ANT 351 Lecture 8: Transition to Agriculture
The Transition to Agriculture
-The end of the archaic led to the adoption of agriculture
-This was a crucial transformation
-Dependence on cultivated products for food; settled village life; more complex forms of
social organization; and production of ceramics
-This period of first farmers traditionally called Basketmaker II
oin the southern deserts, the Terminal Archaic
-“Early Agricultural Period” = time of the earliest farming societies
oTerminology proposed more than 50 years ago by Paul Martin and John Rinaldo
oproposed again by Bruce Huckell
-the use of the “Archaic” is reserved only for those societies lacking cultivated plants and
making a living by hunting and gathering
-Basketmaker II is retained as a legitimate stage designation
oWas a regional variant of the Early Agricultural period
-Farming societies of the San Pedro stage now considered a part of the Early Agricultural
Period
-very recent discoveries from the Southwest are re-writing our understanding of how,
when, and where people adopted agriculture
oTucson metropolitan area – Santa Cruz River
Evidence of large villages, irrigation canals, and use of ceramics 1,000 to
2,000 years earlier than anyone had ever suspected
- The earliest dates for Basketmaker II have now been pushed back into the range of
1,500 or perhaps even 2,000 B.C.
-Near Zuni Pueblo in NM there is evidence of irrigation canals and associated structures
and features dating to as old as 1,000 B.C.
Environmental Context for the Early Agricultural Period
-the Late Archaic period brings an amelioration or the Altithermal
- about 2,000 B.C., there is a general trend toward a wetter climate
-About 2,200 B.C. there is a trend toward cooler temperatures
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-About 1,800 B.C. there is a greater summer rainfall, a higher water table, increased soil
retention of moisture, and more annual precipitation
-Arroyos that were cut by erosion during the Altithermal filled with sediment, creating
new, well-watered floodplains that could be cultivated
oEssentially more favorable environments for successful agricultural fields
- David Gregory¸ an archaeologist, believed “that populations who had adopted maize
agriculture immediately began to exploit that niche more intensively”
-Francis Smiley, an archaeologist, believed “The Altithermal had ameliorated, and
effective moisture appears to have generally been increasing during the period 5,000 to
4,000 B.P”
-The domestication of maize appears to have been established by about 3,000 B.C. in
Mexico
- Due to the discovery of maize at 2,000 B.C. indicates that it took fewer than 1,000 years
for maize to diffuse north from its point of origin.
Chronology for the Early Agricultural Period
-The Early Agricultural period spans a time from about 2,000 B.C. to A.D. 500
o roughly the time between the first adoption of maize agriculture and the
emergence of distinct regional traditions of making ceramics.
-The best chronological evidence for the Early Agricultural period comes from the Basin-
and-Range and Colorado Plateau physiographic provinces
-Numerous radiocarbon dates have been obtained from Tucson, Arizona, and from
the Colorado Plateau regions of Black Mesa in Arizona, the Quemado area of New
Mexico, and near Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.
The Basin-and-Range (Southern Deserts)
-The Early Agricultural Period begins in the southern deserts with the adoption of maize
cultivation during the San Pedro phase
oChochise culture
-some Late Archaic populations began to grow corn by about 2,000 B.C.
o Las Capas, near Tucson, AZ
Excavated a cluster of storage pits and recovered maize and mesquite
beans
oMcKuen Cave, near Stafford, AZ
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