Publication Date:
2001-05-19
Description:
Archaeological research in the Gulf Coast of Tabasco reveals the earliest record of maize cultivation in Mexico. The first farmers settled along beach ridges and lagoons of the Grijalva River delta. Pollen from cultivated Zea appears with evidence of forest clearing about 5100 calendar years B.C. (yr B.C.) [6200 (14)C years before the present (yr B.P.)]. Large Zea sp. pollen, typical of domesticated maize (Zea mays), appears about 5000 calendar yr B.C. (6000 yr B.P.). A Manihot sp. pollen grain dated to 4600 calendar yr B.C. (5800 yr B.P.) may be from domesticated manioc. About 2500 calendar yr B.C. (4000 yr B.P.), domesticated sunflower seeds and cotton pollen appear as farming expanded.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pope, K O -- Pohl, M E -- Jones, J G -- Lentz, D L -- von Nagy , C -- Vega, F J -- Quitmyer, I R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2001 May 18;292(5520):1370-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Geo Eco Arc Research, 16305 St. Mary's Church Road, Aquasco, MD 20608, USA. kpope@starband.net〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11359011" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Agriculture/*history
;
Archaeology
;
Carbon Radioisotopes
;
Central America
;
Charcoal
;
Commerce/history
;
Crops, Agricultural/*history
;
*Environment
;
Geologic Sediments
;
Gossypium/history
;
Helianthus
;
History, Ancient
;
Mexico
;
Pollen
;
Seeds
;
Trees
;
Tropical Climate
;
Zea mays/*history
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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