunting-and-gathering
economies. Perhaps the primary Mesoamerican
domesticates-maize, squashes, pumpkins, and
beans-were brought under domestication much
closer together temporally (and geographically?),
and were dispersed and combined into regional
crop complexes much more rapidly and readily
than previously thought. If the timetable of plant
domestication in Mesoamerica was substantially
shortened, it also would open up for reconsideration the environmental and cultural contexts of
initial cultivation. The search for new evidence of
early agriculturalists would need to expand into
different time periods and different environmental and geographical settings (Fritz 1994a, 1994b;
Smith 1995a, 1995b).
While rekindling the concerns raised by
Flannery, and drawing attention back to the Era of
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Incipient Cultivation in Mesoamerica, the
reanalysis of Tehuadn maize also underscored
the obvious need for similar studies that would
focus on other domesticated plant species and on
the other already extant regional archaeobotanical
sequences of Oaxaca and Tamaulipas. Kaplan has
undertaken a research program to reconfirm morphological markers of domestication and to
obtain direct AMS radiocarbon dates on early
archaeological specimens of beans (Phaseolus)
from Tamaulipas, Tehuacin, and throughout the
Americas (Kaplan 1993, 1995). In a parallel manner, the present study reconsiders the archaeological evidence for the early history of five primary
domesticates in the Ocampo caves of Tamaulipas:
bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), squash and
pumpkin (C. pepo, C. moschata, C. argyrosperma), and maize (Zea mays). To better document the specific cultural and temporal context of
the initial appearance and subsequent occurrence
of each of these crop plants in the Ocampo caves,
Romero's cave and Valenzuela's cave are considered separately rather than together. Discussion of
each cave begins with a brief summary characterization of the number, nature, size, and duration
of episodes of human habitation, along with the
associated excavation level, occupation number,
cultural zone, and temporaVcultura1phase assignments made by the cave's excavators. These culturavstratigraphic overviews are compiled from a
number of published articles, as well as archived
field notes and reports (i.e., Kelley 1954a, 1954b;
MacNeish 1954a, 1954b, 1954~).For both caves,
this brief occupation and excavation history is
followed by the results of reanalysis of the longcurated cucurbit materials (collections of the
Illinois State Museum) and maize (collections of
the Botanical Museum, Harvard University).
Basic descriptions of plant assemblages are provided for each of the five domesticates being considered, along with the criteria used in taxonomic
assignment, and they are placed within the stratigraphic and cultural sequences initially developed
for the two caves.
A total of 15 AMS dates on early cucurbit and
maize specimens from Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves are then employed to establish
more accurately when the five domesticated plant
species first occur in the archaeological sequence
of the Ocampo caves. In a concluding section, the
Smith]
Era of Incipient Cultivation is reconsidered in
light of this new AMS-based chronology for the
transition to agriculture in Tamaulipas.
The Ocampo Caves
The caves are located at an elevation of 1,500 m
as1 in the Infiernillo Canyon north of Ocarnpo in
the Sierra Madre mountains of Tamaulipas in
northeastern Mexico. Romero's cave (Tm c 247)
and Valenzuela's cave (Tm c 248) were excavated
respectively by Richard MacNeish and David
Kelley in February and March 1954 (Kelley
1954a, 1954b; MacNeish 1954a, 1954b, 1954~).
Valenzuela's cave is situated just below Romero's
cave, and the occupational histories of the two
caves overlap. As a result, the initial analysis and
interpretation of the sequence of human occupation of Romero's and Valenzuela's caves, along
with nearby Ojo de Agua cave (Tm c 274),
involved a combined presentation of information
from all three of the Ocampo caves, organized
into a series of eight cultural/temporal phases
developed by MacNeish (Figure 2).' Between
1957 and 1967, four landmark publications documented the occurrence of seven different domesticated crop plant species in the habitation layers
of the Ocampo caves. In a 1957 article the cucurbit seeds, rind fragments, and peduncles recovered from Romero's, Valenzuela's, and Ojo de
Agua caves were identified (Whitaker et al.
1957); based on these identifications, the occurrence of three squash species (Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. moschata, and C. pepo), as well as
bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), and a wild
Cucurbita gourd (labeled C. foetidissima), was
traced up through the sequence of eight cultural
phases established for the Ocampo region. Three
years later, in a similar fashion, the occurrence of
different types of domesticated common bean and
sieva bean (Phaseolus vulgaris and Phaseolus
lunatus) and a species of wild runner bean
(Phaseolus coccineus) was documented for the
Ocampo caves sequence (Kaplan and MacNeish
1960). In another pioneering study, the presence
of plant and animal materials in a total of 221
human paleofeces recovered from Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves was documented (Callen
1963). Finally, in 1967, the analysis of the more
than 12,000 specimens of maize (Zea mays)
recovered from the Ocampo caves was published
351
(Mangelsdorf et al. 1967a). Taken together, these
four reports presented an archaeobotanical
sequence that for the first time documented the
initial appearance of maize, beans, squashes, and
bottle gourd in a region of Mesoamerica. These
four publications, along with MacNeish's and
Kelley's archived catalogs, field notes, and draft
manuscripts, provide a solid basis for reconsidering the archaeobotanical evidence for early
domesticated plants in the Ocampo caves.
Romero's Cave (Tm c 247)
Measuring 20 m across and 24 m high at its
mouth, Romero's cave extends some 18 m into
the cliff face of Infiernillo Canyon.
Excavation and Initial Analysis. Taking note
of the extensive rock fall that covered the western
half of the cave floor, MacNeish extended his 7.6x-12-m (25 x 35 feet, east-west by north-south)
block excavation unit outward from its south
(back) and east walls (Figure 3).
Treasure seekers had previously dug five large
holes in this eastern half of the cave, and a pair of
1.5-mz (5-foot-square) excavation units bracketing one of these provided MacNeish with an initial vertical stratigraphic profile along the north
edge of his excavation area. This profile revealed
a sequence of cultural deposits resulting from
episodes of human occupation of the cave.
Frequently consisting largely of abundant and
well-preserved plant remains, along with animal
bones, projectile points, ceramics, and other culturally diagnostic artifacts and cultural debris,
these dark-colored occupation layers often were
interspersed with light-colored layers composed
of both ash, likely the product of wood fires
(Schiegl et al. 1994; Weiner et al. 1995), and what
the excavators identified as "cave dust."
By the time the block excavation was completed, 22 separate stratigraphic layers had been
uncovered in Romero's cave; 16 of these were
identified as resulting from episodes of human
occupation. Based on the presence of diagnostic
artifact types, primarily projectile points, other
lithic tool categories, and ceramics, these 16
occupation layers were assigned to a temporal
sequence of seven cultural complexes. Six radiocarbon dates helped establish the chronology of
cave occupation. The cave's 16 occupation layers
differed in thickness and horizontal extent, which
352
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Figure 3. Map of Romero's cave, showing MacNeish's 7.6-x-12-m (25 by 35 feet) block excavation unit and the estimated northward extent out from the back (south) wall of the cave of the 16 occupation layers in the cave (based on
MacNeish 1954a).
was thought to reflect seasonal occupations of
varying duration by either single-family
(microband) or multiple-family (macroband)
groups. MacNeish's characterizations of the size
of the occupying groups and their seasons of habitation of the cave, along with his estimates of the
volume of each occupation layer, are presented in
Table 1. The horizontal extent of each of the occupation layers is shown in Figure 3. Eight of the
first nine occupations were limited to the back 6
m of the cave (occupations la, 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 8, and
9), along with occupation 15; five of the final
seven occupations extended over much of the area
exposed in the block excavation (occupations 10,
11, 13, 14, and 16).
With a few exceptions, then, occupational lay-
ers in Romero's cave up until about 2600 B.P.
(occupations la-9) were restricted to the back
portion of the cave (less than or equal to 32 m2
within the block excavation), while those after
2600 B.P. extended over twice as large an area
(greater than 64 m' within the excavation unit). At
odds with this general pattern of expansion of
occupation area after 2600 B.P. are occupation 15,
restricted to the back of the cave, occupation 6,
which extended across much of the block excavation, and occupation 12, which extended across a
small area (about 11.5 mZ)in the front half of the
cave. Ceramics first appear in occupation layer 9
(MacNeish 1954a).
As MacNeish and his crew worked down
through the 16 occupation layers of Romero's
Smith]
cave in 1.5 m2excavation units, they sequentially
assigned field catalog numbers 1-323 to the particular levels of particular squares, as they were
excavated. Field catalog number 2471107, for
example, refers to all materials found in occupation layer 7 of excavation unit S25E5. The field
catalog for Romero's cave (MacNeish 1954~)
provides provenience information for each of the
323 field catalog numbers assigned during excavation, as well as an initial inventory of all materials recovered, listed by field catalog number,
excavation unit, and occupation layer. These field
catalog numbers, which were often written
directly on the larger archaeobotanical specimens
such as maize cobs, Lagenaria and Cucurbita
rind fragments and peduncles, frequently made it
possible both to reestablish the original provenience of plant materials from Romero's cave and
to cross-check current museum collections
against MacNeish's initial catalog inventory lists.
Subsequent to this initial inventory, maize
materials from Romero's cave were sent to
Mangelsdorf for analysis (Mangelsdorf et al.
1967a). The bean (Phaseolus) materials were
similarly studied by Kaplan (Kaplan and
MacNeish 1960), and the cucurbit specimens
were analyzed by Whitaker and Cutler (Whitaker
et al. 1957).
Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria). Two bottle gourd seeds, three possible peduncles, and 325
rind fragments were present in the Romero's cave
cucurbit collection. The two seeds were recovered
from occupation 10, while peduncles were found
in occupations 5, 13, and 16. Of the 325
Lagenaria rind fragments in the collection, 251
had sufficient provenience information to allow
them to be assigned to occupation layers within
Romero's cave (Table 2). Almost all of the bottle
gourd rind fragments from Romero's cave were
uncarbonized and relatively large, making it easy
to distinguish them, with a few exceptions, from
Cucurbita rind on the basis of both color and rind
thickness. The L. siceraria rind fragments ranged
in surface (epidermis) color from dark purplishgray through reddish-brown to (rarely) light yellow, and averaged more than 3 m m in thickness
(Table 2). Rind color and thickness are not always
reliable indicators of taxonomic group, however
(Ford 1986; Roberts 1995), and the assignment of
rind specimens in the Ocampo cave cucurbit
353
assemblages to L. siceraria was based on their
distinctive elongated, loosely organized, irregularly patterned inner cells (Cutler and Whitaker
1961:479; Roberts 1995:7-8).
As shown in Table 2, the average weight and
thickness of bottle gourd rind fragments remained
fairly consistent through the 16 occupation layers
of Romero's cave. In contrast, two related general
trends can be observed in terms of the relative
abundance of bottle gourd in occupation layers of
the cave. First, there is a marked increase in the
occurrence of bottle gourd specimens beginning
in occupation layer 8 (only nine L. siceraria specimens were recovered below occupation 8); and
second, in occupation layers 8-16, there is, not
surprisingly, a general correlation between the
estimated total volume of the layer and the abundance of bottle gourd fragments (Tables 1 and 2).
Lagenaria first appears in occupation layer 2
of Romero's cave, described as a 2.5-cm-thick
layer of vegetal material and characterized as a
brief occupation by a microband of the Ocampo
cultural complex (600M300 B.P.) (Table 1). A
sample of the single bottle gourd rind fragment
recovered from occupation 2 of the cave yielded
an AMS radiocarbon date of 5260
60 B.P.
(Beta 81974).
Squash and Pumpkin (Cucurbita). The
Romero's cave collection includes a total of 140
Cucurbita rind fragments, 287 seeds and seed
fragments, and 42 peduncles. The 140 Cucurbita
rind fragments from Romero's cave were almost
all uncarbonized and could be easily distinguished from bottle gourd rind on the basis of
both color and rind thickness. In contrast to the
Lagenaria rind fragments, which were thick and
usually dark in color, Romero's cave fragments of
Cucurbita rind were thin (usually less than 2.5
mrn) and light tan to brown in color. In addition,
their diagnostic cross-section cell structure-isodiametric with a regular configuration (Roberts
1995:7)--served to distinguish them from bottle
gourd.
Although no attempt was made to distinguish,
on the basis of rind cross-section morphology,
either between wild Cucurbita gourds and domesticated forms, or between different domesticated
taxa, there are still several general patterns to be
noted in the distribution of Cucurbita rind up
through the occupational episodes of Romero's
_+
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Table 1. Romero's Cave History of Occupation.
Cultural
Complex"
San Antonio
500-260 B.P.
Occupation
and Stratah
Strata Description'
Volume
Radiocarbon
(m')'
Age (Years B.P.)d
16
A
15
B
thick stratum with
abundant plant remains
cave dust
thin vegetal layer
16.2
spring-summer occupation
by macroband
14
C
thick vegetal layer
7.2
13
D
ash layer
thick vegetal layer
(2.5-10 cm)
16.7
12
E
thin dark ash and charcoal
1.1
11
FI
F
white ash and cave dust
thick brown vegetal layer
13.5
1720
10
G
solid mass of vegetal
material in back of cave to
thin layer in front
15.4
3440 f 250
9
H
thin ash layer and charcoal
2.2
8
I
thick vegetal material
5.4
7
JI
extremely thin yellowbrown ash
1.84
6
J
10.3
5
K
thin red-brown vegetal
layer
gray ash, some vegetal
material
4
L
brown vegetal material
(5-10 cm)
1.6
noncultural
short occupation by microband,
perhaps in the summer
noncultural
.6
cave dust
San Lorenzo
900-500 B.P.
Palmillas
1800-1100 B.P.
