PHYTOLITH ANALYSIS OF MAIZE COB FRAGMENTS FROM LAS CAPAS (AZ AA:12:111), TUCSON, ARIZONA

Summary

Three charred maize cobs and two maize cupule fragment samples from various pit contexts were submitted for phytolith analysis from the site of Las Capas (AZ AA:12:111), which is located near Tucson, Arizona (Table 1). Strata associated with Features 504 and 505 at Las Capas have calibrated age ranges of 950-800 BC and 1000-900 BC respectively, placing the site within the San Pedro Phase Early Agriculture period. The main goal of this analysis was to quantify phytolith recovery from charred cob remains and to determine the minimum charred cob mass necessary to provide a statistically significant number of maize rondel phytoliths for morphometric analysis. An ancillary goal was to recover fragments of maize rondels encased in silicified sheets with bumpy ornamentation because similar phytolith fragments were recovered in early agricultural field samples from Las Capas during a pervious study conducted by PaleoResearch (Yost 2012). Following the recovery of a statistically significant number of maize rondel phytoliths from three samples,morphometric analysis was conducted to explore the relationships between these archaeological cob and cob fragments with known varieties of maize local to this region of the southern American Southwest, along with comparison to Zea mays progenitor species (teosinte).

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• PaleoResearch Institute

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Contact(s): Linda Scott Cummings

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