The Age and Distribution of the Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris ) in Tennessee and the Southeastern U.S.
Author(s): Timothy Baumann; Gary Crites
Year: 2016
Summary
Arriving after AD 1000, the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) was the last domesticated plant to be adopted in the prehistoric Eastern Woodlands. Beans were combined with corn and squash to create the "three sisters" agricultural system. Recent scholarship has argued that the earliest beans entered the eastern US from the lower Plains and through the Great Lakes. When and how beans entered into the southeastern U.S. is not clearly understood because very few beans have been directly dated. New radiocarbon dates of beans from Tennessee and neighboring states are presented that may provide new evidence of multiple trade/migration paths.
Cite this Record
The Age and Distribution of the Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris ) in Tennessee and the Southeastern U.S.. Timothy Baumann, Gary Crites. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 404947)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
Mississippian
•
Plant Domestication
•
Subsistence
Geographic Keywords
North America - Southeast
Spatial Coverage
min long: -91.274; min lat: 24.847 ; max long: -72.642; max lat: 36.386 ;