Occupation
Characterization'
seasonal occupation by a
macroband
noncultural
spring-summer occupation
by macroband
+
130
short summer occupation
by macroband
noncultural
numerous brief occupations by
small groups over a long period
La Florida
2400-1800 B.P.
Mesa de Guaje
3400-2400 B.P.
Guerra
3800-3400 B.P.
3650
k
250
4730 f 300
macroband occupation for several
seasons-may have been occupied
by farmers-om
planting through
harvest
brief macroband occupation
summer or fall; first ceramics
macroband seasonal occupation,
3-6 families
small group single-season occupation macroband, single season occupation
.6
microband, less than one
occupation
Flacco
4300-3800 B.P.
Ocampo
60004300 B.P.
3
MI
brown gray soil
2
M
NI
N
vegetal material (2.5 cm)
thin ash and dust layer
thin charcoal and vegetal
layer (5 cm)
1
Infiemillo
9000-7000 B.P.
la
01
ash and cave dust
0
P
dark brown charcoal
basal sand and gravel
4580
?
350
micro-macroband, spring-fall
occupation
.2
.2
5230
?
350
noncultural, material intruded
from occupation 4
brief microband occupation
noncultural
microband occupation late springearly summer?
noncultural
3.3
microband, summer occupation
noncultural
- --
Corresponds to cultural complex assignments in Kaplan and MacNeish (1960) and MacNeish (1954a).
hCorresponds to occupation numbers assigned in Kaplan and MacNeish (1960). which differ from those assigned in MacNeish
(1954a). Occupation 1 in MacNeish (1954a) becomes occupation l a in Kaplan and MacNeish (1960). occupation 2 becomes
occupation 1, and occupation 3 becomes a noncultural layer.
'Extracted from MacNeish (1954a, 1954b).
*Radiocarbon dates are from Kaplan and MacNeish (1960:Table 1) and Crane and Griffin (1958: 1104).
Table 2. Romero's Cave Lagenaria siceraria Rind Fragments.
Occupation
Layer
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Total
Excavation Units
Yielding Rind (n)
23
4
17
22
3
13
5
4
3
0
0
2
1
0
1
0
Rind
Fragments (n)
56
15
40
55
3
40
7
13
13
0
0
6
2
0
1
0
25 1
Rind Fragment Weight (gm)
Average
Range
Total
.99
1.35
.85
.78
.71
1.27
.70
1.09
.51
.18-5.72
.25-3.28
.17-6.06
.05-3.71
.44-.94
.10-6.07
.16-1.04
.19-2.91
.22-1.02
Rind Fragment
Thickness (mm)
Average
Range
55.3 1
20.3 1
34.34
43.11
2.15
5 1.88
4.93
10.96
4.62
3.73
3.94
3.64
3.57
4.21
3.38
3.88
3.69
3.13
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
.99
.84
-
.3 1
-
.94
.12-2.19
.01-1.67
-
.3 1
-
5.91
1.68
-
.31
-
235.51
4.49
3.50
2.09-9.40
2.37-4.62
2.64-6.79
2.17-6.01
2.83-6.57
1.76-4.78
2.894.97
2.54-4.84
2.38-3.92
-
3.55-4.68
2.514.49
-
3.08
3.08 -
-
3.68
-
Note: The following had incomplete provenience information and were not included in Table 2: 8 17154li-provenience written
on paper envelope: "occupation 5" (field tag reads 316e, indicating burial 2, occupation 81, no field catalog numbers written on
rind fragments (15 rind fragments, total weight 14.31 gm, maximum thickness 3.25 mm); 8171541i-no provenience written on
paper envelope, no field catalog numbers written on rind fragments (42 rind fragments, total weight 17.54 gm, maximum thickness 2.88 mm);8171541ae-provenience written on paper envelope: "occupation 13," no field catalog numbers written on rind
fragments (1 rind, .47 gm, 3.96 mm thick); 8171541h-field catalog number given on envelope: "247112" (which would have
been occupation 4), no field catalog numbers written on rind fragments (weights and thickness, gms, and mm: .13, 3.37; .13,
2.75; .04, 2.69; .03, 2.93; .15, 3.35); 817154lg-provenience written on paper envelope: "occupation 4," no field catalog numbers written on rind fragments (weights and thickness, gm and mm: .56, 3.23; .37, 2.02; .16, 1.94; .15, 2.05; .lo, 2.04; .13, 2.98;
.10,2.20; .11,2.29; .13, 2.31; .11,2.80; .10,2.56).
cave. Even though the average thickness of rind
fragments remained quite consistent throughout
the occupation of the cave, they show a marked
increase in average size and, as was the case with
bottle gourd, in abundance (total weight) after
occupation 8, particularly in occupations 11, 13,
and 16 (Table 3).
Cucurbita fruits are attached to the vine by a
short stem or stalk, also called a peduncle (from
the Latin for "little foot"). These fruit stalks or
peduncles, if well preserved, have long been characterized as the best diagnostic tool available for
the identification of archaeological specimens of
Cucurbita at the species level (Cutler and
Whitaker 1961:474, 476; Whitaker 1981:462;
Whitaker and Cutler 1965:344-346).Wf the 42
Cucurbita peduncles recovered from Romero's
cave, 23 could be confidently sorted into one of
three types, based on their morphology (Table 4).
The 10 type 1 peduncles (2471 11, 12, 16, 26,
54, 55, 70, 71, 102, 183) all have 10 very promi-
nent, ropy, and rounded parallel ridges, perpendicular to the base, with deep intervening creases
or furrows. These rounded ridges, often alternating five large and five small around the peduncle,
have basal lobes that often noticeably round
under prior to attachment with the fruit (Figure 4).
Although angling gradually outward to form a
large, roughly pentangular base (average maximum basal diameter: 32.5 mm, range 19.4-42.4
rnrn),these rounded ridges do not flare abruptly at
the base, nor do they coalesce to form an encircling basal peduncular ridge or shelf. Interridge
creases extend through to the bottom of the
peduncle. In 8 of 10 specimens convex discs of
rind were still attached to the peduncle base.
These type 1 peduncles fit the brief general
profile for C. pep0 fruit stems outlined by Cutler
and Whitaker (1961:476): "hard, usually with
deep furrows; flaring slightly or not at all at base;
roughened by coarse setae [hairs]." Whitaker et
al. (1957:Figures 5a, 6a) identified the two type 1
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Table 3. Romero's Cave Cucurbita Rind Fragments.
Excavation Units
Yielding Rind (n)
Occupation
Layer
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Total
Rind
Fragments (n)
10
3
8
11
2
8
3
2
1
0
0
1
2
1
1
0
Average
Range
Total
16
7
11
23
3
13
6
3
1
0
0
25
15
1
16
0
140
.42
.77
.36
.64
.44
.38
.3 1
.43
.06
-
.I0
.14
.O1
.I0
-
.03-1.20
.29-1.69
.08-1.26
.08-1.39
.29-.64
.01-.82
.20-.83
.02-.68
.06
A
-
.01-.65
.08-.78
.01
.01-.22
-
6.85
5.41
4.00
14.76
1.33
4.92
1.88
1.30
.06
Rind Fragment
Thickness (mm)
Average
Range
1.95
1.86
1.86
2.18
1.97
1.52
1.44
2.49
1.76
-
-
-
-
2.18
2.08
.01
1.57
1.67
1.96
1.73
1.86
-
-
.65-3.21
1.45-2.79
1.60-2.35
1.04-3.84
1.21-2.87
.87-2.25
1.25-1.85
2.19-2.64
1.76 A
1.40-1.83
1.57-2.51
1.73
1.65-2.46
A
46.35
Table 4. Romero's Cave Cucurbita Peduncles.
Occupation
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
?
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
1
3
I
1
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
Cucurbita sp.
Total
3
1
3
5
3
1
6
3
1
6
3
2
3
1
1
1
1
2
4
1
1
4
1
6
1
19
42
2
L 1
Total
10
11
peduncles shown in Figure 4 as representing C.
pepo. In addition, the peduncles shown in Figure
4 can be seen to compare favorably in terms of
size and general morphology with the three modern peduncles shown in Figure 5, which belong to
cultivated types of C. pepo ssp. pepo (Decker
1986), the major lineage of C. pepo that originated in Mexico.
The 11 type 2 peduncles (247132, 67, 68, 88,
2
131, 180, 183, 187, 214, 223, 260) can be clearly
distinguished from type 1 peduncles. They are
smaller (average maximum basal diameter: 22.0
mm, range 15.4-27.1 mm), with almost no overlap
in size with type 1 peduncles (Figure 6). Rather
than having 10 parallel ridges, type 2 peduncles
have five large ridges, interspersed not with deep
creases but with broad, shallow, and rounded furrows or indentations. These ridges terminate in
Smith]
357
Figure 4. Type 1 Cucurbita peduncles from Romero's cave, showing the distinctive pattern of 10 alternating major and
minor ridges and deep intervening furrows, and the absence of a basal peduncular ridge (left: 247155, S25, occupation
11, width at base 32.2 mm, illustrated by Whitaker et al. 1957:355, Figure 6; right: 2471102, S2OE5, occupation 13,
width at base 32.0 mm, illustrated by Whitaker et al. 1957:355, Figure 5).
lobes (sometimes prominent) at the peduncle base,
with the lobes in turn connected by a distinctive
basal ridge or shelf that occasionally exhibits
minor lobes and intemdge depressions (Figure 7).
As is the case with interridge creases in type 1
peduncles, intact setae (hairs) can be seen in the
intemdge depressions of type 2 peduncles.
Type 2 peduncles fit the brief general profile
for Cucurbita moschata fruit stems outlined by
Cutler and Whitaker (1961:476) and Nee
(1990:63): hard, with shallow, smoothly rounded
and angled furrows, widely expanded, and flaring
at the fruit attachment (Figure 8). Whitaker et al.
(1957: 156) identified 12 Cucurbita moschata
peduncles during their initial analysis of the
Ocarnpo caves' Cucurbita assemblage, which is
quite close to the 11 Romero's cave peduncles
classed as type 2 in the present s t ~ d yThe
. ~ earliest type 2 peduncle (247168) occurs in occupation
9 of Romero's cave (Table 1). A small sample of
this peduncle yielded an AMS radiocarbon date of
2620 B.P. f 60 (Beta 91410).
Only two peduncles (247145, 247171) were
assigned to type 3 in the present study. These
peduncles are large (maximum basal diameter:
3 1.2 and 48.8 mm), thick, and, rather than flaring
at the base, they are cylindrical to somewhat bulbous (Figure 9). Both are roughly oval in crosssection, lack the distinctive well-defined ridges of
types 1 and 2, and are corky in appearance. The
larger of the two (247/45), which is not complete,
has three ridges intact, each of which is broad and
flat to gently rounded, with a central groove, giving the impression that each ridge consists of two
smaller parallel conjoined ridges. Each of these
smaller ridges has a distinctive vertical line or
central "appliquC strip."
These type 3 peduncles fit the general descriptions of mature fruit stems of C. argyrospenna
(Cutler and Whitaker 1961:478; Fritz 1994~281;
Memck 1989:62) (Figure 10): thickened, corky,
roughly cylindrical in shape, often with five
smooth vertical lines occupying the positions
where lobes had been when the fruiting stem was
immature. The earliest type 3 peduncle (247171)
occurs in occupation 6 of Romero's cave (Table 1).
358
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Figure 5. Modern peduncles of Cucurbita pepo, showing alternating major and minor ridges, prominent basal lobes,
and the absence of a basal peduncular ridge (left: variety "Criolla Mexico," width at base 34.6 mm; center: variety
"Austrian Bush," width at base 24.5 mm; right: variety "Verte non Careuse dlItalia," width at base 26.2 m. Peduncles
courtesy of Glenn Downs, Seed Savers Exchange).
A small sample of this peduncle yielded an AMS
radiocarbon date of 4450 + 60 B.P. (Beta 8 1975).
A total of 100 Cucurbita seed fragments, along
with 187 largely intact seeds (including 164 that
yielded both length and width measurements),
were present in the Romero's cave collections.
These seeds and seed fragments were distributed
in a very distinctive horizontal and vertical stratigraphic pattern throughout the cave's deposits.
Cucurbita seeds first occur in occupation layers 4 and 5. The seven seeds and 26 fragments
assigned to these two occupations were recovered
from four adjacent squares along the back wall of
the cave (Table 5, Figure 3). This general distrib-
15
20
25
utional pattern continues through occupation
layer 11. Occupations 7 and 10 contained a total
of 147 seeds and 69 fragments, all of which were
recovered from just two excavation units along
the back wall of the cave and may represent fecal
deposits (Table 5). Similarly, the 24 seeds and 5
fragments recovered from occupation layers 8, 9,
and 11 were distributed across five squares in the
rear of the cave. In total, eight squares along the
rear of the cave yielded all of the seed fragments
and all but one of the 178 Cucurbita seeds recovered from occupations 4-1 1 (95 percent of the
Romero's cave Cucurbita seed assemblage).
In contrast, eight of the nine seeds recovered
30
35
40
45
MAXIMUM BASAL PEDUNCLE DIAMETER (mm)
TYPE 1 (n=9)
TYPE 2 (n=11)
Figure 6. Maximum basal peduncle diameter (mm) for 20 type 1 and type 2 specimens from Romero's cave.
Smith]
359
Figure 7. Type 2 Cucurbita peduncles from Romero's cave, showing the distinctive pattern of five large ridges interspersed with broad shallow and rounded indentations and a basal peduncular ridge (left: 2471131, S15 E15, occupation 14, width at base 27.1 mm; right: 2471183, SlOElO,occupation 16, width at base 26.5 mm).
Figure 8. Modern peduncles of Cucurbita moschata, showing five large ridges interspersed with broad shallow and
rounded indentations, and a basal peduncular ridge (left: variety "Long Cheese," width at base 38.9 mm; right: variety "Waltham Butternut," width at base 23.8 mm. Peduncles courtesy of Glenn Downs, Seed Savers Exchange).
