Our discovery emphasizes the importance of collaborative research between archaeologists and botanists whose distinctive data can provide a richer understanding of how the Hohokam developed and then sustained one of the American Southwest's largest prehistoric populations. The question of where and when this agave originated has implications for North American domestication centers. The extensive size and wide distribution of Hohokam agave fields that transformed the landscape and are still visible today indicates the crop's importance in the Hohokam economy. 800–1450 by the Hohokam, and thus represents a ‘lost crop’ as sought by archaeologists. Here we describe Agave sanpedroensis, provide a key to distinguish it from other agaves in south-central Arizona and propose that it is a clonal, relictual crop grown from ca. They are extremely rare, reproduce asexually via rhizomatous offsets with no apparent fruit set, have relatively uniform intra- and inter-population morphology, grow only with archaeological features and are unknown from natural settings: all characteristics expected in a domesticated crop. based on flower color but differ by their gray-green leaves with thick bases and conspicuous bud imprinting. Our work expands upon a recent publication noting several agaves growing in prehistoric dry-farmed fields on terraces overlooking the San Pedro River. However, no archeologists reported finding living agaves growing in the rock-piled or gridded Hohokam fields, therefore researchers could only speculate about the species cultivated. For over thirty years archaeologists have provided evidence that southern Arizona pre-Columbian Native Americans, the Hohokam, extensively cultivated agave.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |