Starch Granule Size and Morphology as a Proxy for Water Influence on *Zea mays

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A wealth of information on regional patterns of human subsistence and plant domestication has been generated from studies on the starch granules of *Zea mays (maize). Very little work, however, has been conducted on how the size and structural attributes of those grains might change if exposed to different environmental contexts (e.g., the amount of a water parent plant receives). In the arid Southwest, the role of irrigation in growing maize is an important parameter in many foraging models. Our study seeks to determine if there are significant changes in the morphological attributes of starch granules from maize planted at Range Creek Canyon and watered under two different irrigation regimes: no watering and ample watering. Our results provide data on the effect of irrigation on the size and morphology of starch and, therefore, have implications for identifying archaeological maize and possibly determining past water regimes at Range Creek Canyon.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Experimental Archaeology in Range Creek Canyon, Utah   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33353