360
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Figure 9. 5 p e 3 Cucurbita peduncles from Romero's cave, showing distinctive bulbous form and corky appearance
(left: 247145, S25W5, occupation 11, width at base 44.7 mm; right: 247171, S25E5, occupation 6, width at base 30.3
mm, yielded an AMS date of 4450 5 60 B.P.).
from occupations 12-16 (along with one seed
from occupation 11) were recovered from nine
squares along the east wall of the cave and two
squares just north of the Cucurbita seed concentration in occupations 4-1 1 at the rear of the cave
(Table 5, Figure 3). A single isolated seed was
recovered from excavation unit W5 in the northwest corner of the block excavation.
The group of seeds from occupations 4-11,
near the rear wall, form a relatively tight size cluster (Figure 11, Table 5), with mean length and
width values for these levels ranging from
12.2-14.6 mm and 6.7-9.4 mm, respectively.
When considered together, the 155 measurable
seeds recovered from occupations 4-1 1 have
mean length and width values of 12.7 and 8.3 mm,
with coefficient of variation values for length and
width of 8.6 and 9.0. Based on her comparative
consideration of seeds from 50 modern Cucurbita
fruits representing four species, King
(198587-88) suggested that groups of seeds with
coefficients of variation less than 6.5 probably
represent a single fruit, fruit from the same vine,
or possibly fruit from an isolated population.
Coefficient of variation values from approximately 6.5 to 14 probably represent multiple,
closely related fruit; coefficients of variation values above 14.0 may indicate the presence of seeds
from unrelated fruit. Based on these coefficient of
variation values for modern C. pepo, the seed
assemblage from occupations 4-1 1 in Romero's
cave would appear to reflect a single isolated variety of Cucurbita, with the largest single grouping
(87 seeds from occupation 7) perhaps representing seeds from a single fruit or single plant. In
contrast, the eight seeds from occupations 12-1 6
along the east wall, which are all much larger in
size than those in occupations 4-1 1 (Figure 1I),
with mean length and width values of 18.7 mm
and 11.7 mm, also have much higher coefficient
of variation values for seed length (17.7) and seed
width (13.3), likely indicating an expansion of
Smith]
361
Figure 10. Modern peduncles of Cucurbita argyrosperma, showing bulbous form, corky appearance, and distinctive
vertical lines on ridges (left: unspecified variety, width at base 47.6 mm, courtesy of Kevin Dahl, Native Seeds Search;
right: variety "Big White Crook Neck," width at base 36.4 mm, courtesy of Glenn Downs, Seed Savers Exchange).
exhibit a prominent ridge along the inner edge of
cultivar varieties grown after occupation 10.
Numerous different physical attributes have the seed margin. In addition, type 1 seeds have
been considered in efforts to sort Cucurbita seeds marginal hairs that are relatively short, although
into taxonomic categories at the species and sub- they are not always well preserved. When still
species level, including color, size, widtMength present, these hairs are "rooted" along the inside
ratios, seed outline, seed scar shape, surface tex- edge of the marginal ridge, and extend up and
ture and hairiness, and shape and size of the seed over this ridge and out onto the margin itself for
edge or margin (e.g., Burgess-Terrel 1979; only a short distance, leaving much of the margin
Decker 1984, 1986). While a number of these exposed or "naked." In type 1 seeds recovered
seed attributes, particularly seed body and seed both from archaeological contexts and from fruits
margin color and texture, have been successfully left broken and abandoned in modem fields, maremployed to sort modem seeds, they have often ginal hairs have often separated from the ridge
proven difficult to apply in the analysis of less- and remain as a line of "tufted" broken and intact
well-preserved Cucurbita seeds recovered from hairs of varying length (Figure 12).
When compared with more than 100 seed
archaeological contexts.
With the possible exception of a single seed accessions of different modem cultivated varieties
from occupation layer 13, all of the Cucurbita of C. pepo, C. moschata, C. argyrosperma,and C.
seeds from Romero's cave share two key morpho- jicifolia, the margin characteristics of the type 1
logical characteristics, allowing them to be seeds briefly described above conform closely
classed as type 1: they all have margins that are and consistently to seeds of C. pepo, while differrelatively hard, smooth, and uniformly rounded in ing from the seeds of the other three species.
Three samples from type 1 seeds were submitappearance, and they all, to varying degrees,
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
g
z
z
2
-
w
'"
m w 2
2 L
i
-S
5
-
W
"r:
W
r:
0
f
r:
,
0 , -
b.
4
d
4
VI wl
s
2
2
o
m
m
8 8%
;;;;3
2 2 2
*
P: 2
m
2
r :I s wmq w
W
m
-4
w
C,
d
l,
I
w 09w
2
I
wlwlwlwl
t-"
a
5
U
-"
e
3Y
m
2
m
~
3
%
2 2 2
l
m
m
I
m
d
r-
e!
W
z
2
w
wl wl
F
"
"3 2 2 * $
I
02'0
m
*-?
VI wl
1
b. " P :
COt-m
I
0
m
N
o m ,
z
m
1" - " . 9
202-m
1
z
0
-
-r
1
W
W
w
-
2
Y
l
,
,
N N
wl wl
wlwl
t-
0
& m a \
m
~
m
wlwlwl
m
Smith]
OCCUPATION LAYER 7
OCCUPATION LAYER 10
OCCUPATION LAYERS 4,5,8,9,11
OCCUPATION LAYERS 11,12,13,14,16
B.P. SEED WIDTH (mm)
Figure 11. Length and width measurements for type 1 Cucurbita seeds from different occupation layers of Romero's
cave.
364
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Figure 12. Scanning electron micrograph of a type 1 Cucurbita seed from Romero's cave, showing distinctive marginal
hairs extending a short distance out onto the seed margin, which is relatively smooth and uniformly rounded in
appearance (247158, S25, occupation 7, seed RC 81, scale bar-1 mm).
ted for AMS radiocarbon age determinations.
Two of these, from occupation layer 4, representing the earliest Cucurbita seeds recovered from
Romero's cave, yielded dates of 5290 k 70 (Beta
91407) and 5050 k 50 B.P. (Beta 91408). A seed
from occupation layer 7 produced a date of 4480
k 60 (Beta 91409).
A single seed (seed RC 186, 2471267, W5)
from occupation 13 and measuring 17.9 x 11.6
mm was assigned to type 2, based on margin and
hair characteristics somewhat distinct from those
described for type 1 seeds. The "hairs" on this
specimen (which actually form a solid layer) were
much longer than those of type 1 seeds, and, in
fact, extended from the inner edge of the marginal
ridge on one side of the seed completely around
the seed margin to where they were again firmly
rooted along the inner edge of the marginal ridge
on the other side of the seed. This unbroken
envelopment of the seed margin by a "hair" layer
appears to be a distinctive characteristic of C.
moschata; as a result, the single type 2 seed
recovered from Romero's cave could reasonably
be assigned to this species.
Maize (Zea mays). The initial analysis of
maize from the Ocampo caves in the 1960s
(Mangelsdorf et al. 1967a) focused almost
entirely on the materials recovered from
Romero's cave. Of the 12,000 maize specimens
included in the study, only a single cob from
Valenzuela's cave was included (Mangelsdorf et
al. 1967a:3&37), along with several specimens of
apparent teosinte and Tripsacum. A total of 3,015
of the 3,472 maize cobs and cob fragments in the
Romero's cave assemblage were classified into
nine categories, based on their resemblance to
existing races of maize in Mexico, with about
two-thirds assigned to the Chapalote complex (17
pre-Chapalote, 133 early Chapalote, 1,546 tripsacoid Chapalote, 37 1 Chapalote [Mangelsdorf et
al. 1967a:37]).
For this study, a survey of the Ocampo caves'
maize collections was narrowly focused on
obtaining AMS radiocarbon samples from the
earliest cobs recovered from both Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves to determine when maize first
appeared in the occupational history of these two
adjacent sites. In Romero's cave, maize first
occurs in occupation level 7. Of the nine specimens of maize recovered from occupation 7, field
notes indicated that five came from "badly pitted"
or "disturbed" contexts. Two of the four remain-
Smith]
ing cob fragments, obtained from "relatively
undisturbed" contexts and labeled as "early corn,"
were submitted for AMS radiocarbon dates,
yielding age determinations of 3930 k 50 B.P.
(Beta 85431) and 2560 f 60 B.P. (Beta 85432).
Valenzuela's Cave (Tm c 248)
Located directly below Romero's cave on the
cliff face of the south wall of Infiernillo Canyon,
Valenzuela's cave (Tm c 248) contains two
chambers. With an opening to the northwest and
a low ceiling, the east chamber is the larger of the
two and contained most of the evidence of human
occupation. The west chamber opens to the north
and is narrower, with a higher ceiling (Figure
13).
Excavation and Initial Analysis. Under the
direction of David Kelley, block excavation units
were opened up in both chambers of the cave,
exposing a stratigraphic history of human occupation that paralleled, in many ways, the habitation episodes of nearby Romero's cave. Eight
occupation layers were defined in the east chamber of Valenzuela's cave. As was the case in
Romero's cave, these occupation layers contained
well-preserved plant remains, animal bones, culturally diagnostic artifacts and other debris, and
were occasionally separated by noncultural zones
of ash and "cave dust." Only the final two of the
eight occupations present in the east chamber
were represented in the west chamber (Table 6).
Each of these occupation layers was assigned
to a cultural complex; three radiocarbon dates
helped to define the time periods during which the
cave was occupied. Kelley's interpretations of the
size of the occupying group (microband or macroband) and their possible seasons of habitation
of the cave, along with estimates of the volume of
each occupation layer, are presented in Table 6
(Kelley 1954a). The horizontal extent of each of
the occupation layers is shown in Figure 13.
As was the case in Romero's cave, the occupations of Valenzuela's cave that are more recent
than 2600 B.P. (occupations 7 and 8) were extensive in area and volume (> 17 m'), while those
before 3500 B.P. were smaller in size and volume
(< 4 m3)and apparently represented smaller occupying group (Table 6). The somewhat scattered,
noncontinuous distribution of occupations 1-6
(Figure 13), and the frequent reference to their
365
"patchy" nature, underscores Kelley's characterizations of these lower occupation layers as often
disturbed by the numerous pits dug down into the
cave floor both by the occupation 7 and 8 inhabitants of the cave and by subsequent treasure
hunters. Ceramics first appear in occupation layer
7 (Kelley 1954a:95, 97).
The same cataloging system was employed in
Valenzuela's cave as was used in Romero's cave.
The field catalog for Valenzuela's cave (Kelley
1954b) provides provenience information for
each of the 152 field catalog numbers assigned
during excavation. It also represents an initial
inventory of all materials recovered from the
cave, listed by field catalog number, excavation
unit, and occupation layer. It was often possible,
using original field catalog numbers, to both
reestablish the original provenience of plant
materials from Valenzuela's cave and to crosscheck current museum collections against
Kelley's catalog inventory lists. Along with the
Romero's cave collections, the maize from
Valenzuela's cave was analyzed by Mangelsdorf
et al. (1967a), the beans by Kaplan and
MacNeish (1960), and the cucurbit material by
Whitaker et al. (1957).
Bottle Gourd (Lugenaria siceraria). No bottle
gourd seeds or peduncles were present in the
Valenzuela's cave cucurbit collection. Lagenaria
rind fragments were distinguished from
Cucurbita on the basis of color (dark red to reddish brown), rind thickness, and distinctive crosssection cell anatomy. A total of 106 bottle gourd
rind fragments were recovered from Valenzuela's
cave (Table 7). Of these, only 56 had sufficient
provenience information to allow them to be
assigned to occupation layers.
Generally comparable to the Lugenaria assemblage from Romero's cave in terms of both rind
fragment size and thickness, these 56 specimens
were all recovered from occupation 6 and 7 contexts in Valenzuela's cave. Occupation layer 6 was
often difficult to distinguish from the underlying
occupation 5 layer in the cave, however, which
was only occasionally separated from it by a thin
intervening noncultural layer of white ash (Table
6). It was not surprising, then, that the sample of
bottle gourd rind fragment identified as being
from occupation 6 yielded an AMS radiocarbon
date of 5670 k 60 B.P. (Beta 81976), indicating
366
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Occupat~on5
N?5
N30
Nli
rrin
PIC,
Occupation 2
Occupation 6
.. N25
-(
.. N?5
.. N20
N15
,
.
.
. . ./
. . .
-
.. NO:
.. N l i
N10
!
.-N i
,LL.
0
..
S5
.
$C,
-. N75
..
N?'
..
Niu
.- NT!
N15
.. NICi
-. ST0
I
"
w10
wir,
'
I
SZO
ivv
,
"0
Occupat~on3
,
:,!I,
Occupat~on7
.-
.
.. N5
1
W10
WIO
!\,I,
-
Occupation 4
.. N75
-(
.. N l 5
WlO
N10
.-_L.
,:
- N?',
-. N70
..
1
W70
Nln
.. N5
FlO
.
-. SlO
SM
Figure 13. Maps of Valenzuela's cave, showing Kelly's block excavation units in the east and west chambers, and the
excavation units that yielded specimens assigned to the eight occupation layers of the cave. Individualexcavationunits
measure 1.52 m (5 feet) on a side (based on Kelley 1954a, 195413).
Table 6. Valenzuela's Cave History of Occupation
Cultural
Complex"
Occupation
and Stratab
Strata Description
Volume
Radiocarbon
( m y Age (Years B.P.)d
Occupation
Characterization'
San Antonio
500-260 B.P.
8
A
top vegetal stratum
brownish (5-15 cm)
16.2
macroband occupation for at least a
season
San Lorenzo
900-500 B.P.
