Insights into the Context, Mode, and Timing of Potato Domestication through Microfossil and Ground Stone Analyses at Jiskairumoko in the Western Titicaca Basin
Author(s): Claudia Rumold
Year: 2015
Summary
The data presented in this poster provide novel and direct microfossil evidence for the exploitation of potato (Solanum tuberosum) approximately 5000 years ago at Jiskairumoko, an early village site in the south-central Andes. In the Andes, elucidating the trajectory of potato domestication is central to an overall understanding of the development of agriculture, as this crop was perhaps one of the most important of the autochthonous highland Andean suite. Nevertheless, efforts to elucidate the timing, mode, and context of the its domestication have been hindered by the paucity of direct macrobotanical evidence. The results of this study demonstrate the combined effectiveness of starch grain and grinding tool analyses in addressing questions relating to the chronology and context of domestication for the potato. Forty-one starch grains derived from 14 grinding tools are identified as consistent with domesticated potato. Some archaeological Solanum starches may reflect the role of grinding in detoxifying potatoes and catalyzing the domesticatory process. Additionally, use-wear analysis of 98 grinding tools indicates women’s intensive use of this technology throughout the Late Archaic-Early Formative Period occupation of Jiskairumoko. These results are taken as indicating plant resource intensification reflecting low-level food production.
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Cite this Record
Insights into the Context, Mode, and Timing of Potato Domestication through Microfossil and Ground Stone Analyses at Jiskairumoko in the Western Titicaca Basin. Claudia Rumold. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 398246)
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Keywords
Geographic Keywords
South America
Spatial Coverage
min long: -93.691; min lat: -56.945 ; max long: -31.113; max lat: 18.48 ;