Guilá Naquitz Cave in

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, is the site of early

domestication Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. ...

of several food crops, including teosinte (an ancestor of

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

from the genus ''

Cucurbita ''Cucurbita'' (Latin for gourd) is a genus of herbaceous fruits in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae (also known as ''cucurbits'' or ''cucurbi''), native to the Andes and Mesoamerica. Five edible species are grown and consumed for their flesh and ...

'', bottle gourds (''Lagenaria siceraria''), and

beans A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes thr ...

. This site is the location of the earliest known evidence for domestication of any crop on the continent, ''

Cucurbita pepo ''Cucurbita pepo'' is a cultivated plant of the genus ''Cucurbita''. It yields varieties of winter squash and pumpkin, but the most widespread varieties belong to the subspecies ''Cucurbita pepo'' subsp. ''pepo'', called summer squash. It has b ...

'', as well as the earliest known domestication of maize.

Macrofossil Macrofossils, also known as megafossils, are preserved organic remains large enough to be visible without a microscope. The term ''macrofossil'' stands in opposition to the term microfossil. Microfossils, by contrast, require substantial magnifica ...

evidence for both crops is present in the cave. However, in the case of maize, pollen studies and geographical distribution of modern maize suggests that maize was domesticated in another region of Mexico.

Location

The cave is northwest of

Mitla Mitla is the second-most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the most important of the Zapotec culture. The site is located 44 km from the city of Oaxaca, in the upper end of the Tlacolula Valley, one of the ...

at the base of a cliff that rises above a semiarid valley floor at an elevation of . There are five strata as deep as . The entrance to the cave is . It is at the very eastern end of the Oaxaca Valley.

Occupation

While the earliest human evidence in Guilá Naquitz Cave dates to about 10,750 years BP, inhabitation was not continual and was not year-long. Humans ceased living in the cave about 500 BP. Humans lived in the cave six separate timeframes from about 10,750 to 8,900 years BP and again from about 1,300 to 500 years BP. The earlier inhabitants were pre-ceramic hunter-gatherers who lived in the cave only from August to October–December.

Crop domestication

The earliest known evidence of the domestication of ''Cucurbita'', which is native to the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, dates back 8,000–10,750 years BP, predating the domestication of other crops such as

and beans in the region by about 4,000 years. This evidence was found in the Guilá Naquitz Cave and four other Mexican caves during a series of excavations in the 1960s, possibly beginning in 1959. Further excavations at the Guilá Naquitz site were carried out in the 1970s by a team led by

Kent V. Flannery Kent Vaughn Flannery (born 1934) is a North American archaeologist who has conducted and published extensive research on the pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, and in particular those of central and southern Mexico. He has a ...

from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Subsequent more accurate dating using accelerator mass spectrometers provided more specific dates. Solid evidence of domesticated ''C. pepo'' was found in the Guilá Naquitz Cave in the form of increasing rind thickness and larger peduncles in the newer stratification layers of the cave. By circa 8,000 years BP the ''C. pepo'' peduncles found are consistently more than thick. Wild ''Cucurbita'' peduncles are always below this barrier. Changes in fruit shape and color indicate intentional breeding of ''C. pepo'' occurred by no later than 8,000 years BP. During the same time frame, average rind thickness increased from to . The process to develop the agricultural knowledge of crop domestication took place over 5,000–6,500 years in Mesoamerica. Squash was domesticated first, with maize second and then beans being domesticated, becoming part of the Three Sisters agricultural system of

companion planting Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for any of a number of different reasons, including pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial insects, maximizing use of space, a ...

References

External links

Guilá Naquitz Ancient Maize Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guila Naquitz Cave Cave sites in Mesoamerican archaeology Early agriculture in Mesoamerica Caves of Mexico