7
B
thick layer of gray ash
with occasional vegetal
layers
24.3
macroband for more than a
season-may have been a number
occupations
Flacco
4300-3800 B.P.
6
C
thin vegetal layer often
confused with layer 5
.6
D
E
white ash and cave dust 5
Ocampo
6000-4300 B.P.
Infiemillo
3
9000-7000 B .P.
2
1
microband occupation for less than
a season
noncultural
extensive vegetal layer
(5-7.5 cm)
small patches of gray ash and cave dust
vegetal patches (up to 5 cm
thick)
2.2
1.4
microband occupation late springearly summer
H
yellowish ash (5-10 cm)
3.3
I
J
thin reddish vegetal layer
gravel layer
4.1
microband seasonal occupation
(summer?)
macroband-short occupation
F
4
3945 ? 334
G
5650 ? 350
macroband seasonal occupation
noncultural
8200 ? 450
temporary occupation by a small
moup
-
"Corresponds to cultural complex assignments in Kaplan and MacNeish (1960) and Kelley (1954a). bKelley (1954a:76) and MacNelsh (Kaplan and MacNeish 1960:34) provide different numbering schemes for the human occupation layers in Valenzuela's cave. The numbering systems are the same up through occupation 4, but above occupation 4, a layer of gray ash is considered as noncultural by Kelley and not assigned an occupation layer number. MacNeish, however, designates it as occupation 5, thus resulting in a renumbering of all of Kelley's subsequent occupations in the cave: Kelley's occupation 5 becomes 6 in Kaplan and MacNeish 1960:34, 6 becomes 7, 7 becomes 8, and 8 becomes 9. To avoid confusion in working with the original field notes, Kelley's numbering system is used here. <Extractedfrom Kelley (1954a and 1954b). that it, in fact, was from the occupation 5 habitation layer in the cave.
Squash and Pumpkin (Cucurbita). The
Valenzuela's cave cucurbit collection includes
146 Cucurbita rind fragments, 134 seeds and seed
fragments, and 4 peduncles. The Cucurbita rind
fragments could easily be distinguished from bottle gourd rind on the basis of their light tan color,
their distinctive cross-section cell structure, and
their thinness(<2.5 mm). Like the distributional
pattern of Lagenaria (Table 7), Cucurbita rind
fragments first occur in occupation 5 and increase
in abundance in occupations 6,7, and 8 (Table 8).
In contrast to Romero's cave, which yielded 42
Cucurbita peduncles, only four were recovered
from Valenzuela's cave, all from occupation 7.
Three of these peduncles were classed as type 1
(C. pepo) and one as type 2 (C. moschata). Of the
three type 1 peduncles (2481121, 130, 132), one
(2481132) likely represents a wild Cucurbitapepo
gourd, based on its 10 ridges and small size (maximum basal diameter: 10.3 mm). Like those
recovered from Romero's cave, the single type 2
peduncle from Valenzuela's cave (2481132) has
five prominent rounded ridges interspersed with
broad shallow indentations, a flat shelf connecting basal lobes, and a maximum basal diameter of
22.5 mm. A small sample of this type 2 peduncle
yielded an AMS radiocarbon date of 1550 k 60
B.P. (Beta 91411).
A total of 64 Cucurbita seed fragments and 70
largely intact seeds, including 62 that provided
both length and width measurements, were present in the Valenzuela's cave collections (Table 9).
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Table 7. Valenzuela's Cave Lugenaria siceraria Rind Fragments
Occupation
Layer
Excavation Units
Yielding Rind (n)
7
6
No Provenience
Rind
Fragments (n)
13
10
Average
Range
Total
42
14
50
.56
.36
.38
.05-3.38
.05-1.8
.01-2.29
23.83
5.03
19.02
Rind Fragment
Thickness (mm)
Average
Range
3.11
3.02
3.36
2.06-4.42
2.344.94
1.90-5.89
Table 8. Valenzuela's Cave Cucubrita Rind Fragments.
Occupation
Layer
Excavation Units
Yielding Rind (n)
Average
Range
Total
Rind
Fragments (n)
All of these seeds and seed fragments were recovered from the final four occupation layers (5-8) of
the cave.
Although the Valenzuela's cave Cucurbita
seed assemblage does not have a distinctive
changing pattern of spatial distribution up
through the occupation layers, it does exhibit a
trend similar to Romero's cave in terms of stratigraphicltemporal change in seed size and vari-
Rind Fragment
Thickness (mm)
Average
Range
ability. The 22 measurable seeds from occupations 5 and 6 form a relatively tight size cluster
(Figure 14). The mean seed length and width values for occupations 5 (12.4, 8.6 mm) and 6 (12.1,
8.2 mm) are similar to the cumulative mean
length and width values (12.7, 8.3 mm) for the
lower occupations (4-1 1) in Romero's cave. The
coefficient of variation values for length and
width for occupations 5 (8.7, 6.1) and 6 (9.1,
Table 9. Valenzuela's Cave Type 1 Cucurbitu seeds.
Occupation
5
Seed fragments
Seeds
Sample size
Length (mm)
Mean
Range
S.D.
C.V.
Width (mm)
Mean
Range
S.D.
C.V.
Widthllength ratio (means)
Excavation units
yielding seeds (SE comer of
square)
32
16
II
6
2
II
II
7
8
14
12
8
0
25
20
12.4
11.2-14.5
1.08
8.7
12.1
10.4-13.6
1.10
9.1
15.1
12.4-19.9
2.01
13.3
13.9
11-19.5
1.89
13.6
8.6
7.7-10.3
.75
6.11
.69
8.2
7.0-9.3
.87
10.6
.68
9.2
7.6-11.7
1.07
11.6
.61
9.4 7.5-1 1.7 .97
10.37
.68
S5
S10
S15E10
N5E30
E20
N5E30
N5E20
SIOE5
S15E10
NIOE25
N5EIO
S 10E25
S10
No
Provenience
Total
22
4
4
64
70
62
8
1
4
I
5
I
6
I
I
I
7
8
9
I
10
I
11
I
12
SEED WIDTH (mm)
Figure 14. Length and width measurements for type 1 Cucurbita seeds from different occupation layers in Valenzuela's
cave.
370
10.6) are similar to those of occupations 4-11 in
Romero's cave (8.6,9.0), and they too fall into the
6.5-14 range suggested by King (1985) as probably indicating multiple, closely related fruit.
In contrast, the coefficient of variation values
for seed length increase substantially in occupations 7 (13.3) and 8 (13.6) of Valenzuela's cave,
reflecting the expansion of cultivated types of
Cucurbita grown after occupation 6. This expansion of varieties of pumpkin in occupations 7 and
8 of Valenzuela's cave is well illustrated in Figure
14. While occupations 7 and 8, on the one hand,
yielded seeds in the same size range as occupations 5 and 6, suggesting the continued cultivation
of a long-established "small-seeded" variety of
Cucurbita, the upper two occupations also contained seeds that were distinctive in being longer
and having a lower widtMength (WL) ratio,
indicating a thinner seed relative to seed length.
This is similar to the pattern observed in
Romero's cave, where larger, relatively thinner
seeds having a lower W/L ratio dominated the
seed assemblages after occupation 10.
All of the Cucurbita seeds from Valenzuela's
cave exhibit distinctive seed margin characteristics allowing them to be assigned to seed type 1
(which compares favorably to modern C. pep0
seeds). "Rooted" along the inside edge of the
marginal ridge, the marginal "hairs" of type 1
seeds are short, extending up and over the ridge
and only a short distance out onto the seed margin itself, which remains smooth and uniformly
rounded on the vast majority of the Valenzuela's
cave type 1 seeds. These hairs often form a line
of "tufted" broken and intact hairs of varying
length.
Three samples from type 1 seeds were submitted for AMS radiocarbon age determinations.
Two of these, from occupation layer 5, representing the earliest Cucurbita seeds recovered from
the cave, yielded dates of 5540 k 60 (Beta
80801) and 5260 k 50 B.P. (Beta 80800). A third
seed, lacking exact provenience information but
labeled "occupation 415" produced a date of 4920
_t 60 B.P. (Beta 80802).
Maize (Zea mays). The Valenzuela's cave
maize collections were surveyed to obtain AMS
radiocarbon samples from the earliest secure
stratigraphic contexts, to determine when maize
first appeared in the occupational history of the
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
site. Maize first appears in occupation 6 of
Valenzuela's cave. Of the three excavation units
that yielded occupation 6 context maize remains,
one contained leaf fragments, another stalk fragments, while the third square contained several
cobs. One of these, a small intact cob 47.4 mm in
length and 14 mm in diameter (Figure 15) yielded
an AMS radiocarbon date of 3890 ? 60 B.P.
(Beta 85433). Moving up in the occupational
sequence of the cave, 13 excavation units contained maize specimens in occupation 7 contexts,
with cob fragments recovered from only 6 of
these. One of these cob fragments, from a secure
occupation 7 context, provided an AMS radiocarbon date of 1380 4 60 B.P. (Beta 85434).
Summary and Discussion
This reanalysis of the early cultivated plants from
the Ocampo caves, undertaken both to clarify the
temporal and cultural context of the transition to
food production in northeastern Mexico, and
more broadly to reconsider the nature of agricultural origins in Mesoamerica, provides answers to
a wide range of relevant questions.
Depositional Integrity of the Caves and
Research Potential of the Collections
The first set of questions centers on the depositional integrity of the caves and the associated
research potential of the collections, housed for
more than four decades in a number of different
museums. As the Ocampo caves were excavated,
individual field catalog numbers were assigned to
all of the materials recovered from different levels of different excavation units. Still tied to the
collections today, these field catalog numbers
allowed separate detailed level-by-level analysis
of the early cultigens in Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves to be carried out, even though,
in the initial analyses, data on the maize, bean,
and cucurbit materials from the two caves were
first combined and then grouped by general cultural-temporal periods. Thus these collections still
have excellent research potential.
What then of the stratigraphic integrity of the
cultural deposits within Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves? Detailed provenience information obviously would be of little value if the
cultural deposits were highly disturbed. In the
archived field notes and manuscripts, both
Smith]
Figure 15. Maize (Zea mays) cob from Valenzuela's cave
60 B.P. (2481E20,
that yielded an AMS date of 3890
L2bL3, occupation 6, length 47.4 mm).
*
MacNeish and Kelley describe evidence of pitdigging activities in the caves, both by the original inhabitants and by much more recent treasure
hunters. These pits were easy to recognize, however, and the cultural deposits otherwise appeared
largely undisturbed. The relatively intact and
undisturbed nature of the occupational layers of
both caves is confirmed by the 15 AMS radiocarbon dates obtained on early plant remains during
the present study (Tables 10 and 11). In both
caves, with some exceptions-to be discussed
below-the AMS dates exhibit close agreement
within specific occupational episodes, both with
other AMS dates and with conventional radiocarbon dates obtained almost 40 years ago.
371
In addition, the AMS and conventional radiocarbon dates can be arranged, with a few discrepancies, in a consistent, ordered temporal
sequence. In Valenzuela's cave, the single anomaly is the date of 5670 B.P. on Lagenaria from
occupation 6 (level 3 of square E20). Clearly this
bottle gourd rind fragment dates to occupation 5,
not 6. Rather than indicating the vertical displacement of this rind fragment out of its true depositional context, however, its original assignment to
occupation 6 reflects the clearly acknowledged
and frequently encountered difficulty in distinguishing the dividing line between occupations 5
and 6 in a number of areas of Valenzuela's cave.
Similarly, in Romero's cave the only obvious
anomaly is a maize cob assigned to occupation 7,
which yielded a date of 2560 B.P., suggesting it
actually belongs in occupation 9. With this single
exception, the 14 radiocarbon dates from
Romero's cave provide an ordered temporal
sequence, while at the same time underscoring the
challenge inherent in accurately delineating and
differentiating the sequential habitation episodes
that are represented in the cave. Given that the
collections from Romero's and Valenzuela's
caves are reasonably well provenienced, and that
the excavated and recorded cultural deposits were
relatively intact, let us turn to the complex question of the caves' occupational history, and the
related issue of the timing and sequence of
appearance of different species of domesticated
crop plants.
Initial Occupations, Initial Domesticates
The stratigraphy and available radiocarbon dates
for Romero's cave, expressed in calibrated calendar years (Table lo), indicate a series of at least
three short-term episodes of occupation (occupations 1, 2, and 4) between about 4200 and 3900
cal B.C. Thin noncultural ash and cave dust layers separate occupations 1, 2, and 4, indicating
intervals of abandonment. Each of these early
"occupations," however, could itself conceivably
represent multiple short-term habitation episodes.
This is particularly true for occupation 4, a 5-10
cm thick vegetable layer that yielded two AMS
radiocarbon dates barely overlapping at the twosigma 95 percent probability range, suggesting
multiple seasonal occupation of the cave.
Evidence for two domesticated plants was
372
recovered from these initial occupations ( 1 4 ) of
Romero's cave. Three bottle gourd rind fragments
were recovered, one of which yielded an AMS
date of cal 4200 B.C. Cucurbita remains from
these initial occupations consist of 32 thin rind
fragments, 7 peduncles, 4 seeds, and 26 seed fragments. A wild Cucurbita gourd is likely represented in this rind-fragment assemblage, based
both on thin rind fragments and small seeds, but
no peduncles from wild gourds were recovered
from occupations 1 4 . The only domesticated
squash species present is C. pepo, based on two
peduncles and the four seeds, two of which
yielded AMS dates of 4080 and 3915 cal B.C.
(Table 10).
Although it was occupied much earlier, nearby
Valenzuela's cave provides clear parallels to the
record of initial occupation and the initial appearance of domesticates in Romero's cave.
