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

本研究的目的是研究玉米（Zea mays L.）通过在墨西哥西南部热带地区的中央巴尔萨斯流域的洞穴和岩石掩体中挖掘考古沉积物，并对从沉积物、石器和陶器中提取的植物遗骸进行宏化石（可见的种子和果实遗骸）和微化石（植硅体、淀粉粒、花粉）研究，对农业和相关的农业实践进行了研究。 虽然玉米一直被认为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，玉米可能是在中央巴尔萨斯河谷驯化的。然而，考古学家既没有进行搜索，也没有挖掘，该地区的早期遗址。考古工作的缺乏也许可以解释为什么尽管经过多年的研究，玉米驯化的最早阶段以及之前将其野生祖先大刍草作为食用植物的使用尚未被记录下来。在这一阶段的研究中挖掘的一些考古遗址位于2003年1月进行的徒步调查。 从遗址表面和以前挖掘的坑的弃土堆中发现的人工制品表明，这些遗址是在陶瓷时代之前（大约在公元前）被占领的。公元前2000年）。还将在研究区域开展额外的足部调查，以确定更多可能在全新世早期和中期以及可能更早（约1000年）被占领的测试地点。公元前10,000年至3000年）。这项研究的结果有可能为农业起源和进化的比较研究做出重要贡献，这是世界上最重要的史前植物驯化中心之一。通过拟议的研究建立墨西哥热带地区植物操纵和驯化的顺序，结合该地区的植被和气候历史-根据我们早期对上一个冰河时代（约2000年）湖泊沉积物岩心的分析，14,000年前）到现代-将有助于提高人们对人类人口如何在现代之前数千年对其景观的植物群和动物群产生深远影响的认识。 像这样的记录不仅具有特殊的学术意义。生态系统保护和恢复的模式依赖于纵向研究（如本研究）产生的经验数据。 该项目还促进了不同学科（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，以及对不同国家（美国、墨西哥、加拿大和乌拉圭）学生的培训。

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).