Early arrival of maize and root crops in Panama
Llegada temprana del maíz y los tubérculos a Panamá
- Date
- c. 5800 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Aguadulce rock shelter, Coclé, Panama
- Credited to
- Preceramic populations of the isthmus; analyses by Dolores Piperno, Dolores Dickau and Anthony Ranere
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Starch grains and phytoliths from Panamanian rock shelters show that maize, manioc, yam and arrowroot were cultivated on the isthmus about 7,800 years ago, soon after maize was domesticated in Mexico. They show that maize spread southwards very quickly and was integrated into existing root-crop gardens.
Results from Dickau, Ranere and Cooke (2007) using starches on stone tools from Aguadulce and other shelters; the dating is calibrated radiocarbon and starch identification has error margins, hence medium confidence.
What it led to
- a mixed maize-and-root agricultural mosaic in lower Central America
- a dispersal bridge for maize towards South America
- later agricultural societies of the isthmus (Coclé, Veraguas) with large chiefdoms