Comparing Starch Granules from Wild and Cultivated Solanum jamesii to Determine the Effects of Domestication

Summary

The processes, antecedents, and outcomes associated with plant domestication have been central themes in archaeological and interdisciplinary research for the last century. While domesticates can often be readily distinguished from their wild progenitors both genetically and morphologically, the steps leading to domestication (transport, selective harvest, deliberate seed dispersal, active plant management, i.e. cultivation) can be difficult to track archaeologically. Techniques for identifying morphological changes in macrobotanical remains (e.g. seeds, fruits, caryopses) from archaeological sites have been well established, but there are virtually no systematic studies on how to identify morphological changes in microbotanical remains (e.g. starch granules) despite claims that larger granules are characteristic of domesticated species. Here we test the hypothesis that domesticated plants produce larger starch granules than their wild progenitors. We measured granules from the Four Corners potato (Solanum jamesii) that were a) grown in the wild, b) associated with archaeological sites, c) propagated in a greenhouse, and d) cultivated in a garden. This systematic approach provides the first attempt to establish a protocol for identifying the domestication process in starch granules.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22244