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The Signs of Maize? A Reconsideration of What δ13C Values Say about Palaeodiet in the Andean Region

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Abstract

Palaeodietary isotope studies have long assumed C4 signals in South American archaeological populations to be due to the consumption of maize (Zea mays), which in turn, underlie interpretations important social processes. We presents δ13C data from wild plants (n = 89) from the south coast of Peru, which may have been significant in the diets of humans and animals in the past. A combination of these with previously published results from domesticates of the Andean region (n = 144) brings the proportion of C4 species likely to have contributed to the human dietary isotopic signal, whether directly or indirectly, to almost one third. This undermines the widespread assumption that maize is the only plant to contribute a C4 signal to diets. By considering both direct and indirect routes whereby C4 plants may have contributed to the human isotopic signal we show the need for a reassessment of how palaeodietary studies are interpreted in the Andes, and perhaps elsewhere in the Americas.

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Notes

  1. The data from the intra-species results is normally distributed, using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test Amaranthus caudatus D(11) = 0.10, p > 0.05 and for Atriplex rotundifolia D(7) = 0.16, p > 0.05, hence the use of parametric statistics here.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Catherine Kneale, Mike Hall and James Rolfe for help with isotope analysis; the Dorothy Garrod Laboratory for Isotopic Analysis (University of Cambridge) for facilitating this research, Alberto Benavides G. and Jane Wheeler for personal communications; and Octavio Pecho and Alfonso Orellana for many of the plant collections made for the Kew Darwin Project and used in our study here. LC would like to thank the AHRC, the Anthony Wilkins Fund and the Santander Universities Grant for Travel to Latin America for enabling this research as well as Alexander Pullen for all his support in the field. TCO would like to thank the Wellcome Trust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Downing St., Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

    Lauren Cadwallader & Tamsin C. O’Connell

  2. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing St., Cambridge, CB2 3ER, UK

    David G. Beresford-Jones & Tamsin C. O’Connell

  3. Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK

    Oliver Q. Whaley

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  1. Lauren Cadwallader
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  2. David G. Beresford-Jones
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  3. Oliver Q. Whaley
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  4. Tamsin C. O’Connell
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Correspondence to Lauren Cadwallader.

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Cadwallader, L., Beresford-Jones, D.G., Whaley, O.Q. et al. The Signs of Maize? A Reconsideration of What δ13C Values Say about Palaeodiet in the Andean Region. Hum Ecol 40, 487–509 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-012-9509-0

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