Valenzuela's cave was first used by a hunting-andgathering group about 8000 B.P. (occupation I),
with at least three subsequent episodes of occupation (occupations 2 4 ) taking place before the earliest habitation of Romero's cave (Table l l).
Separated from these earlier occupations by
patches of gray ash and "cave dust," occupation 5
of Valenzuela's cave, an extensive 2-8 cm thick
layer of vegetal material, included a number of
occupations that bracketed the time frame of initial occupation of Romero's cave. Dating to about
4300 to 3700 cal B.C., these occupational
episodes also provided the earliest evidence of
domesticated plants in Valenzuela's cave. As with
Romero's cave, these earliest domesticates were
bottle gourd and Cucurbita pepo. The earliest
stratigraphic bottle gourd fragment in the collections from Valenzuela's cave yielded a date of
4490 cal B.C. (compared to 4200 cal B.C. for the
earliest bottle gourd from Romero's cave).
Cucurbita remains first appear in occupation 5
contexts of Valenzuela's cave, which produced 8
rind fragments, 32 seed fragments, and 16 seeds
(Table 9). All of the seeds were assigned to type 1
(C.pepo), with three seeds yielding AMS dates of
4360,4045, and 3695 cal B.C. (compared to dates
of 4080 and 3915 cal B.C. for the earliest C. pep0
seeds in Romero's cave). In summary, based on
the six earliest AMS radiocarbon dates for these
two domesticates (4490,4360,4200,4080,4035,
and 3915 cal B.C.), it is reasonable to conclude
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
that the earliest domesticates (Lagenaria siceraria and C. pepo) first appeared in both Romero's
and Valenzuela's caves during short-term seasonal occupations that occurred between 4500
and 4000 cal B.C.
Later Occupations, Later Domesticates
After about 4000 to 3900 B.C., both Romero's
cave and Valenzuela's cave appear to have stood
largely vacant for about 1,500 years, from 3900 to
2400 B.C. Both caves, however, show evidence
of short episodes of habitation during this 15-century span. In Valenzuela's cave a solitary AMS
date of 3695 cal B.C. (Table 11) indicates a possible brief occupation, while in Romero's cave
three thin ash layers (occupations 5, 6, and 7)
have yielded AMS dates of 3 100 and 3085 cal
B.C. (Table lo), along with several conventional
dates that are more problematic (they have large
standard deviations) and fall several centuries
earlier. One of these AMS dates (3085 cal B.C.
from occupation 6) was obtained on a Cucurbita
peduncle assigned to type 3 (C. argyrosperma),
marking the earliest documented record of this
species in an archaeological context in the
Americas and the addition of a third cucurbit
species to the list of domesticated plants under
cultivation in northeastern Mexico by 3000 B.C.
Both caves were reoccupied again at about
2400 B.C. In Valenzuela's cave this reoccupation
is marked by a thin vegetal layer (occupation 6)
that overlies the white ash and cave dust layer
deposited during the long hiatus. Maize (Zea
mays) first appears in this thin vegetal layer, with
a sample from one of the small cobs from occupation 6 providing an AMS date of 2350 cal B.C.,
which agrees closely with the conventional radiocarbon date obtained for occupation 6 (Table 11).
The reoccupation of Romero's cave is marked by
occupation 8, a thick vegetal layer that may well
represent a number of episodes of habitation.
Occupation 8 is bracketed by two conventional
dates from occupation 9 that have large standard
deviations, and a comparable AMS date from
occupation 7 (Table lo), all of which are likely
assignable to occupation 8. The AMS date in
question (2455 cal B.C.) is from a small maize
cob, representing the initial appearance of this
domesticate in Romero's cave. Thus, as was the
case with bottle gourd and C. pepo, maize made
Smith]
Table 10. Romero's Cave Radiocarbon Dates.
Occupation
Provenience
Material
Lab No.
Radiocarbon Age
(Years B.P.)"
Calibrated
Calibrated
Age Interceptb 2-Sigma Range
16
15
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
12
11
-
-
-
-
-
-
247lS20E5, L3
vegetal material
M568
1720 f 200
-
-
10
9
-
-
-
-
-
-
247168
S25E5, LA
247lS20E5, LA
247lS20E5, LA
C. moschata
peduncle
vegetal material
vegetal material
B91410 (AMS)
2620 f 60
800 B.C.
855-560 B.C
M505
M505
3440 f 250
3650 f 250
-
-
9
9
-
-
-
-
-
Z. mays
cob 03
Z. mays
cob 01
C. pepo
seed 36
vegetal material
C. argyrospenna
peduncle
vegetal material
C. pep0
seed 02 B85432 (AMS)
785 B.C.
820-505 B.C.
B85431 (AMS)
2455 B.C.
2560-2280 B.C.
B91409 (AMS) 3100 B.C.
3355-2920 B.C.
M504 + 567
B81975 (AMS) -
-
3085 B.C.
3345-2910 B.C.
M503
B9 1408 (AMS) -
-
3915 B.C.
3885 B.C.
3805 B.C.
3965-3715 B.C.
C. pepo
seed 0 1
B91407 (AMS)
4080 B.C.
4320-3965 B.C.
2
247114
S30E5, L10
Lagenaria rind
B8 1974 (AMS)
5260 ? 60
4200 B.C.
4210 B.C.
4150 B.C.
4325-3985 B.C.
1
247lS30E5, L11
vegetal material
M502
5230 ? 350
-
-
Note: In addition to the AMS dates reported here, Kaplan has obtained six AMS dates on Phaseolus and other legumes from Romero's cave. Wncalibrated conventional radiocarbon age (years B.P.). bIntercept between radiocarbon age and calibrated calendar timescale curve. 'Dendro-calibrated calendrical age (2 sigma, 95 percent probability). its appearance in the same temporal context in
both Romero's (2455 cal B.C.) and Valenzuela's
(2350 cal B.C.) caves.
Following the initial appearance of maize in
the two adjacent caves at about 2400 B.C., they
were again both vacant for long periods of time.
Valenzuela's cave stood empty for another 2,900
years, until about A.D. 500, when a thick ash
layer (occupation 7), containing patches of vege-
tal material and the first recorded ceramics, marks
the return of human habitation of the cave, likely
in a series of episodes of occupation. One of these
episodes yielded a peduncle assigned to type 2 (C.
moschata) that produced an AMS date of A.D. cal
535 (Table 11). In addition to the initial appearance of this fourth species of cucurbit in
Valenzuela's cave, the Cucurbita seed assemblage
of the occupation 7 ash layer also indicates the
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Table 11. Valenzuela's Cave Radiocarbon Dates.
Occupation
Provenience
Material
Lab No.
Radiocarbon Age
(Years B.P.)'
Calibrated
Age Intercepth
Calibrated
2-Sigma Range'
8
7
-
-
-.
-
-
-
248166?
S 10W30
2481132
N5E15, L2
B85434 (AMS)
1380 ? 60
A.D. 660
A.D. 59G775
B91411 (AMS)
1560 1' 60
A.D. 535
A.D. 3 9 5 4 3 5
248/98?
E20, L2b13
Level 2, Zone C
248198
E20, L2bl3
248/104?
E25; L3?
24815
S5, L3
24813 1
S10, L3
24813 1
SlO,L3
Z. mays
cob 02
C. moschata
peduncle
Z mays
cob 01
?
Lagenaria
rind
C. pep0
seed 09
C. pepo
seed 0 1
C. pep0
seed 05
vegetal material
(sticks)
B85433 (AMS)
3890
+ 60
2350 B.C.
249G2175 B.C.
Chicago
3945 ? 334
-
-
B81976 (AMS)
5670 1' 60
4490 B.C.
4680-4365 B.C.
B80802 (AMS)
4920 ? 60
3695 B.C.
38W3630 B.C.
B80800 (AMS)
5260 ? 50
4045 B.C.
423G3970 B.C.
B80801 (AMS)
5540 ? 60
4360 B.C.
44854260 B.C.
M497
5650 1' 350
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
SIOEIO, L7
vegetal material
M498
8200 ? 450
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
7
6
6
6
5
5
5
5
3
2
1
Note: In addition to the AMS dates reported here, Kaplan has obtained five AMS dates on Phaseolus and other legumes from Valenzuela's cave. Wncalibrated conventional radiocarbon age (years B.P.). bIntercept between radiocarbon age and calibrated calendar timescale curve. 'Dendro-calibrated calendrical age (2 sigma, 95 percent probability). appearance of additional cultivar varieties of C .
pep0 by A.D. 500-600.
Cucurbita moschata, ceramics, and additional
cultivar varieties of C . pepo, however, first
appeared earlier in Romero's cave, which was
unoccupied from 2400 to 800 B.C. (Tables 1 and
10). A thin ash layer (occupation 9) marks the.
cave's reoccupation and contains the earliest wellprovenienced ceramics, as well as a C. moschata
peduncle that yielded an AMS date of 800 cal
B.C.Additional varieties of C. pepo, however, did
not appear in Romero's cave until occupation 11,
which dates to about A.D. 400 (Tables 1 and 10).
Reconciling the Present Study and Past
Analyses
While the present study reconfirms the integrity
of both the museum collections and the stratigraphy of the Ocarnpo caves, its results also differ in
a number of respects from the initial analyses of
some of the Ocampo archaeobotanical assemblages. It is not possible to carry out a detailed
reconsideration of these earlier analyses, because
the plant assemblage data sets from Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves were first combined, and then
grouped by general cultural-temporal periods. It
is essential, however, to address the most obvious
and important area of disagreement between this
and previous studiesdifferences regarding the
cultural and temporal context of initial appearance of the five crop plants under consideration
here: Zea mays, Cucurbita rnoschata, Cucurbita
argyrosperma, Cucurbita pepo, and Lagenaria
siceraria.
There is, interestingly enough, close consensus
between this study and past research regarding the
timing of the introduction of maize into
Tamaulipas. In the initial analysis of the Zea mays
Smith]
from Ocampo, the earliest identified maize was a
single cob recovered from Flacco-phase contexts
(4300-3800 B.P.) in Valenzuela's cave, while 242
cobs were recovered from overlying Guerraphase occupations. In the present study, the earliest maize cob from Valenzuela's cave (occupation
6, Flacco phase) yielded an AMS date of 2350 cal
B.C., and the earliest cob from Romero's cave
(occupation 7, Guerra phase) produced a similar
AMS date of 2455 cal B.C. The estimated amval
of maize at 2500 B.C. in La Perra cave, located
about 100 krn northeast of Ocampo (Mangelsdorf
et al. 1956:128-129; 1967a:33), is also in close
agreement with the Ocampo dates.
Similarly, results of the present study do not
vary significantly from those of earlier
researchers regarding the arrival of C . moschata
in the Ocampo caves. In their initial analysis,
Whitaker et al. (1957:357) conclude, "In the
Ocampo caves, C. moschata appears definitely in
the Mesa de Guaje culture (34W2400 B.P.) and
there is a peduncle which is probably C. moschata
in the Guerra Culture (3800-3400 B.P.)."
Although none of the 13 peduncles identified in
the present study as coming from Guerra-phase
contexts or earlier were identified as C . moschata,
a C. moschata peduncle was recognized from
Mesa de Guaje-phase contexts (occupation 9,
Romero's cave). It yielded an AMS date of 800
cal B.C., which falls into the 3400-2400 B.P. time
range of the "definitely" identified C . moschata
of Whitaker et al. (1957:357).
In addition, although there is a 3,200-year difference between the arrival date assigned by
Whitaker et al. (1957:357) to C . argyrosperma for
the Ocampo caves, and that established in the present study, the discrepancy rests on a difference of
opinion regarding the taxonomic assignment of a
single peduncle. The only peduncle identified as
C . argyrosperma by Whitaker et al.
(1957:355-357) was recovered from a Palmillasphase context (1800-1 100 B.P.) in Romero's cave
(occupation 11). In this study, in addition to the
Palmillas peduncle, a second peduncle, from
occupation 6 of Romero's cave (Figure 9), also
was identified as C . argyrosperma and yielded an
AMS date of 3085 cal B.C.
The present study also differs from the initial
report on the Ocampo cucurbits by Whitaker et al.
(1957) in terms of the earliest evidence for bottle
375
gourd in the Ocampo caves, once again on the
basis of a few specimens. While Whitaker et al.
(1957:356) list two bottle gourd fragments as
being recovered from Infiernillo contexts
(9000-7000 B.P.), and 87 from Ocampo-phase
occupation layers ( 6 0 W 3 0 0 B.P.), only three
bottle gourd rind fragments from Ocampo contexts were located in the collections, and none
was identified as being from Infiemillo occupations of the two caves. In addition, there is no
mention of any Infiemillo-phase cucurbit rind
(either Cucurbita or bottle gourd) in either the
Romero's cave report or the excavation unit notes
(MacNeish 1954a, 1954b). In Valenzuela's cave,
while cucurbit rind is listed as coming from a possible Infiemillo context (248/80), this material
was found, on inspection, to be thin Cucurbita
rind rather than Lagenaria, and to have come
from a less-than-secure stratigraphic context. In
summary, there is no evidence in either the excavation records or in the extant cucurbit collection
for bottle gourd being present in the Ocampo
caves during these early occupation episodes (a
likely explanation for this discrepancy is presented below). In the absence of any evidence for
bottle gourd during Infiemillo times, the two very
similar AMS dates on the earliest, stratigraphically secure Lagenaria rind from Romero's and
Valenzuela's caves (4200 cal. B.C., 4490 cal
B.C.) provide the best available estimate for the
first appearance of this species in the Ocampo
sequence.
There is a similar discrepancy between the present study and earlier analyses regarding the presence of domesticated Cucurbita in Infiemillo
occupations of the Ocampo caves. Whitaker et al.
