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。该小组将由考古学家、测量员、农业技术人员、生物学家和一名民族植物学家组成。该项目将调查Ceren村以南100至200米范围内的古代玛雅农业，Ceren村是世界遗产。大约1400年前，那个村庄和周围的农田被洛马火山口火山口喷出的火山灰所掩埋。这个通气口在苏西奥火山下面打开，随后的蒸汽爆炸覆盖了周围的地形，形成了一种细粒度的湿润火山灰，从而得到了非凡的保存。去年的试验坑遇到了一片玉米地，玉米秆和玉米穗保存到可以对单个玉米粒进行检查和测量的程度。这样的保存在美洲是前所未有的，可以精确估计每单位面积的生产力。在这个正在进行的项目中，去年最重要的发现是在两个测试坑中发现了一个木薯田。这片土地在火山爆发前几个小时刚刚收获，并通过切断木薯植物的垂直茎，将它们水平放置在凸起的床上来重新种植。如果没有爆发，茎会在地面上产生新的植物，在地下产生富含碳水化合物的长块茎。该项目将寻找收获的木薯的边界，当遇到未收获的区域时，将对其进行深入研究。根据以往的经验，木薯灌木的垂直茎秆应保留在种植床上方1米或2米的中空空间。当遇到垂直茎时，将用光纤显微镜对其进行研究。一旦了解了植物的情况和体积，就将牙石膏混合起来用于填充蛀牙。石膏一旦凝固，就会被挖掘出来。然后，块茎将被调查和铸造。当所有的东西都被铸造和提升后，地上和地下的元素将重新结合起来，古代木薯的生产力第一次可以被量化。在世界不同地区进行的对照实验表明，在每单位面积上，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众的答案的一部分。在与Ceren同时代的古典时期，玛雅考古学家一直面临的一个问题是，每平方公里数百人的密集人口是如何以种子作物为食的。Manioc很可能是答案的一部分。一个更广泛的影响是，2007年发现的木薯茎和块茎比今天在该地区种植的木薯茎和块茎更结实。这引起了相当大的兴趣，萨尔瓦多科学家将协助探索其原因，这对改善当代农业有潜在的影响。

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.