Pacific Plant Identification

Question What plants are present at archaeological sites in the Pacific 7 

Carter, G.R, 1950. Plant evidence for early contacts with America. Southwestern Journal of 

Fitzpatrick, S., Callaghan, R. 2009. Examining dispersal mechanisms for the translocation of chicken (Galins gallus) from Polynesia to South America. Journal of Archaeological Science 36 214-223. 

Storey, A.A., Miguel Ramirez, J., Quiroz, D., Burley, D., Addison, D.J., Walter, R., Anderson, A.J., Hunt, T.L., Athens, J.S., Huynen, L., Matisoo-Smith, E.A., 2007. Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a Pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 104 10335-10339. 

Ballard, C., Brown, P, Bourke, R.M., Harwood, T. (Eds.) 2005. The Sweet Potato in Oceania a Reappraisal. New South Wales University of Sydney Press. 

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A variety of methods are used for identification and authentication, ranging from microscopes to the most complex and sophisticated scientific instruments available. In the examples provided in this chapter, we consider the microscopic identification of species-specific starch grains from South America to identify early traces of plant domestication. An SEM is used to identify plant remains from the Pacific and the very early spread of sweet potatoes from South America westward. A petrographic microscope is used to characterize the micromorphology and identify the contents of house floors in a prehistoric site in British Columbia. Finally GC/MS instrumentation is used to identify the chocolate contents of distinctive ceramic jars found in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. 

Microscopes play a big role in the examples of identification we discuss below -starch grains from South America from early domesticates plants, the introduction of the sweet potato, an important crop, to the islands of the Pacific, and the fine details of floor sediments in prehistoric British Columbia. Finally, a GC/MS identifies chocolate as the contents of ceramic cups found in ancient New Mexico. 

Level 2 At the next level of comprehensiveness are two smaller Floras, one of which is a condensed version of the five-volume work. Flora of the Pacific Northwest an illustrated manual (Hitchcock and Cronquist, 1973) and the other an identification guide (consisting mostly of keys) to the plants of a slightly smaller geographical area Plants of western Oregon, Washington and British Columbia (Kozloff, 2005). 

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