SANDWEISS Daniel H. - Small Is Big. The Microfossil Perspective On Human-Plant Interaction - PNAS - 2016

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Small is big: The microfossil perspective on human-plant interaction
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · March 2007

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0700225104 · Source: PubMed
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COMMENTARY
Small is big: The microfossil perspective
on human–plant interaction
Daniel H. Sandweiss*
Department of Anthropology and Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, 120 Alumni Hall, Orono, ME 04469
T
he archaeological record contains vated the site to study Terminal Pleisto- ing to almost 6,000 years ago. Starch
only scattered and incomplete cene [13,000–11,400 calibrated years be- grains indicated both hard and soft en-
clues to the scope and complex- fore present (cal BP)] coast–highland dosperm varieties, as at Waynuna a
ity of past human behavior, and interaction, Waynuna proved to be Late millennium later, whereas phytolith mor-
archaeologists must develop every possible Preceramic (4,000–3,600 cal BP) in age phology pointed to maize that ‘‘combined
source of useful information. Although and thus unsuitable to answer the original primitive and derived traits in a way that
much overused of late, the truism that research questions. Microfossil analyses is not observed in living maize varieties’’
absence of evidence is not evidence of turned this ‘‘failure’’ into a source of im- (ref. 7, p. 438).
absence holds particular force in archaeol- portant new information on the history of Recent microfossil studies at either ex-
ogy and nowhere more than in the prehis- Andean plant use. Although the excava- treme of the American continents have
tory of human–plant interaction. Until tions recovered no plant parts visible to shed light on different human–plant inter-
recently, the reconstruction of plant use the naked eye, analysis of starch grains actions. Zarrillo and Kooyman (8) used
and domestication has been biased by a from midden sediments and stone tools starch grains from two late pre-European
necessary dependence on macrobotanical demonstrated the regional presence and stone tools to document long-distance
remains preserved in arid environments processing of domesticated seed (maize, movement of foodstuffs such as maize in
or through serendipitous carbonization. Zea mays) and tuber (potato, Solanum the Canadian plains. In Uruguay, Iriarte et
Microbotanical analyses have proven in- sp.; arrowroot, Maranta sp.) crops a mil- al. (9) analyzed both starch grains and
creasingly valuable in balancing the lennium earlier than previous records phytoliths from the 5,000- to 4,000-year-
record. Over the last few decades, phyto- based on macrobotanical remains had old site of Los Ajos, finding a number of
lith (plant opal silica bodies) and starch shown (5). Phytoliths provided indepen- different crop plants such as maize and
grain studies have contributed significantly dent confirmation of the starch identifica- beans (Phaseolus sp.) (9). In the context
to the multiproxy reconstruction of past tions. The discovery of both cob and leaf of regional prehistory, the site is unex-
environments, human use of plants, and phytoliths in the principal house floor de- pectedly complex in architecture and, as
the pathways of plant domestication (e.g., posit showed that these organs had deteri- the microfossils demonstrate, unexpect-
refs. 1 and 2). This observation is espe- orated on or near the site and therefore edly early in the adoption of agriculture.
cially true in humid regions, where condi- supported an inference that the site’s in- Macrobotanical remains of domesticated
tions do not favor the preservation of habitants farmed the corn. Detailed exam- plants were not recovered at the site. The
macrobotanical remains, and in areas ination of the starch grains found that new data push back the frontier of agri-
where tubers were important sources of both hard and soft endosperm varieties of culture and settled village lifeways in the
plant foods; tubers are soft structures that maize were present and revealed damage southern cone of South America.
often are consumed in their entirety, and to maize grains typical of grinding rather Plant microfossils have led to similar
they tend to leave few macro remains than natural deterioration. advances in other parts of the world. Re-
even under optimal preservation condi- Phytoliths and starch grains have led to cent research by Denham et al. (10) at
tions. Working in the humid tropics of the identification of early agriculture else- Kuk Swamp in New Guinea used starch
Central America, Dickau et al. (3) demon- where in the New World. On the Ecua- grains from tools and phytoliths from site
strate in this issue of PNAS the power of dorian coast, Piperno and Stothert (6) sediments as key parts of a multiproxy
archaeological starch grain analysis by found phytoliths of wild squashes and effort to track plant use over the Holo-
using this proxy to elucidate the differen- gourds (Cucurbita spp.) at one site dating cene (11,400 cal BP to present). Bananas
tial movement and adoption of both seed to the Terminal Pleistocene and domesti- (Musa sp.) and the tuber taro (Colocasia
and root crops in western and central cated Cucurbita phytoliths dating to the esculenta) were intensively exploited by
Panama beginning ⬇7,800 years ago. earliest Holocene at the same site and one 10,000 cal BP, and the domestication and
Although starch grains and phytoliths other. Mean size distinguished wild from cultivation of banana had occurred by
have been recognized by scientists for domesticated specimens; these results are ⬇7,000 years ago. These results challenge
nearly two centuries, the systematic study supported by studies of modern wild and the earlier conception of New Guinea as
of these plant microfossils for archaeologi- domesticated squash phytoliths. In these a passive recipient of domesticated plants
cal purposes dates only to the last three sites, phytoliths provided an additional and the idea of agriculture brought by
decades (1, 4). Increasingly, archaeobota- avenue of information as a source of dat- Austronesian speakers rather than an in-
nists use phytoliths and/or starch grains to able organic material. As they form, phy- dependent center of plant domestication.
identify plants of origin at low taxonomic toliths incorporate bits of the parent plant At Ohala II in Israel, a well dated Upper
scale, to distinguish between domesticated material, which is then preserved from Paleolithic site (⬇23,500–22,500 cal BP),
and wild species, to differentiate between contamination by the silica envelope of Piperno et al. (11) showed that wild barley
plant organs producing the microfossils, the phytolith. With a large enough sam- seeds were being processed with a stone
and to associate plants directly with hu- ple, accelerator mass spectrometer radio-
man activity by recovering starch and phy- carbon dates can be successfully attained
Author contributions: D.H.S. wrote the paper.
toliths from artifacts and even human directly from the microfossils.
teeth. Recent research by myself and col- Working in mid-Holocene sites of the The author declares no conflict of interest.
leagues (5) at the site of Waynuna, in the Ecuadorian coastal zone, Pearsall et al. See companion article on page 3651.
southern Peruvian highlands, illustrates all (7) have amplified our understanding of *E-mail: [email protected].
of these data types. Although we exca- early maize types at Real Alto, a site dat- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
www.pnas.org兾cgi兾doi兾10.1073兾pnas.0700225104 PNAS 兩 February 27, 2007 兩 vol. 104 兩 no. 9 兩 3021–3022

