Early Agriculture in the Gulf Coast Lowlands of Mexico

在国家科学基金会的支持下，玛丽波尔博士和她的合作者将在墨西哥塔巴斯科州进行为期三个季度的考古和古生态研究。最早的中美洲文明奥尔梅克人出现在塔巴斯科的低地热带墨西哥湾沿岸地区，研究小组希望了解这一发展的过程。很有可能，与普遍的考古信仰相反，几种重要的新世界食用植物的驯化发生在低地而不是高地环境中，该小组将寻找与奥尔梅克前体有关的早期农业的迹象。Pohl和她的同事在低地伯利兹的先前工作表明，与变化和海平面以及淡水供应有关的环境变化提供了促进农业的背景，本项目旨在测试和进一步发展这一想法。该项目有两个主要组成部分。第一个方案是在拉文塔的奥尔梅克遗址附近沿沿着过去和现在的河道进行核心断面的密集方案。有了这样获得的沉积学、花粉和植硅体数据，应该有可能重建环境，并确定它在相关时间间隔内的变化情况。岩芯分析往往通过家养物种花粉的存在和表明森林砍伐的木炭数量提供关于农业存在和重要性的信息。该小组还将进行考古发掘，以恢复文化数据。动物化石、石器和陶器应该能让我们深入了解动物的饮食和群体组织。 以动植物驯化为标志的“新石器时代革命”是人类史前史的一个重要转折点。这一过程在世界许多地方独立发生，为复杂社会的兴起提供了基础。在中美洲，考古学家不知道玉米和豆类等重要作物是何时何地被驯化的。他们也不明白，为什么在数千年的狩猎和采集之后，人们以如此基本的方式改变了他们的生存方式。已经提出了几个假设，波尔博士和她的同事将收集的数据将允许在几个假设中进行选择。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供深入了解的过程中产生了复杂的中美洲社会。由此产生的环境和考古数据将引起广大科学家的兴趣。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Mary Pohl and her collaborators will conduct three seasons of archaeological and paleoecological research in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. The earliest Middle American civilization, the Olmec, appeared in the lowland tropical Gulf Coast region of Tabasco and the team wishes to understand the process which underlies this development. It is very likely that, contrary to common archaeological belief, domestication of several important new world food plants occurred in a lowland rather than highland context and the group will search for indications of early agriculture associated with Olmec precursors. Prior work by Pohl and her colleagues in lowland Belize suggests that environmental changes related to shifts and sea level and availability of fresh water provided a context which fostered agriculture and the present project is designed to test and further develop this idea. The project has two major components. The first involves an intensive program of core transects along the past and present river channels in the vicinity of the Olmec site of La Venta. With the sedimentological, pollen and phytolith data thus obtained it should be possible to reconstruct environment and determine how it changed over the relevant interval of time. Analysis of cores often provides information on the presence and importance of agriculture both through the presence of pollen from domestic species and the amount of charcoal which is indicative of forest clearing. The group will also conduct archaeological excavations to recover cultural data. Faunal remains, lithics and ceramics should provide insight into both diet and group organization. The `Neolithic Revolution` marked by the domestication of plants and animals constitutes a central turning point in human prehistory. The process occurred independently in many parts of the world and provided the basis for the rise of complex societies. In Middle America archaeologists do not know when or where such important crops as corn and beans were domesticated. They also do not understand why after thousands of years as hunters and gatherers people altered their subsistence practices in such a basic way. Several hypotheses have been proposed and the data that Dr. Pohl and her colleagues will collect will allow selection among several. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide insight into the processes which gave rise to complex Middle American societies. The environmental and archaeological data which will result will be of interest to a wide range of scientists.