Earliest Microbotanical Evidence for Maize in the Northern Lake Michigan Basin

Abstract

There is no recorded maize (Zea mays spp. mays) from sites predating circa cal AD 800 in the northern Lake Michigan or Lake Superior basins of the western Great Lakes, despite the presence of maize microbotanicals including phytoliths and starches in Michigan, New York, and Quebec as early as 400 cal BC. To evaluate the potential for an earlier maize presence in the northern Lake Michigan basin, samples of carbonized food residues adhering to 16 ceramic vessels were obtained from the Winter site (20DE17) located on the Garden Peninsula in the northern Lake Michigan basin. Each sample was split and sent to two analysts. Both analysts identified low incidences of maize starch and phytoliths in multiple samples, with overlapping identifications on several. Three direct accelerator mass spectrometry dates on the carbonized residues reveal maize incorporated into the residues as early as the second century cal BC, 800 years before any regional macrobotanical evidence. Although the method of dispersal cannot be determined, these results support the proposition that initial northern dispersal of maize in the region may have been nearly 800 years earlier than macrobotanical evidence would suggest and is consistent with the timing of its introduction to the lower Great Lakes area.

Isotopic Confirmation of the Timing and Intensity of Maize Consumption in Greater Cahokia

“…During the Terminal Late Woodland (AD 900–1050) the EAC starchy and oily seeds were combined with maize crops to form “a relatively equal or balanced agricultural strategy” (Simon and Parker 2006:228; see also Johannessen 1984). The Mississippian era archaeobotanical record makes clear that maize ( Zea mays L. ) increasingly contributed a significant portion of the food base with its ubiquity in archaeological features often reaching 100% (e.g., Fritz 2019; Hedman et al 2002; Johannessen 1984; Lopinot 1997; Simon and Parker 2006).

Figure 1.Greater Cahokia showing Cahokia, East St. Louis, and St. Louis Precincts (adapted from Emerson 2018:Figure 14.1).

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“…The history of maize in the eastern Woodlands has recently taken an interesting turn under the research agenda forwarded by John Hart, William Lovis, and others employing microbotanical evidence to identify maize phytoliths and starch grains, especially in the charred cooking residues on early pottery (Hart and Lovis 2007, 2013:188–191, 2014; Hart et al 2012). Based on microbotanical identification and AMS dates of cooking residues, researchers have pushed the earliest evidence for maize back to as early as 300 BC in New York and Ontario and to 200 BC in Michigan (e.g., Albert et al 2018; Hart and Lovis 2013; Hart et al 2012). However, Chilton (2006:Tables 39-1 and 39-2) found Northeastern macrobotanical evidence of maize usually dates circa AD 1000 or later, and Lusteck (2006:524) reports that in the interior south-central region of the eastern Woodlands, the oldest remains date circa AD 1000, well within the time frame outlined here.…”

Fish and maize: Bayesian mixing models of fourteenth- through seventeenth-century AD ancestral Wendat diets, Ontario, Canada

“…cal. 300 BC 19–21 . Macrobotanical remains in the form of charred maize kernels and cob fragments become evident in the southern Ontario archaeological record by ca.…”

Microscopic Analysis of Starch Grains and its Applications in the Archaeology of the Stone Age

“…The analysis of starch grains is connected with investigations into plant use and plant processing in the past and also the composition of the herbaceous component of the human diet (Barton, White, 1993;Hall et al, 1989;Fullager et al, 1998;Henry et al, 2014;Corteletti et al, 2015;Tromp, Dudgeon, 2015;Shillito et al, 2018;López, 2018;Primavera et al, 2018). This technique is also suitable for research into the use and function of artefacts and for deciding issues of plant domestication and vegetation history (Loy et al, 1992;Hardy et al, 2009;Denham et al, 2003;Fuller et al, 2014;López, 2018, Cagnato, 2018Albert et al, 2018).…”