People, Plants, and Landscapes in Prehistoric Ecuador: A Look at the Causes and Consequences of Agriculture

在国家科学基金会的支持下，黛博拉M。Pearsall及其同事将开展一个试点项目，研究史前厄瓜多尔沿海地区玉米的古老性，以及环境和社会因素对农业社会出现和发展的相互作用。该项目将利用环境取样，研究植被、土地使用方法和与农业出现有关的生计变化。西南沿海的瓜亚斯省被提议作为棉花、利马豆、南瓜和玉米豆的驯化中心，它也是辣椒、椰子、亚麻、竹芋、美人蕉和甘薯的原产地。这些作物中的许多出现在前陶瓷时期（9800 - 6700 BP）和早期形成时期（5500 - 3500 BP）。玉米在前陶瓷时期晚期被引入的证据，并出现在早期形成时期的真实的阿尔托遗址，构成了南美洲这种作物最早的日期之一。然而，根据现有数据，很难评估玉米在形成性生计中的重要性，以及它在沿海复杂社会的出现中所扮演的角色。社会从采集者到农业家的转变过程对当地环境产生了重大影响。为了通过人类对环境影响的"窗口"来全面检验有关农业的原因和后果以及玉米和其他作物在这一过程中的作用的假设，需要8000年的环境记录。Pearsall及其同事将试图通过在西南部瓜亚斯省三个具有早期考古遗址的地点进行振动，从泻湖环境中检索这些记录。将对岩芯沉积物进行采样，以进行花粉、植硅体（植物蛋白石硅）和沉积物分析，并将有机物质取出进行碳-14测年。在2004年夏季野外季节之后，将处理数量有限的花粉和植硅体样本，以评估保存质量。如果试点项目是成功的，一个新的建议将提交完成研究。当前和未来的古环境研究在西南瓜亚斯将大大有助于我们的原因和农业的后果的理解。它将提供一个低地干旱热带森林地区农业演变的案例研究，对全世界的学者都很有用。干燥的热带森林，如那些曾经是西南部瓜亚斯特征的森林，是新大陆最濒危的生态系统之一，因为它们对现代农业有好处。越来越多的证据表明，这些栖息地也是史前农业的重点，是许多农作物的家园。史前干旱热带森林的农业可持续吗？这项研究的更广泛影响将是深入了解人类长期以来对森林的影响的性质，以及允许人们数千年来使用这些栖息地的做法。这些研究结果可能适用于热带森林可持续利用的当代问题。

With National Science Foundation support, Deborah M. Pearsall and colleagues will undertake a pilot project to study the antiquity of maize in prehistoric coastal Ecuador, and the interplay of environmental and social factors for the emergence and development of agricultural societies. Using environmental coring, the project will study changes in vegetation, land-use practices, and subsistence associated with the emergence of agriculture.Southwestern coastal Guayas Province has been proposed as a center of domestication of cotton, lima bean, squash, and jackbean, and is part of the region in which chili pepper, cocoyam, lleran, arrowroot, Canna, and sweet potato originated. Many of these crops appear during the Preceramic (9800-6700 BP) and Early Formative (5500-3500 BP) periods.Evidence that maize was introduced late in the Preceramic, and was present at the Early Formative Real Alto site, constitutes one of the earliest dates for this crop in South America. It is difficult to assess the importance of maize in Formative subsistence, and the role it played in the emergence of complex societies on the coast, on the basis of available data, however.The process of transformation of societies from fisher-gatherers to agriculturalists has significant impacts on local environments. In order to test fully hypotheses concerning the causes and consequences of agriculture, and the role of maize and other crops in this process through the "window" of human impact on the environment, environmental records of 8000 years are needed.Pearsall and colleagues will attempt to retrieve such records from lagoon environments by vibracoring in three locations in southwest Guayas province with early archaeological sites. Core sediments will be sampled for pollen, phytoliths (plant opal silica), and sedimentary analysis, and organic material will be removed for carbon-14 dating. A limited number of pollen and phytolith samples will be processed after the summer 2004 field season to assess the quality of preservation. If the pilot project is successful, a new proposal will be submitted to complete the study.Current and future paleoenvironmental research in southwestern Guayas will contribute significantly to our understanding of the causes and consequences of agriculture. It will provide a case study of agricultural evolution in a lowland, dry tropical forest region that will be useful for scholars world-wide. Dry tropical forests, such as those that once characterized southwestern Guayas, are among the most endangered ecosystems in the New World because of the advantages they hold for modern agriculture. Evidence is accumulating that such habitats were also the focus of prehistoric agriculture, and home to many crop plants. Was agriculture sustainable in dry tropical forests prehistorically? The broader impacts of the study will be insights gained into the nature of human impact on forests through time, and practices that permitted populations to use these habitats for thousands of years. These findings may have application to the contemporary issue of sustainable uses of tropical forests.