(1957:356) assign six seeds of a wild Cucurbita
gourd, seven seeds of a domesticated pumpkin
(C. pepo), and one domesticated squash rind fragment to Infiemillo-phase contexts in the two
caves. Earlier descriptions, however, provide conflicting information. MacNeish (1954a:12) indicates, "Vegetable materials are extremely rare and
only 20 specimens were found [in the Infiemillo
phase occupation la] . . . . three of these wild
specimens are from wild squash. Seeds from a
feces may be from a very small variety of pumpkin, Cucurbita pep0 which indicates a use of
domesticated plants." No plant remains or feces
are noted in the field catalog for this initial occu-
376
pation of the cave, however, nor does Callen
(1963:190) list any Infiemillo-phase coprolites
being recovered from Romero's cave. In addition,
no plant remains assigned to Infiemillo occupations of Romero's cave were present in the collections. Given these contradictions, it is likely
that MacNeish's initial report reflects preliminary
interpretations that were subsequently revised,
along with the cultural assignments of some lower
stratigraphic levels of some excavation units in
the cave.
Valenzuela's cave presents a similar situation
in regard to the presence of Cucurbita materials
in Infiemillo-phase contexts. In his account of the
Infiemillo occupations (1-3) of Valenzuela's
cave, Kelley notes that in occupation 2 "there also
were six wild squash seeds" (Kelley 1954a:gl). In
his subsequent analysis of the coprolites from
Valenzuela's cave, however, Callen did not identify any Cucurbita seeds or rind in Infiemillophase specimens (Callen 1963:190, 192). To
further complicate the issue, Kelley goes on to
state that in addition to the seeds from Infiemillophase occupation 2, "There were some peppers as
well as some pumpkin seeds and there was a definite fragment of a pumpkin rind found within the
refuse" (Kelley 1954a:81), as well as "a few fragments of pumpkin" from occupation 3 of
Valenzuela's cave (Kelley 1954a:84). The field
catalog for Valenzuela's cave, however, lists only
one excavation unit as possibly containing
Cucurbita seeds from an Infiemillo occupation
(50 seeds from N5E20, L6/7), which was considered doubtful since maize also is present in the
deposit (Kelley 1954b:g). No seeds or rind fragments of Cucurbita were located in the collection
that could be assigned to the Infiemillo occupations of Valenzuela's cave.
The elusive and problematic nature of the
Infiemillo-phase Cucurbita material from the
Ocampo caves and its equivocal domesticated status is further evident in subsequent discussions in
the literature. For example, Kaplan and MacNeish
(1960:35) state, "The people of the Infiernillo
phase were nomadic family bands of wild plant
collectors who did some hunting. Nevertheless
they utilized the domesticated gourd (L. siceraria) and the pumpkin (C. pepo). The seeds of the
pumpkin, however, are extremely small and it
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
must have been close to the hypothetical wild
form if not actually wild." Similarly, Cutler and
Whitaker (1961:Table I), on the one hand, list
domesticated C. pepo as being present in the
Ocampo caves by 9000 B.P., while at the same
time providing a much more cautious statement
on the subject (Cutler and Whitaker 1961:477):
"The oldest cultivated squash remains we have
seen are from the Ocampo caves . . . . small C.
pepo seeds from the lowest level, the Infiemillo
Culture, may have come from weeds, or camp follower plants, but by the second period, the
Ocampo Culture, pepo certainly was cultivated."
In 1964 Mangelsdorf et al. take a similarly rather
tentative position regarding the domesticated status of the reported early Cucurbita from the
Ocampo caves: "The best case for a cultivated
plant at this early time is the summer squash or
pumpkin (C. pepo). The plant, apparently, was
first utilized for its seeds. Several of these seeds
have been found in an Infiernillo deposit and
some authorities believe domesticates to be represented among them (Whitaker, Cutler and
MacNeish 1957, MacNeish 1959)." A footnote to
this statement provides further information: "Of
the six pumpkin seeds (C. pepo) in Infiemillo
refuse, three are quite small and probably wild,
but in the opinion of Whitaker and Cutler the
other three seeds, all larger, appear to be domesticates" (Mangelsdorf et al. 1964:430).
By the mid-1960s, then, the case for the presence of Cucurbita in Infiemillo-phase contexts in
the Ocampo case had been narrowed to six seeds
recovered from refuse deposits (as opposed to
human coprolites). Three of these seeds were
"small" and considered to be in the size range of
wild Cucurbita gourds; three were large enough
to represent domesticated plants. But three
decades later these six seeds did not appear to be
present in the Ocampo cave cucurbit collections--certainly there were no Cucurbita seeds in
the collections from Infiemillo-phase contexts.
There were, however, six seeds in the collections
that by accident could easily have been assigned
to the Infiemillo phase. The seeds in question,
assigned seed numbers RC 1-6 in the present
study, are stratigraphically the earliest Cucurbita
seeds recovered from Romero's cave, having been
found in occupation level 4 (sometimes labeled
Smith]
377
occupation 3 in the field catalog). And while an opportunity to assess and update this longoccupations 3 and 4 in Romero's cave (Tm c 247) standing cultural-historical framework and, in the
were assigned to the Ocampo phase, occupation 3 process, to point to potentially promising areas of
in Valenzuela's cave (Tm c 248) (Table 6) was future research.
Before turning to a consideration of the four
identified as belonging to the Infiernillo phase. If
these six seeds were counted as being from occu- main elements of the Era of Incipient Cultivation
pation 3 of Tm c 248 rather than occupation 3 of (duration, location and sequence of domesticaTm c 247, they would have been the basis for the tion, pace of change, and cultural context of
identification of domesticated Cucurbita pep0 in change), let us first address the related question of
the Infiemillo phase of the Ocampo caves."he
whether Tamaulipas and the Ocampo caves were
seeds themselves provide further support for this central or peripheral to Mesoamerican agriculpossibility, since three are "small" (11 x 7, 11 x 8, tural origins. In the late 1950s, as Richard
10 x 7 mm) and three are "large" (13 x 9, 14 x 10, MacNeish shifted his research focus south from
15 x 9 mm).' Samples of two of these six seeds Tamaulipas to Tehuach, it was with the recogniyielded AMS dates of 3915 and 4080 cal B.C., tion that the Ocampo caves were located far to the
confirming their Ocampo-phase assignment. north of where agriculture first developed in
When combined with comparable dates of 4045 Mexico. This view of Tamaulipas being in a
and 4360 cal B.C. on the earliest C . pep0 from northern peripheral position was at odds, howValenzuela's cave, they provide a solid estimate ever, with the early dates from the Ocampo caves
for the initial appearance of domesticated pump- for C . pep0 and Lagenaria, and the suggestion
kin in the Ocampo caves.
that C . pep0 may have been first domesticated in
In summary, it is possible to largely reconcile northern Mexico. Tamaulipas thus seemed to
the results of the reanalysis of the Ocampo caves simultaneously occupy two contradictory rolespresented here with those of earlier researchers, one on the margin of agricultural origins along the
while at the same time substantially revising the northern periphery, and the other more central, as
record of the initial appearance of domesticated one of several regions of parallel independent
crop plants in northeastern Mexico. This revision agricultural development, each with its distinct
in the timing and sequence of arrival of key set of locally domesticated plants that were later
domesticates in Romero's and Valenzuela's caves joined by crop plants introduced from other areas.
in turn reopens the question of the role of the
The case for C . pep0 being first domesticated
Ocampo caves in understanding the origins of in Tamaulipas, however, has now been weakened
agriculture in Mexico.
in a number of important respects. First, C . pep0
ssp. fraterna, a wild Cucurbita gourd of northViewing the Origins of Agriculture in
eastern Mexico that had been proposed as the
Mesoamerica from Northeastern Mexico
wild progenitor of the Mexican lineage of domesRichard MacNeish's search for the transition ticated C . pep0 (i.e., C . pep0 ssp. pepo) (Decker
from hunting and gathering to food production in 1986), has been shown not to match the expected
Mesoamerica began with the excavation of caves genetic profile of this as-yet-unidentified wild
in Tamaulipas in the late 1940s and early 1950s. ancestor (Decker-Walters et al. 1993). Second, the
The subsequent pioneering analysis of plant time depth of domesticated C . pepo, as well as
remains from Romero's and Valenzuela's caves Lagenaria, in the Ocampo caves has been shortplayed a central role in defining the Era of ened by about 2,600 years, from 9000 B.P. to
Incipient Cultivation-the first general cultural- 4400 cal B.C., thus reducing the strength of the
historical account of agricultural origins in region's claim of temporal priority of domestiMesoamerica. Soon overshadowed by Flannery's cated cucurbits. Third, reanalysis and direct AMS
processual explanation (1968, 1973, 1986), this dating of Cucurbita pep0 specimens from Guilh
Era of Incipient Cultivation has rarely been recon- Naquitz cave in Oaxaca, far to the south of
sidered over the past 25 years. The reanalysis of Ocarnpo, has confirmed both their domesticated
the Ocampo caves presented here provides such status and their considerable antiquity (ca. 8000
378
cal. B.C. (Whitaker and Cutler 1986; Smith
1997). In all likelihood, as additional archaeobotanical sequences that span the Archaic are
established for different regions of Mexico, and
reanalysis and direct dating of extant collections
from other early sites are completed, I think that
Tamaulipas will be shown to be indeed situated to
the north of the regions where plants were first
brought under domestication in Mexico. The
Ocampo caves, then, quite likely contain a record
of the sequential introduction of crop plants,
including C. pepo, that were initially domesticated to the south, hundreds or thousands of years
earlier.
The role of the Ocampo caves sequence as
generally representative of northeastern Mexico
also should be qualified in several respects. Given
the remote location and rugged terrain of the
Ocampo caves, they should not be considered as
representative of Tamaulipas or northeastern
Mexico; crops may have arrived in other less
remote areas of Tamaulipas some time before
they first appeared in the Ocampo sequence. It is
also important to keep in mind that neither
Romero's nor Valenzuela's caves contain unbroken records of human occupation. In both caves,
temporal clusters of brief seasonal occupational
episodes are separated by long periods of timeoften thousands of years-during which the caves
were unoccupied. As a result, when introduced
domesticates first occurred in the Ocampo
sequence, their initial appearance often was preceded by a long span of time for which there is no
available information regarding either their presence or absence in the region. C. argyrosperma,
for example, appeared in the Ocampo caves at
3000 cal B.C. A period of a thousand years or so
of no occupation and no information that extends
back from 300W000 cal B.C. separates the initial appearance of this species from the next earlier occupational cluster, which occurred between
4400 and 4000 cal B.C., and which has yielded no
evidence of C. argyrospenna. Based on this set of
facts, it would be reasonable to conclude that C.
argyrosperma was not cultivated by the occupants
of the Ocarnpo caves at 4000 cal B.C., that it was
grown by 3000 cal B.C., and that it therefore was
introduced into the region sometime between
4000 and 3000 cal B.C. C. argyrospenna also
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
provides a good example, however, of why it is
important to take into account the nature and
strength of the evidence for both the presence and
absence of different crop plants in the Ocampo
sequence. The evidence for C. argyrospenna at
3000 cal B.C. consists of a single directly dated
peduncle. Given the limited nature of this evidence for cultivation at 3000 cal B.C., which, in
fact, went unrecognized in the initial analysis of
the Ocampo cucurbits by Whitaker et al. (1957),
perhaps C. argyrosperma also was cultivated at
4000 cal B.C., yet simply left no record.
Conversely, even though I am confident in the
taxonomic identification of the peduncle in question as C. argyrosperma, perhaps future DNA
analysis will indicate otherwise, which would
push the first appearance of this domesticate forward in time another 3,200 years, to cal A.D. 200.
Thus, C. argyrosperma underscores how important it is to keep in mind the inherent interpretive
limitations of the Ocampo archaeobotanical
sequence, and the extent to which it is compatible
with different alternative explanatory frameworks
of Mesoamerican agricultural origins.
A final observation regarding the interpretive
limitations of the Ocampo caves is that they do
not tell us very much about the human societies
that made the transition from hunting and gathering to food production in northeastern Mexico.
Like La Perra cave (MacNeish 1958), Romero's
and Valenzuela's caves contained a record of sporadic short-term seasonal occupations, but as yet
there is no information available regarding the
size, location, or relative permanence of the other
settlements that comprised the annual cycle of
these societies. This is not meant as a criticism of
the pioneering research involved in the excavation
of these caves, or of the landmark analysis of their
archaeobotanical assemblages. Rather it is an
acknowledgment of how little subsequent
research has been carried out in the region, and
how much still remains to be done.
Turning to the four main elements of the Era of
Incipient Cultivation explanation (duration, location and sequence of domestication, pace of
change, and cultural context), it is the firstduration-that is most clearly highlighted as a result
of the direct AMS dating of the early domesticates of the Ocampo caves, as well as by other
Smith]
379
parallel redating initiatives. Kaplan's broadscale United States-squash (C. pepo), sunflower
direct AMS dating of early domesticated beans (Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus), marsh
(Phaseolus) from throughout the Americas (1993, elder (Iva annua var. macrocarpa), chenopod
1995) has established that these species were (Chenopodium berlandieri ssp. jonesianum)-at
quite likely brought under domestication late in about 3000-2300 cal B.C. predates the earliest
the developmental process in Mexico, which in clear evidence for an increased role for crop
effect largely removes them from the early chap- plants in that region (at ca. 1000400 cal B.C.) by
ters of the history of emergence of food produc- perhaps 1,000-2,500 years. Thus it appears that
tion economies in Mesoamerica. In both the both Mexico and the eastern United States witsouthwestern and eastern United States, beans nessed an extended period of what could be
arrived substantially later than maize, providing termed "low-level food production" during which
further support for the apparent late domestica- a number of plants had been domesticated, were
tion of this species in Mexico. Similarly, the cultivated, and played a small, yet important
recent direct AMS dating of the arrival of maize dietary role, before assuming much more promiin the southwestern United States at about nent positions in food production economies
2000-1500 cal B.C. (Wills 1995), and in the east- (Flannery 1986; Fritz 1994a; Gremillion and
em United States by cal A.D. 1 (Riley et al. 1994) Sobolik 1996; McClung de Tapia 1992, 1994;
appear compatible with the AMS dates that mark Smith 1992). This extended period of initial lowthe arrival of maize in Tamaulipas at about 2500 level food production, which remains poorly doccal B.C., and the initial appearance of this domes- umented in both regions, serves to connect two
ticate in Tehuacin at 3500 cal B.C. (Long et al. temporally and developmentally distinct cultural
1989). Combined, these AMS dates on early transitions-the initial domestication of plants
maize, along with numerous conventional radio- and the subsequent emergence of economies cencarbon dates associated with early maize cobs and tered on food production.
