Abstract
Archaeobotanical investigations in central Nicaragua are absent and preservation of organic remains is poor; therefore, we have applied starch analyses to samples from fragments of clay vessels excavated from layers dated to cal 1224 and 1391 CE at the Barillas site, Nicaragua. The approach to this dataset reveals the ways people interacted with edible plants in southern Central America. The scarcity of griddles recovered from ancient Nicaraguan archeological contexts has previously co-determined narratives on human mobility or cultural influence from the Mesoamerican culture area, due to the debatable presumption that this type of artifact necessarily entangles production and consumption of maize tortillas. In this article, we present results demonstrating evidence for the use of several starchy plants. The reconstructed culinary practices are vital for disentangling human–plant interrelationships and challenge earlier conceptions of ancient foodways in Central America. This research constitutes the first starch analysis in Nicaragua and the recovered plant remains belonging to manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz), chili pepper (Capsicum sp.), and maize (Zea mays L.) have provided empirical evidence of ancient foodways. Concomitantly, these results have invalidated the preconception that griddles were tools used exclusively for the production of maize tortillas.
Highlights
Research on pre-Hispanic foodways in southern Central America has received differential attention
There is an absence of published archaeobotanical investigations for central Nicaragua
The Barillas site, located in the study area (Fig. 1),was previously attributed to the Cuapa phase, initially understood to be a ceramic complex related to the arrival of a supposed foreign cultural group to the area (Gorin 1990; Rigat 1992) (for an initial critique of this see Geurds (2013))
Summary
Research on pre-Hispanic foodways in southern Central America has received differential attention. Most descriptions of pre-Hispanic subsistence practices in Nicaragua rely primarily on a single sixteenth Century Spanish chronicle, which states that squash (Cucurbita sp.), beans (Phaseolus sp.), and maize (Zea mays L.) were the economic botanical foods for the Indigenous peoples of southern Central America (Fernández de Oviedo 1851 [1535]). The scarce evidence of this “trinity” of staple crops has added decisive commentary to the debate surrounding Mesoamerican speakers of Otomanguean and Nahuatl languages migrating down from present-day Mexico into ancient Nicaragua (Constenla Umaña 1991; McCafferty 2015). In 1522 CE Gil González Dávila, the first Spanish conquistador to arrive in what now is Pacific Nicaragua, reported cultural and linguistic similarities with parts of present-day Mexico (Somoza 1954). We argue here that many of the practices
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