Manioc at Ceren: Ancient Maya Garden Plant or Staple Crop?

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Payson Sheets博士(科罗拉多大学人类学)和一个由国际专家和学生组成的团队将对萨尔瓦多的古代玛雅农业进行调查。考古队将由考古学家、测量员、农业技术员、生物学家和一名民族植物学家组成。该项目将在世界遗产Ceren村以南100至200米处调查古代玛雅农业。大约1400年前，这个村庄和周围的农田被洛马火山喷口的火山灰掩埋。喷口在里约热内卢下方打开，随之而来的蒸汽爆炸用细粒潮湿的火山灰覆盖了周围的地形，导致了非凡的保存。试验坑去年遇到了一块玉米地，玉米的秸秆和果穗保存到了可以对单个玉米粒进行检验和测量的地步。这样的保存在美洲是史无前例的，可以精确地估计单位面积的生产率。在这个正在进行的项目中，去年最重要的发现是在两个试验坑中遇到的木薯田。就在喷发前几个小时，这块地刚刚收获，并通过砍下木薯的垂直茎，将它们水平放置在隆起的床上，重新种植。如果没有喷发，这些秸秆会在地上长出新的植物，在地下长出富含碳水化合物的块茎。该项目将寻找收获的木薯的边界，当遇到未收获的地区时，将进行深入的研究。垂直的木薯灌木茎应根据以往的经验，在种植床上方一到两米处保留为中空空间。当遇到垂直杆时，将用光纤光学显微镜进行研究。一旦了解了植物的状况和体积，就会将牙膏混合在一起，用来填充空洞。灰泥一旦凝固，就会被挖掘出来。然后对块茎进行调查和浇注。当一切都被铸造和提升时，地上和地下的元素将会重新结合，古代木薯的生产力第一次可以被量化。世界各地的对照试验表明，在单位面积上，木薯的碳水化合物产量是玉米的6到15倍。因此，智力价值的一个主要方面是在玛雅村庄发现密集的木薯生产，这可能是玛雅人如何养活大量人口的答案的一部分。古典时期的玛雅考古学家和塞伦同时代的一个长期问题是，人口密集，每平方公里数百人，是如何用种子作物喂养的。Manioc很可能是答案的一部分。更广泛的影响是，2007年发现的木薯茎和块茎比今天在该地区种植的更健壮。这引起了相当大的兴趣，萨尔瓦多科学家将协助探索其中的原因，并可能对改善当代农业产生影响。

With the support of the US National Science Foundation, Dr. Payson Sheets (Anthropology, University of Colorado) and a team of international specialists and students will conduct an investigation into ancient Maya agriculture in El Salvador. The team will consist of archaeologists, surveyors, agricultural technicians, biologists, and an ethnobotanist. The project will investigate ancient Maya agriculture at distances of 100 to 200 meters south of the Ceren village, a World Heritage site. That village, and the surrounding agricultural fields, was buried about 1400 years ago by volcanic ash from the Loma Caldera volcanic vent. That vent opened up under the Rio Sucio, and the ensuing steam explosions covered the surrounding terrain with a fine-grained moist volcanic ash that resulted in extraordinary preservation. Test pits last year encountered a cornfield with the stalks and ears of corn preserved to the point of individual corn kernels can be examined and measured. Such preservation is unprecedented in the Americas, and allows for precise estimates of productivity per unit area.In this ongoing project the most important discovery last year was a manioc field, encountered in two test pits. The field had been harvested just hours before the eruption, and had been replanted by cutting the vertical stalks of the manioc plants and placing them horizontally in the raised beds. Had the eruption not occurred, the stalks would have generated new plants above ground, and long carbohydrate-rich tubers below ground. The project will search for the boundary of the harvested manioc, and when unharvested areas are encountered they will be studied intensively.The vertical stalks of manioc bushes should be preserved as hollow spaces a meter or two above the planting bed, based on previous experience. When the vertical stalks are encountered, they will be investigated with fiber optiscopes. Once the condition and volume is known of a plant, dental plaster will be mixed and used to fill the cavity. Once the plaster has set, it will be excavated. Then the tubers will be investigated and cast. When all has been cast and lifted the above-ground and below-ground elements will be reunited, and for the first time ancient manioc productivity can be quantified. Controlled experiments in various areas of the world have shown that manioc outproduces maize by six to fifteen times, in carbohydrates per unit area. Thus, a major aspect of intellectual merit is finding intensive manioc production in a Maya village that could be part of the answer of how the Maya fed the multitudes.A persistent problem for Maya archaeologists in the Classic period, contemporary with Ceren, is how dense populations, in the hundreds of people per square kilometer, were fed with seed crops. Manioc may well be part of the answer. A broader impact is the fact that the manioc stalks and tubers discovered in 2007 are more robust than those grown today in the area. This generated considerable interest, and Salvadoran scientists will assist in exploring the reasons for that, with potential implications for improving contemporary agriculture.