Late Archaic Maize in the Trans-Pecos of West Texas: Implications and Future Research

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Big Bend Complex: Landscapes of History" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The recovery of Late Archaic maize from the Trans-Pecos, peripheral to the American Southwest, adds to an expanding list of primary crop acquisition by foragers that occupied the arid region. The region, however, lacks clear demographic and settlement patterns diagnostic of this period from adjacent regions. Lacking key similarities, local researchers argued the early use of cultigens was superficial. But it is now clear the initial use of maize was both early and extensive across the Trans-Pecos and Southwest with variable effects on settlement and subsistence. This has led to a debate on how to label this early period of cultivar use; is it an extension of archaic lifeways with limited food production, or the onset of an earlier agricultural period? What is clear is the use of maize preceding the formative period spans an appreciable area of diverse desert ecotones. Therefore, situating the role of maize as well as the initial introduction and intensity of use in the Trans-Pecos region is dependent on a larger context that includes all known examples. This paper explores the role of food production in the Trans-Pecos with new radiocarbon and dietary isotope data adding to this larger discussion of early maize use.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• The Big Bend Complex: Landscapes of History

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33514