Weeds, Seeds, and Other Maya Needs

Summary

Our understanding of the diet, subsistence, and agricultural practices of ancient Maya commoners has been remarkably enhanced thanks to many years of archaeological investigations at Cerén led by Payson Sheets. The recovery of paleoethnobotanical remains at the site has revealed not only the storage of various well-preserved foodstuffs, but also extensive house gardens and agricultural fields filled with lasting impressions and carbonized remains of a diverse set of plant species including maize, manioc, agave, squash, chili peppers, cotton, and tree crops such as avocado, guava, calabash, nance and cacao. Besides the annual crops, recent excavations within Cerén’s agricultural fields reveal a strong presence of weedy species and lesser known woods, suggesting a diverse assemblage of plants comprised the ancient agricultural biome. The large amount of small seeds and achenes recovered from the cultivated fields for the most part represent annual weedy species that would have been relatively easy to manage by the Cerén inhabitants, if so desired. Modern Maya associate many useful applications with these intrusive plants and the strong presence of the weeds at Cerén suggests that the weeds possibly held a positive and tolerable relationship with the villagers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• After the Volcano Erupted: Papers in Honor of Dr. Payson Sheets (Part 1)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage