Abstract
WE present pollen and phytolith evidence for maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation in lowland Ecuadorian Amazonia as early as 5,300 radiocarbon years BP (before present), equivalent to about 6,000 calendar years BP1. This date for maize cultivation is more than 2,000 years earlier than any previously reported from the Amazon basin2. Although maize has been cultivated for at least 7,000 years in Mexico3,4, the manner of its dispersal through South America is still uncertain2–6. Evidence from coastal Ecuador6 suggests that maize had been taken south across the equator by 7,000 years BP. The oldest macrofossil evidence from Ecuador, however, is from about 3,400 years BP7. Our discovery of Zea microfossils in Amazonian lake sediments from Ecuador at about 6,000 years BP suggests that maize cultivation spread into the Amazon lowlands soon after its arrival in South America.
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Bush, M., Piperno, D. & Colinvaux, P. A 6,000 year history of Amazonian maize cultivation. Nature 340, 303–305 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/340303a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/340303a0
