Modeling the Early History of Maize in the North American Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Constructing Chronologies II: The Big Picture with Bayes and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Although originally domesticated in Mexico, the initial adoption and spread of maize (*Zea mays) are key to understanding the forager-to-farmer transition in the North American Southwest. Fundamental to our understanding of this transition is chronology, especially related to the introduction, spread, and use of maize. This study uses different statistical modeling techniques on over 600 maize radiocarbon dates from 100+ Archaic and early Formative sites to examine the initial introduction, pace of maize dispersal, and intensity of maize use in the North American Southwest. Bayesian chronological modeling is used to provide formal estimates for the initial introduction of maize. Tempo plots are constructed from the Bayesian models to provide a relative measure for the pace of maize dispersal. Kernel density estimation (KDE) models are used to examine the distribution of maize to infer intensity of use during the Archaic period. The results of the tempo plots and KDE models are then compared to different paleoenvironmental reconstruction datasets to explore the relationship between Archaic maize dispersal, use, and climate change. These models provide more refined chronologies and allow for greater insight into the relationships between people, cultivated plants, and the environment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Constructing Chronologies II: The Big Picture with Bayes and Beyond   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32471