%0 Book Section %B Reassessing the Timing, Rate, and Adoption Trajectories of Domesticate Use in the Midwest and Great Lakes %D 2014 %T A Critical Assessment of Current Approaches to Investigations of the Timing, Rate, and Adoption Trajectories of Domesticates in the Midwest and Great Lakes %A J. P. Hart %E Raviele, M. E. %E Lovis, W. A. %K common bean %K maize %K midwestern North America %K paleoethnobotany %K Phaseolus vulgaris %K Zea mays ssp. mays %X

The adoptions of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the American Midwest remain critical lines of inquiry as the articles in this volume of Midwest Archaeologial Conference Inc. Occasional Papers amply demonstrate. Here I provide a critical assessment of current lines of investigation of crop adoptions and agricultural evolution. I argue that three changes are needed in order to build clearer understandings of these important issues: (1) the fuller integration of biological and social theories, (2) the adoption of probabilistic methods, and (3) the use of multiple lines of evidence.

%B Reassessing the Timing, Rate, and Adoption Trajectories of Domesticate Use in the Midwest and Great Lakes %S Occasional Papers %I Midwest Archaeological Conference, Inc. %C Champlain, Illinois %P 161-174 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Canadian Journal of Archaeology %D 2014 %T Review of Maize: Origin, Domestication, and Its Role in the Development of Culture by Duccio Bonavia %A J. P. Hart %K ancient maize %K crop history %K maize %K maize evolution %K Zea mays ssp. mays %B Canadian Journal of Archaeology %V 38 %P 346-348 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Seeking Our Past: An Introduction to North American Archaeology second edition %D 2013 %T A New History of Maize-Bean-Squash Agriculture in the Northeast %A J. P. Hart %E Neusius, S. W. %E Gross, G. T. %K common bean %K cucurbit; Cucurbita pepo %K maize %K northeastern North America %K Phaseolus vulgaris %K Zea mays ssp. mays %B Seeking Our Past: An Introduction to North American Archaeology second edition %I Oxford University Press %C New York, New York %P 407-415 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Archaeological Research %D 2013 %T Reevaluating What We Know About the Histories of Maize in Northeastern North America: A Review of Current Evidence %A J. P. Hart %A Lovis, W. A. %K Agricultural evolution %K Domesticated landscapes %K paleoethnobotany %K Shifting-balance theory %K Zea mays ssp. mays %X

The adoption of maize in northeastern North America is often seen as a catalyst for the development of settled village life. In this review we develop a theoretical framework centered on shifting-balance theory (SBT) and domesticated landscapes through which to understand the context for the adoption of maize agriculture in the Northeast. We review micro- and macrobotanical evidence and stable carbon isotope data from various sources to reevaluate maize histories and adoption trajectories. These data are coupled with contributions of subregionally significant predecessor plants, such as those constituting the Eastern Agricultural Complex, and wild rice. We find no evidence for rapid transitions to settled village life as a result of maize adoption. Maize was grown for centuries before settled village agricultural systems evolved. It was grown for a sufficiently long time that the potential for local selection leading to Northern Flint is a viable working hypothesis. We call for a refocusing of research questions and a systematic application of contemporary techniques as a means by which to strengthen future inferences based on comparative information sets.

%B Journal of Archaeological Research %V 21 %P 175-216 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10814-012-9062-9 %R 10.1007/s10814-012-9062-9 %0 Journal Article %J American Antiquity %D 2012 %T The Potential of Bulk d13C on Encrusted Cooking Residues as Independent Evidence for Regional Maize Histories %A J. P. Hart %A Lovis, W. A. %A Jeske, R. J. %A Richards, J. D. %K cooking residue analysis %K crop history %K maize %K stable isotope analysis %K Zea mays ssp. mays %X

The histories of maize utilization in eastern North America have been substantially revised recently, primarily because of the analysis of charred cooking residues encrusted on pottery. A multifaceted research strategy of bulk δ13C assays coupled with accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon data and microbotanical evidence can yield coherent regional maize use histories. Bulk δ13C assay interpretation complications include (1) variations among vessels by site, (2) a potential for false negatives, and (3) a wide range of variation potentially present for any given time period. Regional histories using this approach can be quite variable without appropriate use of multiple lines of evidence.

