Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 13, Pages 5019-5024Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0812525106
Keywords
early Holocene; maize domestication; phytoliths; starch grains
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [BSC 0514116]
- National Geographic Society
- Wenner-Gren Foundation
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
- College of Liberal Arts, Temple University
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Questions that still surround the origin and early dispersals of maize (Zea mays L.) result in large part from the absence of information on its early history from the Balsas River Valley of tropical southwestern Mexico, where its wild ancestor is native. We report starch grain and phytolith data from the Xihuatoxtia shelter, located in the Central Balsas Valley, that indicate that maize was present by 8,700 calendrical years ago (cal. B.P.). Phytolith data also indicate an early preceramic presence of a domesticated species of squash, possibly Cucurbita argyrosperma. The starch and phytolith data also allow an evaluation of current hypotheses about how early maize was used, and provide evidence as to the tempo and timing of human selection pressure on 2 major domestication genes in Zea and Cucurbita. Our data confirm an early Holocene chronology for maize domestication that has been previously indicated by archaeological and paleoecological phytolith, starch grain, and pollen data from south of Mexico, and reshift the focus back to an origin in the seasonal tropical forest rather than in the semiarid highlands.
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