A team of archaeologists affiliated with several institutions in Germany, working with a colleague from the U.K. and another from Brazil, has found new evidence of the importance of maize to precolonial people living in the Amazon Basin.
In their paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes how they analyzed precolonial bones from both humans and animals in Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia, which has been identified as a place where the ancient Casarabe people once lived.
Prior research has shown that people living in the Amazon Basin before the arrival of Europeans were growing crops such as yams, squash, sweet potatoes and most importantly, maize, for consumption. But, as the researchers on this new effort note, little work has been done to learn about the relationship between those crops, the people that ate them, and animals that lived either with them or in close proximity.
To fill in such gaps, the researchers analyzed the remains of 86 people, and 68 animals (dated from 700 to 1400 CE) that had been dug up in Llanos de Mojos, a region in Bolivia, by multiple teams over many years. The people, the researchers note, belonged to the Casarabe—a precolonial culture that has become famous for the many large monumental mounds they built in Llanos de Mojos, and for the canals connecting them. In analyzing the remains, the researchers wanted to better understand what the humans and animals in the region were eating.
The work by the team consisted mostly of conducting an isotopic analysis of the bones and teeth to determine what a given person or animal had been eating prior to their death. In so doing, the research team found that maize was a primary component of the Casarabe diet. All the remains showed evidence of a heavy diet of the grain.
They also found that peak consumption of maize occurred between 700 and 800 CE, suggesting that other foods began to grow in importance after that. The researchers also found that maize was a main component of the diet for muscovy ducks, suggesting they were intentionally fed, which further suggests they were domesticated.