An AMS Radiocarbon Chronology for a Long Record of Maize Cultivation from Laguna Catarina, Veracruz, Mexico

这项研究解决了最近关于墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯热带低地首次种植玉米的确切时间的争论。传统的历史是根据大型化石和散装材料的放射性碳年龄确定的，它的年代大约在3500年前。这段历史最近受到质疑，因为方法上的不确定性和驯化南瓜的相互矛盾的日期表明其年龄可达9500 BP。用加速器质谱仪对沉积层中含有的花粉和非花粉有机物进行测年，这些沉积层对应于玉米花粉的最深位置，这将允许测试两个关于该地区最早玉米驯化年龄的假设，以及所提出方法的可行性。这项研究的更广泛的背景在于，在新世界（如新月沃土），定居主义是否先于植物驯化，以及对社会和生态变化理论的影响。对我们理解玉米的遗传起源和幸存的种质之间的相互关系也有可能做出贡献。

The research addresses a recent debate about the precise timing of the debut of maize cultivation in the tropical lowlands of Veracruz, Mexico. The conventional history, which asserts a date of approximately 3500 BP, is based on radiocarbon ages of macrofossils and bulk materials. This history has been questioned recently because of methodological uncertainties and because of contradictory dates on domesticated squash that indicate ages of up to 9500 BP. Accelerator-mass-spectrometer dating of pollen versus non-pollen organics contained in sediment layers corresponding to the deepest location of maize pollen will allow testing of two hypotheses pertaining to earliest age of maize domestication in this region and to the viability of the proposed methodology. The broader context for this research lies in the question of whether sedentism preceded plant domestication in the New World (as in the Fertile Crescent) and the implications for theories of social and ecological change. Contributions to our understanding of the genetic origins of maize and the inter-relationships of the surviving germ plasm are also likely.