Phytolith Evidence for Early Holocene Cucurbita Domestication in Southwest Ecuador
Dolores R. Piperno,1*
Karen E. Stothert2
Cucurbita (squash and gourd) phytoliths recovered
from two early Holocene archaeological sites in southwestern Ecuador
and directly dated to 10,130 to 9320 carbon-14 years before the present (about 12,000 to 10,000 calendar years ago) are identified as derived
from domesticated plants because they are considerably larger than
those from modern wild taxa. The beginnings of plant husbandry appear
to have been preceded by the exploitation of a wild species of
Cucurbita during the terminal Pleistocene. These data
provide evidence for an independent emergence of plant food production
in lowland South America that was contemporaneous with or slightly
before that in highland Mesoamerica.
1 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
(STRI), Balboa, Panama.
2 Center for Archaeological
Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
78249, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed at STRI Unit 0948, APO AA 34002-0948.
