The Domestication of Maize and the Evolution of Agricultural Economies in the Balsas River Valley, Mexico

墨西哥巴尔萨斯河谷玉米的驯化和农业经济的演变

• 批准号: 0514116
• 负责人: Anthony Ranere
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Temple University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-06-01 至 2008-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0514116&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Domestication; Maize; Evolution; Agricultural; Economies

The goal of this research is to study the evolution of corn or maize (Zea mays L.) and associated agricultural practices by excavating archaeological deposits in caves and rock shelters in the Central Balsas watershed, tropical southwestern Mexico, and carrying out macrofossil (visible remains of seeds and fruits) and microfossil (phytoliths, starch grains, pollen) research on plant remains retrieved from the sediments, stone tools, and pottery. Although maize was long thought to have been domesticated in the arid Mexican highlands, molecular studies of modern varieties of wild and domesticated Zea now indicate that maize was probably domesticated in the Central Balsas River Valley. However, archaeologists have neither carried out searches for, nor excavated, early sites in this region. The absence of archaeological work perhaps explains why, despite years of research, the earliest stages of maize domestication and prior use of its wild ancestor, teosinte, as a food plant have yet be documented. Some of the archaeological sites to be excavated during this phase of the research were located on foot surveys carried out in January of 2003. Artifacts recovered from the site surfaces and from the spoil piles of previously dug pits indicate that the sites were occupied in preceramic times (before ca. 2000 B.C.). Additional foot surveys will also be initiated in the study area to locate more sites for testing that may have been occupied during the early and middle Holocene periods, and possibly earlier (ca. 10,000 to 3000 B.C.). The results of this research have the potential to make an important contribution to the comparative study of the origin and evolution of agriculture in what was one of the world's most important centers of prehistoric plant domestication.The establishment through the proposed research of the sequence of plant manipulation and domestication in this tropical region of Mexico combined with the vegetational and climatic history of the region - determined from our earlier analyses of sediment cores from lakes dating from the last Ice Age (ca. 14,000 years ago) to the modern era - will contribute to an increased awareness of how human populations made profound impacts on the flora and fauna of their landscapes millennia before the modern era. Records such as these are not just of special scholarly interest. Models of ecosystem preservation and restoration rely on empirical data generated by longitudinal studies such as this one. This project also promotes collaboration among scientists from different disciplines (archaeology, paleobotany, and geology) and countries (United States, Mexico, Uruguay and Panama) as well as training of students from different countries (United States, Mexico, Canada and Uruguay).

这项研究的目标是通过在墨西哥西南部热带巴尔萨斯流域中部的洞穴和岩石掩体中挖掘考古沉积物，并对回收的植物遗骸进行宏观化石（种子和水果的可见遗骸）和微化石（植硅体、淀粉粒、花粉）研究，研究玉米或玉蜀黍（Zea mays L.）的进化以及相关的农业实践。 来自沉积物、石器和陶器。 尽管长期以来人们认为玉米是在干旱的墨西哥高地驯化的，但对现代野生和驯化玉米品种的分子研究表明，玉米可能是在巴尔萨斯河谷中部驯化的。然而，考古学家既没有在该地区进行搜索，也没有挖掘早期遗址。考古工作的缺乏也许解释了为什么尽管经过多年的研究，玉米驯化的最早阶段和其野生祖先类蜀黍作为食用植物的早期使用尚未有记录。这一研究阶段要挖掘的一些考古遗址是在 2003 年 1 月进行的徒步勘测中找到的。从遗址表面和先前挖掘的坑的弃土堆中发现的文物表明，这些遗址在陶瓷时代之前（约公元前 2000 年之前）就有人居住。还将在研究区域启动额外的足部调查，以找到更多可能在全新世早期和中期，甚至更早（约公元前 10,000 至 3000 年）期间被占用的测试地点。这项研究的结果有可能对世界上最重要的史前植物驯化中心之一的农业起源和进化的比较研究做出重要贡献。通过对墨西哥这个热带地区植物操纵和驯化顺序的拟议研究，结合该地区的植被和气候历史（根据我们对上一个冰河时代湖泊沉积物核心的早期分析确定），该研究的建立 （大约 14,000 年前）到现代 - 将有助于提高人们对现代之前几千年人类如何对其景观中的动植物产生深远影响的认识。 诸如此类的记录不仅具有特殊的学术意义。生态系统保护和恢复模型依赖于纵向研究（例如本研究）生成的经验数据。 该项目还促进来自不同学科（考古学、古植物学和地质学）和国家（美国、墨西哥、乌拉圭和巴拿马）的科学家之间的合作，以及对来自不同国家（美国、墨西哥、加拿大和乌拉圭）的学生的培训。