Phaseolus (Fabaceae) in Archaeology: AMS

Abstract

Beans of several species were domesticated in tropical America thousands of years ago, to be combined with maize and other crops in highly successful New World agricultural systems. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal associated with Phaseolus in archaeological sites, in Mexico and Peru indicated the presence of domesticated beans as early as 10 000 years ago. However, direct dates on the beans and pods themselves by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) do not provide evidence for the cultivation in Mexico of common beans, P. vulgaris, and teparies, P. acutifolius, before about 2500 B.P. in the Tehuacan Valley, and of common beans about 1300 years ago in Tamaulipas and 2100 years ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. AMS dates support the presence in the Peruvian Andes of domesticated common beans by about 4400 B.P. and lima beans by about 3500 B. P. and lima beans by about 5600 B.P. in the coastal valleys of Peru. The late appearance of common and lima beans in the Central Highlands of Mesoamerica supports the importance of missing evidence that may be obtained from prehistoric agricultural sites in western Mexico and in Central America which are located within the range of the wild populations of these species. Additionally, biochemical studies of subsamples of the dated specimens should be carried out in order to extend the molecular evidence for the independent domestication of North and South American common beans.