Pohl Mary E D, Piperno Dolores R, Pope Kevin O, Jones John G
Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Apr 17;104(16):6870-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0701425104. Epub 2007 Apr 10.
The history of maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most debated topics in New World archaeology. Molecular and genetic studies indicate that maize domestication took place in tropical southwest Mexico. Although archaeological evidence for the evolution of maize from its wild ancestor teosinte has yet to be found in that poorly studied region, other research combining paleoecology and archaeology is documenting the nature and timing of maize domestication and dispersals. Here we report a phytolith analysis of sediments from San Andrés, Tabasco, that confirms the spread of maize cultivation to the tropical Mexican Gulf Coast >7,000 years ago ( approximately 7,300 calendar years before present). We review the different methods used in sampling, identifying, and dating fossil maize remains and compare their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we examine how San Andrés amplifies the present evidence for widespread maize dispersals into Central and South America. Multiple data sets from many sites indicate that maize was brought under cultivation and domesticated and had spread rapidly out of its domestication cradle in tropical southwest Mexico by the eighth millennium before the present.
玉米（Zea mays L.）的历史是新大陆考古学中争议最大的话题之一。分子和遗传学研究表明，玉米驯化发生在墨西哥西南部的热带地区。尽管在这个研究较少的地区尚未发现玉米从其野生祖先大刍草进化而来的考古证据，但其他结合古生态学和考古学的研究正在记录玉米驯化和传播的性质及时间。在此，我们报告了对塔巴斯科州圣安德烈斯沉积物的植硅体分析，该分析证实了玉米种植在7000多年前（约距今7300个历年）就已传播到墨西哥湾沿岸热带地区。我们回顾了在采样、鉴定和测定化石玉米遗迹年代时使用的不同方法，并比较了它们的优缺点。最后，我们研究了圣安德烈斯如何强化了目前关于玉米广泛传播到中美洲和南美洲的证据。来自多个地点的多个数据集表明，到距今八千年前，玉米已被种植和驯化，并迅速从其在墨西哥西南部热带地区的驯化摇篮传播开来。
