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Abstract Detail


Society for Economic Botany/BSA Economic Botany Section

IV , Walter Clifford [1].

Paleoethnobotanical Remains from Guijarral, a Late Classic Maya Site in Northwestern Belize.

Most studies of ancient Maya subsistence are based on ethnographic and historical accounts that model a reliance on maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cuburbita sp.). Our investigations of botanical remains recovered from an array of shovel tests and sealed contexts at Guijarral, a Late Classic (AD 600-900) Maya farmstead, have shown an expanded botanical repertoire beyond the maize, bean, and squash trinity. Some plant genera distributions suggest the importance of wild plants and their uses, as well as allow us to construct hypotheses regarding the locations of activities within the site and begin to reconstruct the agroecology associated with Late Classic provisioning. Data presented here demonstrate the importance of considering the potential for local control of perennial foodstuffs in local ritual, subsistence, and power dynamics.

Broader Impacts:


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1 - University of South Carolina, Anthropology

Keywords:
paleoethnobotany
Maya
Subsistence.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 14
Location: Maryland Room/Chase Park Plaza
Date: Monday, July 11th, 2011
Time: 2:00 PM
Number: 14003
Abstract ID:727


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