While Mexico and the eastern United States
kernels from Central America and South America,
as well as Mesoamerica, seem to indicate that were similar in having long initial periods of lowmaize was domesticated several thousand years level food production, they also seem, at least at
more recently than initially proposed in the Era of this point in time, to have been different not only
Incipient Cultivation cultural-historical frame- in terms of the duration of these initial periods of
Direct AMS dating of the early cucurbit incipient cultivation (6,000 or so years in Mexico
materials from Romero's and Valenzuela's caves and perhaps 2,500 years in the eastern United
has produced similar results, with L. siceraria b d States), but also in regard to both the geographiC. pep0 first appearing not at 9000 B.P., as origi- cal and environmental contexts of initial domestinally proposed in the formulation of the Era of cation, and the timing or sequence of
Incipient Cultivation framework, but at domestication-the second main element of the
4400-4000 cal B.C. All of these direct AMS Era of Incipient Cultivation cultural-historical
redating initiatives suggested that the span of time framework. In the eastern United States the wild
separating initial plant domestication in ancestors of three of the four initial domesticates
Mesoamerica from the first appearance of village- (Iva annua, C. pep0 ssp. ovifera var. ozarkana,
based agricultural economies, at around Chenopodium berlandieri) were very similar in
2000-1500 cal B.C., was only 3,00&3,500 years their pioneering adaptations as floodplain weeds,
long, extending back to perhaps 5000 cal B.C. and all three shared the same primary habitat and
rather than to 9000-10,000 B.P. The reanalysis of geographical range-the
mid-latitude interior
cucurbit assemblages from Guili Naquitz, how- stream and river valley corridors of the
ever, has confirmed that the initial domestication Mississippi River and its tributaries (Smith 1992).
of at least one species-Cucurbita pep-had
In contrast, while a pioneering adaptation to disoccurred by 8,000 cal. B.C. (Smith 1997).
turbed ground situations also has been noted for
It is interesting to note that the earliest evi- the wild relatives of maize, pumpkins, and beans
dence for domesticated plants in the eastern (Flannery 1986:8-9; Flannery and Ford 1972),
380
recent biological research on the habitat requirements and present-day geographical range of the
likely progenitor populations of these domesticates tends to support a central theme of the Era
of Incipient Cultivation scenario (MacNeish
1967); the trinity of maize, beans, and
squash/pumpkin could well have been brought
under domestication in different environmental
and geographical contexts in Mexico (Smith
1995b). The wild populations of teosinte that
gave rise to maize, for example, grow today at
elevations of 400 to 1,700 m in the central Balsas
River regions of Guerrero (Doebley 1990), while
the progenitor populations of wild Phaseolus
from which the common bean was domesticated
occur today around Guadalajara (Gepts 1990).
Cucurbita argyrosperma is now recognized as
having been brought under domestication from C .
argyrosperma ssp. sororia, a wild gourd with a
broad geographical distribution in eastern and
southern Mexico (Memck 1989, 1990), while C .
moschata is considered to have developed from a
still unidentified wild gourd in lowland settings of
Central America or Colombia (Nee 1990). The
wild ancestor of C.pep0 ssp. pep0 in Mexico is as
yet unidentified.
It is tempting, of course, to see this regional
pattern of plant domestication reflected in the
Ocampo caves sequence, with C. moschata, for
example, appearing late because it was domesticated far to the south, and C. Argyrosperma and
maize showing up earlier than C . moschata, since
they were brought under domestication closer to
Tamaulipas. The timing of domestication of different crop plants is, of course, the other key variable in such speculative equations, and the
sequences of Romero's and Valenzuela's caves
could certainly still be read as providing indirect
evidence in support of another of the central
themes of the Era of Incipient Cultivation explanation-that
different species were not only
brought under domestication in different regions
of Mexico, but also at different times. In contrast
to the eastern United States, where three and perhaps all four of the initial domesticates appear to
have been domesticated in a span of 500 years or
so, if the Ocampo sequences are assumed to reasonably gauge, from a distance, the process of
domestication in Mexico, they would indicate a
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
much more drawn-out process. Again, however, I
would argue that rather than providing much clarification of either the location or relative timing
for domestication of different crop plants, the
Ocampo sequence points instead to the substantial temporal and geographical gaps that still exist
in the basic cultural-historical framework of this
complex transformational process. The timing
and sequence of appearance of domesticated
plants, particularly cucurbits, in the long-established sequences of Tehuachn and Oaxaca should
be clarified by additional direct AMS dating of
specimens. At the same time, a sustained effort
should be undertaken to establish archaeobotanical sequences that span the Middle Holocene in
other regions of Mexico through the excavation of
both caves and open-air river valley settlements.
It is also only through such excavation initiatives that it will be possible to adequately address
the most important and most elusive elements of
the Era of Incipient Cultivation cultural-historical
explanation-the pace of change and the cultural
context during both the initial domestication of
plants and the subsequent long transition to village-based maize-centered farming communities.
Acknowledgments. I would like to thank Richard S. MacNeish
for providing information about the location of the Romero's
and Valenzuela's cave collections and associated documents.
The field catalogs, drawings, and reports of the Ocampo
caves' excavations, which are housed in the Robert S. Peabody
Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, were carefully
reproduced for this research project by Malinda Blustain. I
also gratefully acknowledge Terrance Martin, Illinois State
Museum, for facilitating and approving the loan of the cucurbit collections from Romero's and Valenzuela's caves (ISM
catalog number 8171541). I also would like to thank Wilma
Wetterstrom for facilitating my research on the Ocampo
caves' maize collections, as well as Andrew Knoll, director of
the Botanical Museum, Harvard University, for approving the
loan of maize cobs and their sampling for AMS age determinations. Marcia Bakry produced all of the graphs and line
drawings for this article, and Carl Hansen photographed the
seeds and peduncles. Thanks also to Glen Drowns, of Seed
Savers Exchange, and Kevin Dahl, of Native SeedslSEARCH,
for generously providing modem comparative specimens of
Cucurbita peduncles, seeds, and rind. I am very grateful to
Jose Luis Alvarado, Bruce Benz, Deena Decker-Walters,
Robert Drennan, Kent Flannery, Gayle Fritz, Lawrence
Kaplan, Emily McClung de Tapia, Richard MacNeish, Lee
Newsom, Fernando Sanchez, Patty Jo Watson, Wirt Wills,
Melinda Zeder, and a number of anonymous reviewers for
reading earlier drafts of this article and providing valuable
comments and corrections.
Smith]
References Cited Benz, B. F, and H. Iltis
1990 Studies in Archaeological Maize 1: The "Wild"
Maize from San Marcos Cave Reexamined. American
Antiquity 55:500-511.
Burgess-Terrel, M.
1979 A Study of Cucurbita Material from Salmon Ruin,
New Mexico. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department
of Anthropology, Eastern New Mexico University,
Portales.
Callen, E. 0 .
1963 Diet as Revealed by Coprolites. In Science in
Archaeology, edited by D. Brothwell and E. Higgs, pp.
186-194. Basic Books, New York.
Crane, H. R., and J. B. Griffin
1958 University of Michigan Radiocarbon Dates 11.
Science 127: 1098-1 105.
Cutler, H. C., and T. W. Whitaker
1961 History and Distribution of the Cultivated
Cucurbits in the Americas. American Antiquity
26:469485.
1967 Cucurbits from the Tehuacin Caves. In
Environment and Subsistence, edited by D. Byers, pp.
212-219. The Prehistory of the Tehuacin Valley, vol. I.
University of Texas Press, Austin.
Decker, D.
1984 Sauash Seeds from NAN Ranch, New Mexico.
Manuscript on file, Archaeobiology Program, National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.
1986 A Biosystematic Study of Cucurbita pepo.
Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Biology,
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
Decker-Walters, D., T. W. Walters, C. W. Cowan, and B. D.
Smith
1993 Isozvmic Characterization of Wild Pouulations of
~ u c u r b i ;.pepo.
. Journal o f Ethnobiology 13:55--72.
Doebley, J.
1990 Molecular Evidence and the Evolution of Maize.
Economic Botany 44:6-27.
Flannery, K. V.
1968 Archaeological Systems Theory and Early
Mesoamerica. In Anthropological Archaeology in the
Americas, edited by B. J. Meggers, pp. 67-87.
Anthropological Society of Washington, D.C.
1973 The Origins of Agriculture. Annual Review of
Anthropology 2:271-3 10.
1986 Guila Naquitz, Archaic Foraging and Early
Agriculture in Oaxaca, Mexico. Academic Press, New
York.
Flannery, K. V., and R. I. Ford
1972 A Productivity Study of Teosinte (Zea mexicana),
November 22-25, 1971. Manuscript on file, Museum of
Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Ford, R. I.
1986 Reanalysis of Cucurbits in the Ethnobotanical
Laboratory, University of Michigan. The Missouri
Archaeologist 47: 13-3 1.
Fritz, G.
1994a Are the First American Farmers Getting Younger?
Current Anthropology 35:305-309.
1994b Reply [to Piperno]. Current Anthropology
35:639-643.
1994c Precolumbian Cucurbita argyrosperma ssp.argyrosperma (Cucurbitaceae) in the Eastern Woodlands of
North America. Economic Botany 48:280-292.
Gepts, P.
1990 Biochemical Evidence Bearing on the
Domestication of Phaseolus (Fabaceae) Beans.
Gowlett, J.
1987 The Archaeology of Radiocarbon Accelerator
Dating. Journal of World Prehistory 2: 127-170.
Gremillion, K., and K. Sobolik
1996 Dietary Variability among Prehistoric ForagerFarmers of Eastern North America. Current
Anthropology 37:529-539
Hardy, K.
1996 The Preceramic Sequence from the Tehuacin
Valley: A Reevaluation. Current Anthropology
37:700-716.
Johnson, F., and R. S. MacNeish
1972 Chronometric Dating. In Chronology and
Irrigation, edited by F. Johnson, pp. 3-55. The
Prehistory of the Tehuacin Valley, vol. IV. University of
Texas Press. Austin.
Kaplan, L.
1967 Archaeological Phaseolus from Tehuacln. In
201-211. The Prehistory of the Tehuacin Valley, vol. I.
1993 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Dates and the
Antiquity of Phaseolus Cultivation. Paper presented at
the Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic
Botany, Miami.
1995 Phaseolus Beans, Accelerator Dates in the
Americas. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Meeting
of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis.
Kaplan, L., and R. S. MacNeish
1960 Prehistoric Bean Remains from Caves in the
Ocampo Region of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Botanical
Museum Leaflets 19:33-56. Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Kelley, D.
1954a Valenzuela's Cave (Tm c 248). Report (29 pages)
on file, Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology,
Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
1954b Description of Squares Dug in Tm c 248, March
1954. Notes (52 pages, typewritten) on file, Robert S.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy,
Andover, Massachusetts.
King, F. B.
1985 Early Cultivated Cucurbits in Eastern North
America. In Prehistoric Food Production in North
America, edited by R. I. Ford, pp. 73-79.
Anthropological Papers No. 75. Museum of
Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Long, A., B. F. Benz, J. Donahue,A. Jull, and L. Toolin
1989 First Direct AMS Dates on Early Maize from
Tehuacin. Radiocarbon 3 1:1035-1040.
MacNeish, R. S.
1954a Romero's Cave. Report (69 pages) on file, Robert
S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy,
1954b Excavation Notes 1953-1954 Tm c 247
[Romero's cave]. Notes (27 pages) on file, Robert S.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy,
1954c Catalog of Excavated Material from Romero's
Cave (Tm c 247) Municipio de Ocampo, Tamaulipas,
Mexico. Catalog (153 pages, typewritten) on file,
382
LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips
Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
1958 Preliminary Archaeological Investigations in the
Sierra de Tamaulipas, Mexico. Transactions, vol. 48,
part 6. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
1959 Origin and Spread of Some Domesticated Plants as
Seen from Tamaulipas, Mexico. Paper presented at the
58th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological
Association, Vancouver, British Columbia.
1967 A Summary of the Subsistence. In Environment
and Subsistence, edited by D. Byers, pp. 290-309. The
Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, vol. I. University of
Texas Press, Austin.
1972 The Evolution of Community Patterns in the
Tehuacan Valley of Mexico and Speculations about the
Cultural Processes. In Man, Settlement, and Urbanism,
edited by P. J. Ucko, R. Tringham, and G. W. Dimbleby,
pp. 67-93. Duckworth, London.
The Origins of Agriculture and Settled Life.
1991
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
MacNeish, R. S., and K. V. Flannery
1997 In Defense of the Tehuacan Project. Current
Anthropology 38:660-672.
Mangelsdorf, P. C., R. S. MacNeish, and W. Galinat
1956 Archaeological Evidence on the Diffusion and
Evolution of Maize in Northeastern Mexico. Botanical
Museum Leaflets 17:125-150. Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1967a Prehistoric Maize, Teosinte, and Tripsacum from
Tamaulipas, Mexico. Botanical Museum Leaflets
22:33-63.
