[Aztlan] FIRST MANIOC FIELDS OF THE AMERICAS FOUND AT THE ANCIENT MAYA VILLAGE OF CEREN

[michael ruggeri]

Public release date: 20-Aug-2007


Contact: Payson Sheets
Payson.Sheets at colorado.edu
303-492-7302
University of Colorado at Boulder
CU-Boulder team discovers first ancient manioc fields in Americas

Prehistoric manioc plantation buried by volcanic ash about 600 A.D.  
may help explain how Maya supported dense populations

Click here for more information.

A University of Colorado at Boulder team excavating an ancient Maya  
village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago  
has discovered an ancient field of manioc, the first evidence for  
cultivation of the calorie-rich tuber in the New World.

The manioc field was discovered under roughly 10 feet of ash, said CU- 
Boulder anthropology Professor Payson Sheets, who has been directing  
the excavation of the ancient village of Ceren since its discovery in  
1978. Considered the best-preserved ancient village in Latin America,  
Ceren's buildings, artifacts and landscape were frozen in time by the  
sudden eruption of the nearby Loma Caldera volcano about 600 A.D.,  
providing a unique window on the everyday lives of prehistoric Mayan  
farmers.

The discovery marks the first time manioc cultivation has been  
discovered at an archaeological site anywhere in the Americas, said  
Sheets. The National Geographic Society funded the 2007 CU-Boulder  
research effort at Ceren, the most recent of five research grants  
made by NGS to the ongoing excavations by Sheets and his students.

"We have long wondered what else the prehistoric Mayan people were  
growing and eating besides corn and beans, so finding this field was  
a jackpot of sorts for us," he said. "Manioc's extraordinary  
productivity may help explain how the Classic Maya at huge sites like  
Tikal in Guatemala and Copan in Honduras supported such dense  
populations."


Click here for more information.

In June, the researchers used ground-penetrating radar, drill cores  
and test pits to pinpoint and uncover several large, parallel  
planting beds separated by walkways, said Sheets. Ash hollows in the  
planting beds left by decomposed plant material were cast with dental  
plaster to preserve their shapes and subsequently were identified as  
manioc tubers, an important, high-carbohydrate food source for Latin  
Americans today, said Sheets.

Evidence indicated the manioc bushes had just been cut down, most of  
the tubers harvested and the beds replanted with manioc stalks placed  
horizontally in the soil to regenerate bushes for the next cycle of  
growth, he said. The presence of volcanic ash just underneath hand- 
shaped dirt overhangs in the beds indicates the stalks were planted  
"just hours before the eruption," he said.

"What we essentially found was a freshly planted manioc field that  
was 1,400 years old," said Sheets. "Once again, we felt like we were  
right on the heels of these ancient people because of the exquisite  
preservation provided by the volcanic ash."

Each hand-shaped planting bed was about three feet wide and two feet  
high -- about 10 times larger than traditional planting beds for corn  
-- although the lengths of the rows are still unknown, he said. Each  
manioc stalk, or cutting, had been carefully placed in the ground  
with a growth "node" pointing toward the surface to generate a new  
bush and several nodes pointing down to generate the edible tubers  
and regular roots, he said.

Archaeologists had suspected ancient Mayans had cultivated and  
consumed manioc for its high-energy value, he said. Also known as  
cassava, manioc provides one of the highest yields of food energy per  
acre per day of any cultivated crop in the world.

The CU-Boulder team is working with scientists at the Smithsonian  
Institution in Washington, D.C., to develop new soil-analysis  
techniques to detect starch grains like those from manioc that will  
work at a wide range of archaeological sites, said Sheets.

"We don't want to find out that Ceren was unique in manioc  
cultivation," said Sheets. "We hope archaeologists eventually find  
evidence for this kind of activity at sites throughout the region.  
 From an archaeological standpoint, there are few things as important  
as discovering the sources of day-to-day subsistence for ancient  
cultures."

The team also included CU-Boulder anthropology graduate students  
Christine Dixon and Adam Blanford, geology graduate student Monica  
Guerra and archaeological geophysicist Larry Conyers. Conyers is a  
University of Denver faculty member who had worked at Ceren and  
received his CU-Boulder doctorate under Sheets in 1995.

Sheets and his colleagues previously determined the eruption at Ceren  
occurred on an early August evening because of the height of corn  
stalks and the fact that the farming implements had been brought  
inside but the sleeping mats had not yet been rolled out.

Thus far 12 buildings at Ceren -- believed to have been home to  
several hundred people -- have been excavated, including living  
quarters, storehouses, workshops, kitchens, religious buildings and a  
community sauna. Several dozen other structures located with ground- 
penetrating radar remain buried under up to 17 feet of ash, said Sheets.

Although the absence of human remains at Ceren initially puzzled  
scientists, the 1993 discovery that an earthquake rocked the site  
just prior to the eruption indicated the villagers might have had  
just enough warning to flee. "They did not even have time to remove  
their most valued belongings," said Sheets.

Preservation of organic materials at Ceren -- including thatched  
roofs, house beams, woven baskets, cloth and grain caches -- has been  
deemed superior to the organic preservation at the Italian site of  
Pompeii, by archaeologists and vulcanologists who have visited the  
Salvadoran site from around the world.



###
Located 15 miles west of San Salvador, the Ceren project involves  
scores of experts from the United States and El Salvador, including  
dozens of CU students and faculty. Past research at Ceren also has  
been funded by the National Science Foundation.

A podcast with Sheets on the ancient manioc plantation discovery at  
Ceren can be heard on the Web at: http://www.colorado.edu/news/ 
podcasts/.





Mike Ruggeri's Ancient America and Mesoamerica News and Links
http://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/MIKERUGGERISANCIENT/ 
index.html

Mike Ruggeri's Maya Archaeology News and Links
http://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/MIkeRuggerisMaya/index.html

Mike Ruggeri's Pre-Clovis and Clovis News and Links
http://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/MikeRuggerisPre/index.html

Mike Ruggeri's The Ancient Americas Blog
http://web.mac.com/michaelruggeri

Mike Ruggeri's Casas Grandes and Turquoise Road
http://tinyurl.com/3bbhdf

Mike Ruggeri's The Olmec World
http://tinyurl.com/2nknjf

Mike Ruggeri's Teotihuacan; City of the Gods
http://tinyurl.com/2nrs9d

Mike Ruggeri's Mesoamerica after the fall of Teotihuacan
http://tinyurl.com/2xhvwk

Mike Ruggeri's Zapotec World
http://tinyurl.com/2n8ndy

Mike Ruggeri's Ancient West Mexico from the Pre-Classic to the Tarascans
http://tinyurl.com/32uo5m

Mike Ruggeri's Aztec and Toltec World
http://tinyurl.com/yqypej