Agriculture is the lever with which humans transformed the earth over the last 10,000 years and created new forms of plant and animal species that have forever altered the face of the planet In the last decade, significant technological and methodological advances in both molecular biology and archaeology have revolutionized the study of plant and animal domestication and are reshaping our understanding of the transition from foraging to farming, one of the major turning points in human history This groundbreaking volume for the first time brings together leading archaeologists and biologists working on the domestication of both plants and animals to consider a wide variety of archaeological and genetic approaches to tracing the origin and dispersal of domesticates It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in this quickly changing field as well as reviews of recent findings on specific crop and livestock species in the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa Offering a unique global perspective, it explores common challenges and potential avenues for future progress in documenting domestication

Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms

The common potato, Solanum tuberosum L., is the third most important food crop and is grown and consumed worldwide. Indigenous cultivated (landrace) potatoes and wild potato species, all classified as Solanum section Petota, are widely used for potato improvement. Members of section Petota are broadly distributed in the Americas from the southwestern United States to the Southern Cone of South America. The latest comprehensive taxonomic treatment of section Petota was published by John (Jack) Hawkes in 1990; it recognized seven cultivated species and 228 wild species, divided into 21 taxonomic series. Since 1990, intensive field collections from throughout the range of the group, coupled with morphological and molecular studies, have halved the number of species and elucidated new ingroup and outgroup relationships. The recent sequencing of the potato genome has greatly accelerated investigation of all aspects of potato biology and allows us to address new questions not conceivable before. The purpose of this review is to provide a historical overview and update since 1990 of the systematics, diversity, genetics, domestication, evolution, and breeding of Solanum section Petota that will serve as a reference for the next generation of studies in the potato.

Systematics, Diversity, Genetics, and Evolution of Wild and Cultivated Potatoes

The decomposition of starch grains in soils: implications for archaeological residue analyses

Early and mid Holocene tool-use and processing of taro (Colocasia esculenta), yam (Dioscorea sp.) and other plants at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Documenting contamination in ancient starch laboratories

A collection of 21 preserved tubers of the potato from 4 archaeological sites situated in the Casma Valley of Peru is illustrated and described. The collections from these sites date from the Preceramic Period (2000 B.C.) to the Initial Ceramic Period (1200 B.C.). Identification of the tuber remains was undertaken through a stud) of their starch grains. Comparative material used for this purpose included other archaeological collections of tuber remains from the sites of Chilca and Pachacamac, as well as the fresh and dried tubers of modern-day wild and cultivated potato species.

Archaeological potato tuber remains from the casma valley of peru

Preceramic and Initial Period Monumentality within the Casma Valley of Peru

Taukachi-Konkan is a large planned settlement that formed part of the Sechin Alto Polity which governed the Casma Valley during the Initial Period. Fieldwork there during five seasons focused on fo...

Recent Excavations at the Initial Period Site of Taukachi-Konkán, Casma Valley, Peru

Pajatambo, located on the Peruvian coast between the Moche and Viru valleys, is the only colonial roadside structure that has been excavated in Peru. The site, which is adjacent to ancient road courses, consists of one multi-roomed building with a shallow deposit of occupation-related refuse. The ceramics, metal objects and subsistence remains indicate an 18th century date for the construction and occupation of the site.

Pajatambo: An 18th century roadside structure in Peru

The Sechín Alto Polity, centered in the Casma Valley on the north coast of Peru, constructed the largest mound structures in the New World during the Initial Period (2100–1000 B.C.). The polity united at least six inland sites and three coastal satellites into a political and economically cooperative unit within which different sites and different monumental structures had distinct, but complementary, functions. Prominent among the artifacts that define the Sechín Alto Polity are ceramic figurines. Examples are consistently from domestic or residential contexts; most (more than 350 fragments) were recovered from Sechín Alto site, the polity capital, where they were likely manufactured. Iconography within Andean archaeology of the figurines connects them with warrior figures and victims depicted in the Cerro Sechín stone carvings and by extension with anthropomorphic friezes that adorn the temple mound of Moxeke within the Sechín Alto Polity. These data suggest that the Casma figurines may represent distinct groups of people who in turn reflected sacred vs. secular aspects of Casma Valley society.

Thomas Pozorski

Papers

Archaeological potato tuber remains from the casma valley of peru

Preceramic and Initial Period Monumentality within the Casma Valley of Peru

Recent Excavations at the Initial Period Site of Taukachi-Konkán, Casma Valley, Peru

Pajatambo: An 18th century roadside structure in Peru

Exploring the Technology and Meaning behind Early Ceramic Figurines from the Casma Valley, Peru