Nuevos fechamientos para las plantas domesticadas en el México prehispánico

Abstract

In 1989, a series of radiocarbon dates obtained by means of the accelerator mass spectrometry technique (AMS) directly from maize specimens recovered during R. S. MacNeish’s excavations of San Marcos and Coxcatlan Caves were published. The result was a new controversy over the antiquity of domesticated maize in Mesoamerica. However, the possibility of directly dating botanical remains, rather than depending upon conventional dates obtained from charcoal associated with the context from which the plant materials were recovered, represented a significant advance for the study of plant domestication. Other researchers soon began to employ this technique to re-evaluate the ages assigned to maize remains from sites in Tamaulipas and Oaxaca in addition to remains of beans and squash from all three regions. We discuss the new dates and their implications for the study of plant domestication and the sociocultural transformations associated with prehistoric food production in Mesoamerica.