Harvard
University,
Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
1967b Prehistoric Wild and Cultivated Maize. In
178-200. The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley, vol. I.
Mangelsdorf, P. C., R. S. MacNeish, and G. R. Willey
1964 Origins of Agriculture in Middle America. In
Natural Environment and Early Cultures, edited by R.
C. West, pp. 4271145. Handbook of Middle American
Indians, vol. I. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Menick, L.
1989 Systematics, Evolution, and Ethnobotany of a
Domesticated Squash, Its Wild Relatives and Allied
Species in the Genus Cucurbita. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
1990 Systematics and Evolution of a Domesticated
Squash, Cucurbita argyrosperma, and Its Wild and
Weedy Relatives. In Biology and Utilization of the
Cucurbitaceae, edited by D. Bates, R. Robinson, and C.
Jeffrey, pp. 77-95. Cornell University Press, Ithaca,
New York.
Menick, L., and D. M. Bates
1989 Classification and Nomenclature of Cucrrrbita
argyrosperma. Baileya 23:94-102.
McClung de Tapia, E.
1992 The Origins of Agriculture in Mesoamerica and
Central America. In The Origins of Agriculture, edited
by C. W. Cowan and P. J. Watson, pp. 143-172.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
1994 Las primeras sociedades sedentarias. In El Mdxico
antigo, sus areas culturales, 10s orfgenes y el horizonte
Preclasico, edited by L. Manzanilla and L. Lopez
Lujon, pp. 209-246. Historia Antigua de MCxico, vol. I.
INAH-UNAM, Porma, Mexico.
[Vol. 8, No. 4, 1997
Nee, M.
1990 The Domestication of Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae).
Pearsall, D., and D. Piperno
1990 Antiquity of Maize Cultivation in Ecuador:
Summary and Reevaluation of the Evidence. American
Antiquity 55:324-337.
Piperno, D.
1994 On the Emergence of Agriculture in the New
World. Current Anthropology 35:637-639.
Riley, T. J., G. R. Walz, C. J. Bareis, A. C. Forier, and K. E.
Parker
1994 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Dates
Confirm Early Zea mays in the Mississippi River Valley.
American Antiquity 59:490498.
Roberts, K. M.
1995 Cucurbita ssp. and Lagenaria siceraria. In
Laboratory Guide to Archaeological Plant Remains
from Eastern North America. Department of
Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis,
Missouri.
Rovner, I.
1996 Review of Current Research in Phytolith Analysis:
Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology, edited
by D. Pearsall and D. Piperno. American Antiquity
61:430431.
Schiegl, S., S. Lev-Yadum, 0 . Bar-Yosef, A. El Goresy, and S.
Weiner
1994 Siliceous Aggregates from Prehistoric Wood Ash:
A Major Component of Sediments in Kebara and
Hayonim Caves (Israel). Israel Journal of Earth
Sciences 43:267-278
Smith, B. D.
1992 Rivers of Change. Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington, D.C.
1995a The Origins of Agriculture in the Americas.
Evolutionary Anthropology 3: 174-1 84.
1995b The Emergence of Agriculture. Scientific
American Library. W. H. Freeman, New York.
1997 The Initial Domestication of Cucurbita pepo in the
Americas 10,000 Years Ago. Science 276:932-934.
Steward, J. H.
1949 Cultural Causality and Law: A Trial Formulation of
the Development of Early Civilizations. American
Anthropologist 5 1: 1-27.
Weiner, S., S. Schiegl, P. Goldberg, and 0 . Bar-Yosef
1995 Mineral Assemblages in Kerara and Hayonim
Caves, Israel: Excavation Strategies, Bone Preservation,
and Wood Ash Remains. Israel Journal of Chemistry
35:143-154.
Whitaker, T. C.
1981 Archaeological Cucurbits. Economic Botany
35:4601166.
Whitaker, T. W., and H. C. Cutler
1965 Cucurbits and Culture in the Americas. Economic
Botany 19:344-349
1986 Cucurbits from Preceramic Levels at Guila
Naquitz. In Guila Naquitz, edited by K. V. Flannery, pp.
275-279. Academic Press, New York.
Whitaker, T. W., H. C. Cutler, and R. S. MacNeish
1957 Cucurbit Materials from Three Caves Near
Ocampo, Tamaulipas. American Antiquiry 22:352-358.
Wills, W. H.
1995 Archaic Foraging and the Beginning of Food
Production in the American Southwest. In Last
Smith]
Hunters-First Farmers, edited by T. D. Price and A. B.
Gebauer, pp. 215-243. School of American Research,
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Notes
1. Throughout this article, "B.P." indicates age estimates
expressed in uncalibrated radiocarbon years, while "cal" is
used to identify dendro-calibrated calendrical dates (e.g.,
4050 cal B.C.).
2. In his attempt to recognize cultural regularities and establish a tentative developmental sequence for five centers of
world civilization, including Mesoamerica, Steward (1949)
first proposed the "Era of Incipient Cultivation" and
described it as follows: "It must have been very long, passing through several stages, which began when the first cultivation of plant domesticates supplemented hunting and
gathering, and ended when plant and animal breeding was
able to support permanent communities [Steward 1949:10] .
. . . Farming was at first supplementary to hunting and gathering, and the social groups were consequently small and
probably semi-nomadic. Technologies differed little from
those of the earlier hunting and gathering periods [Steward
1949:17]."
moschata-like characteristics. Its base partially flares
abruptly outward, and it does not exhibit deep interridge
creases. At the same time, however, it strongly resembles
type 1 peduncles in size (maximum basal diameter 30.7 mm)
and in having 10 distinct ridges and lobes-alternating large
and small. Rather than assigning this peduncle to either type
1 (based on its size and 10 ridges) or type 2 (based on its
shallow furrows and partially flaring base), it was placed in
the unassigned Cucurbita sp. category (Table 4), along with
18 other peduncles, most of which were too fragmentary for
type assignment. Another peduncle (247188) illustrated by
Whitaker et al. (1957:Figure 6c) and identified as C . pepo
was assigned in the present study not to type 1 but to type 2,
based on its,small size (maximum basal diameter 17 mm),
five ridges, shallow intenidge furrows, flaring base, and
basal ridge. To further complicate matters, a third peduncle
illustrated by Whitaker et al. (1957:Figure 6b) and identified
as C . pepo similarly was not assigned to type 1 in the present
study, since it actually appears to be a better candidate for
inclusion in type 3. Based on its five prominent and grooved
ridges and corky infilling of intenidge creases, it resembles
a type 3 peduncle from an immature fruit (G. Fritz, personal
communication 1995). It too was placed in the unassigned
Cucurbita sp. category (Table 4).
-
3. Plant remains were poorly preserved in Ojo de Agua cave
and were limited in occurrence to the upper Palmillas level
(1800-1100 B.P.) (Kaplan and MacNeish 1960:34). As a
result, Ojo de Agua archaeobotanical assemblages played
only a minimal role in the summary accounts of the Ocampo
caves.
4. A total of 46 Cucurbita peduncles were found in the
Romero's and Valenzuela's cave collections. three more than
the 43 counted in the initial analysis of these collections
(Whitaker et a], 1957:356). Several stem fragments, along
with rind fragments where peduncles were once attached,
that I included in the peduncle category rather than the rind
category, quite likely account for this small discrepancy
between the two studies.
5. Of the two C . moschata peduncles Whitaker et al.
(1957:Figure 5b, 5c) illustrate, however, only one (Figure 5b,
2471180) was classed as a type 2 peduncle here, highlighting
the difficulties sometimes encountered in assigning peduncles to species categories. The other peduncle identified as C .
moschata by Whitaker et al. (2471122) has a number of
383
~
6. If the bottle gourd rind fragments from occupations 1 4 of
Romero's cave had similarly been counted as being from
Valenzuela's cave, it could account for the initial identification of Lagenaria from Infiernillo-phase contexts in the
Ocampo caves.
7. On close inspection, the two 11-mm-long seeds in this
group of six turned out to be mesquite (Prosopis).
8. A controversial alternative chronological framework that
places the domestication and diffusion of maize as early as
8000 B.P.9 based on the proposed Presence of maize microfossil remains (pollen and phytoliths) in Central American
and South American sites, has been proposed (e.g.. Pearsall
and Piperno 1990). See Fritz (1994a, 1994b). Piperno
(1994), Smith (1995a, 1995b), and Rovner (1996) f o r a
recent discussion of this controversy,
Received October 1, 1996; accepted November 25, 1996;
revised January 20, 1997.
http://www.jstor.org
LINKED CITATIONS
- Page 1 of 5 -
You have printed the following article:
Reconsidering the Ocampo Caves and the Era of Incipient Cultivation in Mesoamerica
Bruce D. Smith
Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 8, No. 4. (Dec., 1997), pp. 342-383.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1045-6635%28199712%298%3A4%3C342%3ARTOCAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P
This article references the following linked citations. If you are trying to access articles from an
off-campus location, you may be required to first logon via your library web site to access JSTOR. Please
visit your library's website or contact a librarian to learn about options for remote access to JSTOR.
References Cited
Studies in Archaeological Maize I: The "Wild" Maize from San Marcos Cave Reexamined
Bruce F. Benz; Hugh H. Iltis
American Antiquity, Vol. 55, No. 3. (Jul., 1990), pp. 500-511.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28199007%2955%3A3%3C500%3ASIAMIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B
University of Michigan Radiocarbon Dates II
H. R. Crane; James B. Griffin
Science, New Series, Vol. 127, No. 3306. (May 9, 1958), pp. 1098-1105.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075%2819580509%293%3A127%3A3306%3C1098%3AUOMRDI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P
History and Distribution of the Cultivated Cucurbits in the Americas
Hugh C. Cutler; Thomas W. Whitaker
American Antiquity, Vol. 26, No. 4. (Apr., 1961), pp. 469-485.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28196104%2926%3A4%3C469%3AHADOTC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U
The Origins of Agriculture
Kent V. Flannery
Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 2. (1973), pp. 271-310.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-6570%281973%292%3A2%3C271%3ATOOA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F
NOTE: The reference numbering from the original has been maintained in this citation list.
LINKED CITATIONS
- Page 2 of 5 -
Are the First American Farmers Getting Younger?
Gayle J. Fritz
Current Anthropology, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Jun., 1994), pp. 305-309.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199406%2935%3A3%3C305%3AATFAFG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9
Gayle J. Fritz
Stable URL:
Dietary Variability among Prehistoric Forager-Farmers of Eastern North America
Kristen J. Gremillion; Kristin D. Sobolik
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199606%2937%3A3%3C529%3ADVAPFO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R
The Preceramic Sequence From the Tehuacan Valley: A Reevaluation
Karen Hardy
Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 4. (Aug. - Oct., 1996), pp. 700-716.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199608%2F10%2937%3A4%3C700%3ATPSFTT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3
Antiquity of Maize Cultivation in Ecuador: Summary and Reevaluation of the Evidence
Deborah M. Pearsall; Dolores R. Piperno
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28199004%2955%3A2%3C324%3AAOMCIE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Dates Confirm Early Zea Mays in the Mississippi
River Valley
Thomas J. Riley; Gregory R. Walz; Charles J. Bareis; Andrew C. Fortier; Kathryn E. Parker
American Antiquity, Vol. 59, No. 3. (Jul., 1994), pp. 490-498.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28199407%2959%3A3%3C490%3AAMS%28DC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
LINKED CITATIONS
- Page 3 of 5 -
Review: [Untitled]
Reviewed Work(s):
Current Research in Phytolith Analysis: Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology by
Irwin Rovner
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28199604%2961%3A2%3C430%3ACRIPAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X
The Initial Domestication of Cucurbita pepo in the Americas 10,000 Years Ago
Bruce D. Smith
Science, New Series, Vol. 276, No. 5314. (May 9, 1997), pp. 932-934.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075%2819970509%293%3A276%3A5314%3C932%3ATIDOCP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z
Cultural Causality and Law: A Trial Formulation of the Development of Early Civilizations
Julian H. Steward
American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 51, No. 1. (Jan. - Mar., 1949), pp. 1-27.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7294%28194901%2F03%292%3A51%3A1%3C1%3ACCALAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
Cucurbit Materials from Three Caves near Ocampo, Tamaulipas
Thomas W. Whitaker; Hugh C. Cutler; Richard S. MacNeish
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28195704%2922%3A4%3C352%3ACMFTCN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1
Notes
2
Julian H. Steward
Stable URL:
LINKED CITATIONS
- Page 4 of 5 -
2
Julian H. Steward
Stable URL:
2
Julian H. Steward
Stable URL:
4
Stable URL:
5
Stable URL:
5
Stable URL:
5
Stable URL:
LINKED CITATIONS
- Page 5 of 5 -
8
Antiquity of Maize Cultivation in Ecuador: Summary and Reevaluation of the Evidence
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28199004%2955%3A2%3C324%3AAOMCIE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2
8
Gayle J. Fritz
Stable URL:
8
Gayle J. Fritz
Stable URL:
8
Review: [Untitled]
Reviewed Work(s):
Current Research in Phytolith Analysis: Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology by
Irwin Rovner
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28199604%2961%3A2%3C430%3ACRIPAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X

1997 Ocampo Caves LAA - Anthropology

Transcription

Similar documents

Your Life_Mar15

MOVILE CAVE

Škocjan Caves World heritage

IndianaCaveTrail.com - Squire Boone Caverns

“CUSSAC CAVE” (DORDOGNE, FRANCE)

Cave of Man Hands topo

The Apqell by John Grisham

2005 Sara Corrie Grant - Jon Jasper`s Adventure Page