%B American Antiquity %V 77 %P 315-325 %G eng %U http://www.jstor.org/stable/23486065 %R 10.7183/0002-7316.77.2.315 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Archaeological Science %D 2012 %T Pottery Wall Thinning as a Consequence of Increased Maize Processing: A Case Study from Central New York %A J. P. Hart %K Bulk δ13C %K Charred cooking residues %K maize %K Maize cooking %K Pottery wall thickness %K Zea mays ssp. mays %X

The histories of maize in northeastern North America are not well understood at the subregional level. The complexity of formation processes for various lines of evidence for maize use requires the application of many analytical methods and techniques to produce data on subregional maize histories. The present analysis uses bulk δ13C values on directly dated charred encrusted cooking residues to provide the first direct correlation of water-based maize cooking to trends in pottery wall thinning. The results add to the growing body of evidence for the history of maize use in central New York.

%B Journal of Archaeological Science %V 39 %P 3470-3474 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.006 %R 10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.006 %0 Journal Article %J PLoS ONE %D 2011 %T Teosinte Inflorescence Phytolith Assemblages Mirror Zea Taxonomy %A J. P. Hart %A Matson, R. G. %A Thompson, R. G. %A Blake, M. %K maize %K phytoliths %K taxonomy %K teosinte %K Zea mays ssp. mays %K Zea mays ssp. parviglumis %X

Molecular DNA analyses of the New World grass (Poaceae) genus Zea, comprising five species, has resolved taxonomic issues including the most likely teosinte progenitor (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis) of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays). However, archaeologically, little is known about the use of teosinte by humans both prior to and after the domestication of maize. One potential line of evidence to explore these relationships is opaline phytoliths produced in teosinte fruit cases. Here we use multidimensional scaling and multiple discriminant analyses to determine if rondel phytolith assemblages from teosinte fruitcases reflect teosinte taxonomy. Our results indicate that rondel phytolith assemblages from the various taxa, including subspecies, can be statistically discriminated. This indicates that it will be possible to investigate the archaeological histories of teosinte use pending the recovery of appropriate samples.

%B PLoS ONE %V 6 %P E18349 %G eng %U http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0018349 %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0018349 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Archaeological Science %D 2009 %T The Use of Multiple Discriminant Analysis in Classifying Prehistoric Phytolith Assemblages Recovered from Cooking Residues %A J. P. Hart %A Matson, R. G. %K Chord distance %K Cluster analysis %K Discriminant analysis %K maize %K Mantel test %K Northeastern North American archaeology %K Rondel phytoliths %K Zea mays ssp. mays %X

In the investigation of the dispersal of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) from south-central Mexico to the northern and southern limits of agriculture in the Western Hemisphere archaeologists and paleoethnobotanists are increasingly turning to the microbotanical record. Recent analysis of phytolith assemblages from charred cooking residues on pottery sherds in central New York recovered using 209 rondel phytolith variables has identified maize as early as 2270 ± 35 B.P. In this article we use discriminant analysis to re-classify these rondel phytolith assemblages resulting in only seven variables. The results are consistent with those achieved earlier using many more variables and a less formal statistical approach in terms of classification and in similarity of the original and reduced data matrix as seen by the Mantel test and cluster analyses.

%B Journal of Archaeological Science %V 36 %P 74-83 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.07.011 %R 10.1016/j.jas.2008.07.011 %0 Book Section %B Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany II %D 2008 %T Evolving the Three Sisters: The Changing Histories of Maize, Bean, and Squash in New York and the Greater Northeast %A J. P. Hart %E J. P. Hart %K crop history %K Cucurbita pepo %K maize-bean-squash agriculture %K paleoethnobotany %K Phaseolus vulgaris %K Zea mays ssp. mays %B Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany II %S New York State Museum Bulletin %I The University of the State of New York %C Albany, New York %P 87-99 %G eng %0 Journal Article %J Northeast Anthropology %D 2004 %T Phytolith Evidence for Twentieth-Century B.P. Maize in Northern Iroquoia %A Thompson, R. G. %A J. P. Hart %A H. J. Brumbach %A Lusteck, R. %K cooking residue analysis %K crop histories %K maize %K New York %K phytoliths %K Zea mays ssp. mays %X

The history of maize (Zea mays) in historic northern Iroquoia has recently undergone significant revisions. Macrobotanical finds in southern Ontario and opal phytolith assemblages recovered from pottery sherd cooking residues in the northern Finger Lakes region of New York suggest that maize has a history dating to as early as circa calibrated 1400 B.P. in the region. In this article we provide new phytolith evidence that suggest maize’s presence in New York by circa calibrated 1900 B.P. This evidence suggests that maize was being used in the region for at least a millennium before the advent of northern Iroquoian subsistence-settlement traits and that the crop’s adoption was not responsible for the development of those traits.

%B Northeast Anthropology %V 68 %P 25-39 %G eng