grinder, constituting the earliest direct
evidence thus far for this important kind
of activity, which makes seeds more easily
digested by the human body (11).
Plants and animals have passed back
and forth through Panama, situated at the
crossroads of the Americas, since the Isth-
mus closed and North and South America
united ⬇3 million years ago. Once hu-
mans settled the New World, they, too,
began traversing this narrow land bridge.
Indeed, archaeological sites of all epochs
are known, and systematic archaeological
surveys, excavations, and analyses of flora,
fauna, stone tools, ceramics, and human
skeletons during the past 25 years have
provided arguably one of the best archae-
ological records of any Neotropical region
(e.g., refs. 12 and 13). Our ability to re-
construct plant expolitation and domesti-
cation in ancient Panama, as in other Fig. 1. Stone tools from Panama sites that yielded identifiable starch grains. (a) Handstone from Cueva de
tropical zones, had been hampered by the los Ladrones with maize starch (site catalogue no. CL82b). (b) Flake knife from Casita de Piedra with arrowroot
poor preservation of botanical remains in starch (catalogue no. 101/15). (c) Wedge from Hornito with maize starch (catalogue no. 77-1). (d) Chopper from
Casita de Piedra with manioc starch (catalogue no. 52/44). (e) Handstone from Cueva de los Ladrones with
the humid tropical climate. Microfossil
maize and yam starch (catalogue no. CL68/1). ( f) Chopper from Hornito with maize starch (C24). (g) Grinding-
work has opened new doors. Several years stone base fragment from Cueva de los Ladrones with maize starch (catalogue no. CL68/2). (h) Chopper from
ago, Piperno et al. (14) identified starch Trapiche with yam and maize starch. (Scale bar, 1 cm.) See table 1 in ref. 3 for stratigraphic and chronological
grains from stone tools from 7,800-year- contexts. This composite photo was prepared by Aaron O’Dea and Drude Molbo.
old deposits at the Aguadulce Shelter in
Central Pacific Panama as manioc (Mani-
hot esculenta), yams (Dioscorea sp.), but little information on plant use and important in pre-Columbian subsistence
arrowroot, and maize. Combined with domestication was available, and starch economies, Dickau et al. provide the first
previously analyzed phytoliths from grain analysis had not been applied. The empirical evidence from the neotropical
Aguadulce and pollen and phytoliths from starch grain research of Dickau et al. (3) mainland affirming this belief.
Panamanian lakes, the starch grain data found maize, root, and tuber starches, The results of Dickau et al. (3) add to
provided the earliest New World evidence such as arrowroot and manioc. The inves- other recent work in northern and south-
for root-crop cultivation and a mixed tigators (3) show that, although the trajec- ern South America, mentioned previously,
economy relying in part on both domesti- tory of agricultural development and indicating that important seed and root
cated seeds and tubers. Maize came from associated demographic trends differed in crops such as maize, manioc, and arrow-
southwestern Mexico, and manioc and highland Western and lowland Central root were well dispersed and used by
arrowroot originated in South America. Panama, with intensive forms of slash- preceramic societies. Perhaps of greatest
and-burn agriculture apparently develop- anthropological significance, Dickau et al.
Thus, it appeared that prehistoric Pana-
ing thousands of years earlier in the latter note that the multiple origins of the do-
manians adopted these major crops at
mesticates that appeared in Panama be-
