Intensive Use of Wild Chenopodium by Central California Hunter Gatherers

Summary

Three decades of California paleoethnobotany have shown that Chenopodium is the most common small seed found in central California archaeological sites. Chenopodium is concentrated in sedentary residential communities in lowland areas, where historical population densities rivaled or exceeded those found elsewhere in the world. The most intensive use known for Chenopodium is from wetland areas of the Sacramento and Santa Clara valleys. Despite thousands of years as the pre-eminent small-seeded plant food and good reason to suspect active wild plant management, initial recent studies reveal no evidence of Chenopodium domestication in California.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• From Birdseed to Superfood: Chenopodium Cultivation and Management across the Globe

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13212