Hot Rock Cooking of Desert Lily and Winding Mariposa

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We describe Late Holocene hot rock roasting of desert lily (Hesperocallis undulata) in the Salton Basin of southeastern California, and winding mariposa (Calochortus flexuosus) near the Virgin and Muddy rivers confluence in southern Nevada. We briefly note differences but focus on similarities in these two arid region plant foods, and their use by sedentary groups from adjacent areas. Desert lily use probably peaked with periodic population influxes associated with Colorado River divergences into the Salton Basin. Winding mariposa appears to largely antedate the Western Virgin Puebloan settlement, possibly marking a wild carbohydrate option for the resident human population prior to fully committed maize-based farming.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23047