Ancient Civilizations of the
Americas
Lecture 4
Mesoamerican Geography
The Transition to a Food Producing Economy
1. Mesoamerican Geography
Yucatan Peninsula
Palaloapan R.
Gulf Coast
Petén
Balsas R.
Mesa Central
Isthmus of
Tehuantepec
Chiapas
Mts.
Soconusco
2. The Settlement of the Americas
Significant early sites:
Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, Pa 12,500
BC
Santa Rosa Island, Ca
• Arlington Springs Site, Santa Rosa Island,
CA
• Excavated by Phil C. Orr in in 1960
• Dates to 13,500 BC.
• Points to the existence of watercraft,
lending support to coastal migration theory.
• Younger Dryas comet extinction occurred
12,900 years ago, impacting megafauna of
North America.
Fig. 1 Map showing the locations of CA-SRI-512 and Cardwell Bluffs sites relative to
reconstructed Terminal Pleistocene paleogeography, including –60 m (dark tan) and –50 m
(light tan) submarine contours that approximate paleoshorelines at ~12,500 and 11,000 cal BP.
J M Erlandson et al. Science 2011;331:1181-1185
Published by AAAS
Fig. 2 Paleocoastal artifacts from CA-SRI-512W.
J M Erlandson et al. Science 2011;331:1181-1185
Published by AAAS
Fig. 3 Chert projectile points from CA-SMI-678 and CA-SMI-679.
J M Erlandson et al. Science 2011;331:1181-1185
Published by AAAS
Deborah L. Friedkin Site, Buttermilk Creek, Central Texas
Fig. 4 Buttermilk Creek Complex artifacts: (a) lanceolate point preform, (b) chopper/adze, (c)
discoidal flake core, (d) radially broken flake with notch, (e) graver, (f) flake tool with retouch
on a radially broken edge, (g and h) flake tools with marginal edge retouch, (i) polished
hematite, (j) bifacially retouched flake, (k) radially/bend broken flake, (l) radially broken biface,
(m and n) blade midsections, (o to s) bladelets.
The Buttermilk Creek
Complex dates to 15.5
thousand years ago
based upon dates from
optically stimulated
luminescence.
Published by AAAS
M R Waters et al. Science 2011;331:1599-1603
• The site of Monte Verde is located along a creek flowing
from a rainforest in northern Chile. It was discovered in
1976 by Tom Dillehay of the University of Kentucky.
• Remains of the foundations of rectangular structures were
found buried under peat. The inhabitants hunted mastodons
and llamas. Spears and digging sticks were recovered.
• Monte Verde dates 11,800 – 12,000 BC
or 14, 800 years BP.
• There may be an even older component to it
a mastodon bone was found nearby dating
to 33,000 years BP.
• These early dates predate the existence of
the Bering land bridge between Siberia and
Alaska.
3. Paleo-Indians: Clovis 13,100 – 8,760 BC
End of big-game hunting 7,000 BC.
•“Overkill” hypothesis
4. Timetable of Domestication
32,000 BP Dog (Canus familiarus)
8,030-7,915 BC Bottle Gourd
Genetic evidence indicates that it is
derived from an Asian bottle gourd.
8,000 BC Squash (Curcubita pepo)
7,000 BC Pumpkins, Black Sapote,
Chile Pepper, Avocado
5,000 BC Beans (Phaseolus vulgarus) family includes kidney, pinto, and navy
4,200 BC Maize (by accelerator 14C dates on corn cobs from Guilá
Naquitz cave, Oaxaca, Mexico), and squash.
Guilá Naquitz, Oaxaca
• Excavated in 1966 by Kent V. Flannery.
• Was a cave site in the eastern Valley of
Oaxaca.
• First full report published in 1986.
• Updated report published in 2009 with new
radiocarbon dates – Accelerator Mass
Spectrometer dating was not available in
‘66.
Radiocarbon dates range from c.8500 BC – 6000 BC
AMS allowed for direct dating of plant specimens. (see dates
above for gourd and maize.
• Cave was visited short-term by foraging
microbands. These harvested a variety of
wild plants and animals from the local dry
scrub forests: acorns, agave, mesquite pods,
nopales, nanches, opuntia fruits, piñon nuts,
beans, curcubit seeds, deer, peccary,
raccoon, cottontail, hawk, owl, pigeon,
dove, quail, etc.
• Computer modeling suggested that
domesticated plants were adopted to
compensate for the variation in availability of
wild species.
• Initial domesticates were gourd and squash
(Curcubita pepo) at 8,000 BC.
• Excavation of Xihuatoxtla rock shelter in the
Balsas River drainage of Guerrero produced
maize phytoliths and starch grains dating to
7040-6660 BC. It took several thousand years
for maize to be moved to Oaxaca.
• The maize cobs from Guilá Naquitz could
be determined to be domesticated as they
had nondisarticulating rachis – could only
be propogated by man.
• Archaic cultivators were selecting for ears
with four or more rows of kernels.
Maize
Wild Ancestry – teosinte (Zea
mays ssp. parviglumis)
Native to the Balsas River
drainage of Guerrero and
Michoacán
Search for the earliest maize: The Tehuacán Archaeological
Botanical Project – directed by Richard “Scotty” MacNeish 196065. Excavated San Marcos and Coxcatlán caves.
In the Abejas phase (3400-2300 BC)wild foods made up 70% of the
diet.
Turkey
• Domesticated c. 0 AD, initially for feathers
and for ritual, in south-central Mexico.
• 1100 AD bones turn up in middens,
indicating a switch to food.
5. Sedentism
Richard MacNeish found the earliest pit house in
Tehuacán dated to 5000 BC
Concentrations of pit houses were found dating to the Abejas
phase (3400-2300 BC). These were held to be the residences of
semi-sedentary macrobands.
Alapan Phase (1500-900 BC) Permanent villages are established.
Earliest evidence for Sedentism
Lowland sites:
Puerto Marquez, Guerrero – shell midden site with clay
housefloors: 3000-2500 BC
Palo Hueco, Veracruz: 3000 BC. (poss.)
Basin of Mexico: volcano/island of Tlapacoya in Lake Chalco.
Site of Zohapilco was a permanent village on the lake shore
occupied between 5500 and 3500 BC. The population subsisted
entirely from wild foods, like turtles and fish, supplemented by
fruits and game from the surrounding forests.