The Age of Common Beans in the (Phaseolus vulgaris) Northeastern United States

Author(s): John P. Hart; C. Margaret Scarry

Year: 1999

Summary

A radiocarbon date of A.D. 1070 ± 60 was linked to the remains of maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucurbita pepo) at the Roundtop site in the Susquehanna River valley of New York by William Ritchie in 1969 and 1973 publications. This date established the presence a/beans in the Northeast at an earlier time than in most other areas a/the eastern United States, where they are generally rare before A.D. 1300. Subsequently beans have been reported in pre-A.D. 1300 contexts from at least eight other sites in the Northeast, Recent calibrated AMS dates on beans from Roundtop are no earlier than A.D. 1300 (Hart 1999a). Given that the original Roundtop date was responsible for the acceptance of early beans in the Northeast, the AMS dates suggested that beans may not become archaeologically visible there until ca. A.D. 1300. AMS dates on beans from four other sites, reported here, substantiate the Roundtop results. Beans and by extension maize-beans-squash intercropping are not evident in the Northeast before ca. A.D. 1300.

Cite this Record

The Age of Common Beans in the (Phaseolus vulgaris) Northeastern United States. John P. Hart, C. Margaret Scarry. American Antiquity. 64 (4): 653-658. 1999 ( tDAR id: 391805) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8PV6NKF

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
Historic • Historic Native American • Woodland

Material
Macrobotanical • Pollen

Site Name
Bald Eagle • Boland • Broome Tech • Bumham-Shepard • Catawissa • Gnagey • Nash • Roundtop • Skitchewaug • Thomas Luckey • W. Water Street

Site Type
Agricultural or Herding • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features

Investigation Types
Data Recovery / Excavation • Environment Research • Ethnohistoric Research

Geographic Keywords
Connecticut (State / Territory) • Connecticut River • Eastern Woodlands • New York (State / Territory) • Susquehanna River

Temporal Keywords
thirteenth-century • twelfth-century

Temporal Coverage

Radiocarbon Date: 1130 to 1010 (AMS date of maize, beans, and squash )

Spatial Coverage

min long: -79.75; min lat: 39.943 ; max long: -71.378; max lat: 43.771 ;

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