much earlier times than the previously region, many of the same crop plants were
tween ⬇7,800 and 7,000 years ago show
known and sparse macrobotanical record adopted in the two regions at approxi-
that crops moved independently of peo-
had suggested. mately the same time. Such kinds of ple: diffusion of plants rather than migra-
Dickau et al. (3) add much important detailed comparisons, essential for expli- tion of farmers. Given the importance of
new information to this picture. Identifica- cating the processes that led to full- agriculture in the development of complex
tion of starch grains from early stone tools fledged agricultural economies and social societies in the New World and elsewhere
(Fig. 1) at the site of Cueva de los Lad- complexity, are probably impossible with- and of American domesticates in global
rones supports the early use of domesti- out the sorts of multiproxy botanical stud- subsistence today, we need to understand
cated tubers and maize in Central Pacific ies that Dickau and others are increasingly such pathways to domestication and the
Panama, seen at nearby Aguadulce Shel- undertaking. Alongside the introduced adoption of agricultural lifeways in the
ter. Some phytolith studies had been done crops, early inhabitants also exploited lo- greatest possible detail. Multiproxy micro-
at similar-age sites in the higher-rainfall, cal wild plants high in important carbohy- fossil analyses such as the current Pana-
less-seasonal environment of Western Pa- drate sources such as yams (Dioscorea manian study (3) offer new insight and
cific Panama that were excavated ⬎30 spp.) and Zamia spp. Although Zamia, a balance biases of an imperfectly preserved
years ago by Ranere and Cooke (12, 13), cycad, has long been thought to be record. Small is big.
1. Piperno DR (2006) Phytoliths: A Comprehensive Guide 5. Perry L, Sandweiss DH, Piperno DR, Rademaker K, 10. Denham TP, Haberle SG, Lentfer C, Fullagar R, Field
for Archaeologists and Paleoecologists (AltaMira, Lan- Malpass MA, Umire A, de la Vera P (2006) Nature J, Therin M, Porch N, Winsborough B (2003) Science
ham, MD). 440:76–79. 301:189–193.
6. Piperno DR, Stothert KE (2003) Science 299:1054 – 11. Piperno DR, Weiss E, Holst I, Nadel D (2004) Nature
2. Torrence R, Barton H, eds (2006) Ancient Starch Re-
1057. 430:670–673.
search (Left Coast, Walnut Creek, CA). 7. Pearsall DM, Chandler-Ezell K, Zeidler JA (2004) J 12. Cooke RG, Ranere AJ (1992) World Arch 24:114–133.
3. Dickau R, Ranere AJ, Cooke RG (2007) Proc Natl Acad Arch Sci 31:423–442. 13. Ranere AJ, Cooke RG (2003) in Under the Canopy: The
Sci USA 104:3651–3656. 8. Zarrillo S, Kooyman B (2006) Am Antiq 71:473– Archaeology of Tropical Rain Forests, ed Mercader J
4. Torrence R (2006) in Ancient Starch Research, eds 499. (Rutgers Univ Press, New Brunswick, NJ), pp 219–248.
Torrence R, Barton H (Left Coast, Walnut Creek, CA), 9. Iriarte J, Holst I, Marozzi O, Listopad C, Alonso E, 14. Piperno DR, Ranere AJ, Holst I, Hansell P (2000)
pp 17–33. Rinderknecht A, Montaña J (2004) Nature 432:614–617. Nature 407:894–897.
3022 兩 www.pnas.org兾cgi兾doi兾10.1073兾pnas.0700225104 Sandweiss
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

Small is big: The microfossil perspective on human-plant interaction

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · March 2007

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

www.pnas.org兾cgi兾doi兾10.1073兾pnas.0700225104 PNAS 兩 February 27, 2007 兩 vol. 104 兩 no. 9 兩 3021–3022

3022 兩 www.pnas.org兾cgi兾doi兾10.1073兾pnas.0700225104 Sandweiss

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