Ancient Maize Map

Information

ID: 461
Other ID: I-5614
Type: MicroSample
Subtype: starch grain
Site: Casita de Piedra
Depositional context: midden

Two stone artifacts recovered from Ranere's 1971 excavations of Boquete phase deposits in the Casita de Piedra rockshelter (Ranere 1980) had maize starch grains adhering to them (Dickau et al. 2007:Table 1). A stone "base" (artifact No. 64/18) recovered from Unit 3, Layer C2 had 18 maize starch grains, while a chopper (artifact No. 76/2), recovered from Unit 5, Layer C2 had four definite and one tentatively identified maize starch grains.

Radiocarbon Date

Lab number: I-5614
Dating method: conventional
Directly dated: No
Dated material: charcoal
Contaminated?: No
Lower cal BP (years): 4846
Median cal BP (years): 4593
Upper cal BP (years): 4295
Uncal BP (years): 4075
± 1 σ (years): 105
δ13C:

Attached Files

References Cited

Dickau, R., A. J. Ranere and R. G. Cooke
2007 From the Cover: Starch Grain Evidence for the Preceramic Dispersals of Maize and Root Crops into Tropical Dry and Humid Forests of Panama. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104(9):3651-3656.

Ranere, A. J.
1980 Preceramic Shelters in the Talamancan Range. In Adaptive Radiations in Prehistoric Panama, edited by O. F. Linares and A. J. Ranere, pp. 16–43. Peabody Museum Monographs, Vol. 5. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

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