Informe del análisis de muestras de fitolitos del Valle del Cauca

En este informe, se detallan los resultados de los análisis de fitolitos realizados en sedimentos de varios contextos arqueológicos, la mayoría del sitio Hacienda Malagana y del periodo Malagana. Las muestras provienen de los siguientes contextos:5El interior de vasijas antropomorfas que representan mujeres sentadas sobre los talones (50/1342, 80b/1337, 80e/1345, 53/1355). Estas vasijas no son parte de ajuares funerarios, sino de ofrendas rituales.De los alrededores o debajo de estas vasijas antropomorfas femeninas (49/1348, 53a/1354).Del interior de otras vasijas: del periodo Ilama (80i/1338); del periodo Malagana (45/1331, 81c/1334, 51/1344, 80g/1350, 78/1352, 52/1353); del periodo Tardío (80bis/1302).De rellenos de tumbas (80c, 80d/1330,1301; 80f/1340).De rellenos de pozos (47/1341, 46/1343).De orificios de poste (81d/1335).De otros contextos (77/1333, 80h/1336,44/1339, 35/1349).Todos estos contextos, con excepción de los detallados en el numeral 3, corresponden al periodo Malagana. En la Tabla 1 se presentan los datos completos de estos contextos. En este informe, primero, se detallan los procedimientos utilizados para extraer e identificar los fitolitos. Luego, se describen los taxones vegetales identificados mediante el análisis de fitolitos en el conjunto de muestras. Finalmente, se examinan los resultados de acuerdo con los contextos y se discute si existe una asociación entre contextos particulares y ocurrencias de determinados fitolitos.

Phytoliths as a tool for investigations of agricultural origins and dispersals around the world

Agricultural origins and dispersals are subjects of fundamental importance to archaeology as well as many other scholarly disciplines. These investigations are world-wide in scope and require significant amounts of paleobotanical data attesting to the exploitation of wild progenitors of crop plants and subsequent domestication and spread. Accordingly, for the past few decades the development of methods for identifying the remains of wild and domesticated plant species has been a focus of paleo-ethnobotany. Phytolith analysis has increasingly taken its place as an important independent contributor of data in all areas of the globe, and the volume of literature on the subject is now both very substantial and disseminated in a range of international journals. In this paper, experts who have carried out the hands-on work review the utility and importance of phytolith analysis in documenting the domestication and dispersals of crop plants around the world. It will serve as an important resource both to paleo-ethnobotanists and other scholars interested in the development and spread of agriculture

The Application of Ethnobotanical Techniques to The Problem of Subsistence in The Ecuadorian Formative

280 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1979.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Climate, agriculture, and cycles of human occupation over the last 4000 yr in southern Zacatecas, Mexico

International audience"Scholars attribute the growth and decline of Classic period (AD 200–900) settlements in the semi-arid northern frontier zone of Mesoamerica to rainfall cycles that controlled the extent of arable land. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. We present phytolith, organic carbon, and magnetic susceptibility analyses of a 4000-yr alluvial record of climate and human land use from the Malpaso Valley, the site of one such Classic frontier community. The earliest farming occupation is detected around 500 BC and appears related to a slight increase of aridity, similar to the level of the modern day valley. By AD 500, the valley's Classic period Mesoamerican settlements were founded under these same dry conditions, which continued into the Postclassic period. This indicates that the La Quemada occupation did not develop during a period of increased rainfall, but rather an arid phase. The most dramatic changes detected in the valley resulted from the erosion associated with Spanish Colonial grazing and deforestation that began in the 16th century. The landscape of the modern Malpaso Valley is thus primarily the product of a series of intense and rapid transformations that were concentrated within the last 400 yr." (source éditeur