Understanding the Transition to Villages: A Comparison of Maize between Basketmaker III Sites and an Early Pueblo I Village

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Comparative morphological and other analysis on maize samples informs us of crucial nutritionary changes in key Ancestral Puebloan cultural stages. The transition of the Basketmaker III (500-750 CE) period to the Pueblo I (750-950 CE) period in the Southwestern Utah archeological record is marked by distinct technological changes and larger, more densely populated and permanent villages. This increased population density necessitated the cultivation and growth of a stable food supply. Maize, a staple of Puebloan diet throughout both periods, is known for its genetic plasticity; thus allowing farmers to select for traits adaptive to their needs. In this study I compare burned maize from Basketmaker III sites in Montezuma Canyon to maize from an early Pueblo I village site (749 CE-772 CE) located on the plateau above to ascertain if and in what ways maize changed as a part of this societal shift. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39883.0