Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: An Ethnoarchaeological and Experimental Approach to Understanding the Role of Root and Tuber Crops in Ancient Lowland Maya Subsistence

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Scott L. Fedick, Lucia Gudiel will examine the presence and significance of root-crops for the ancient lowland Maya. While much is known about the ancient Maya's accomplishments in art, architecture, astronomy, and mathematics, the basic question of how they fed their large populations is not as well understood. Recent paleoethnobotanical research has demonstrated that ancient Maya diet included a wide array of plant foods but due to tropical conditions, such as high humidity and deleterious soil chemistry, the recovery of plant remains is difficult thus leaving gaps in knowledge of ancient Maya subsistence. One such gap is the significance of root-crops in ancient Maya diet. While the delicate tissue of root crops is rarely recovered from archaeological deposits, evidence of their presence has been found in the form of microscopic starch grains. Starch grains are bodies that serve as the primary form of energy for plants. Starch grain development and morphology are under genetic control, thus starch grains differ between plant families, genera and oftentimes species allowing the identification of starch from different plants. Due to its ubiquity in plants, its varied morphology, its resistance to grinding, drying and sometimes carbonization, starch has become a significant means for documenting ancient plant-use and cultivation in tropical areas. There are currently very few studies focused on recovering starch in the lowland Maya region and this study will be one of the first to study the implications of starch for documenting the presence of root-crops in the region. This study focuses on starch grain analysis and data garnered from ethnographic observation, sampling of modern-day houselots, and from experimental and replicative studies. Cultural processes, such as the location, preparation, and disposal of food, and natural processes, such temperature and moisture, alter material remains morphologically, quantitatively, spatially and relationally, thereby transforming the archaeological record. In order to understand how to acquire evidence of root-crops in the archaeological record it is important to account for how root-crops are culturally processed, how these processes affect their starch grains, and in what conditions starch is preserved. Observing modern-day Maya use-history of root-crops will provide an understanding of the relationship between cultural behaviors and the location, condition, and how the physical evidence of the plant (starch) might enter the archaeological record. Broader impacts of this study are the contribution of live specimens of wild and domesticated varieties of indigenous root-crops to botanic gardens at Mexican institutions for study, in situ conservation, and the maintenance of biodiversity. One of the primary objectives of the Alfredo Barrera Marin Botanic Garden in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo is to educate the public to understand and respect traditional Maya lifeways, and the contribution of root-crop specimens and data will add to this goal. Research results will be used to develop projects with the local Mexican university, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan located in Merida, Yucatan and with local Maya communities that seek to document and conserve traditional Maya foodways and develop sustainability programs in local communities. Although root and tuber crops are the second most important set of food crops in developing countries and are staples in many tropical areas, these crops are under-researched. This study will yield insight into the history and modern-day practices concerning a currently under-researched, under-valued yet very important resource in tropical America.