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Morphometric Characterization of the Maize: A Case Study in Postclassic Xaltocan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2012

Naoli Victoria Lona
Naoli Victoria Lona*
Affiliation:
Posgrado en Antropología, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras - Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (FFyL/IIA-UNAM), Circuito Exterior - Mario de la Cueva s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, México, Distrito Federal, C.P. 04510, México. e-mail: naoliv@hotmail.com
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Abstract

Xaltocan used to be an island located North of the Basin of Mexico in the bed of the lake of the same name, the occupation of which has been continuous for 1100 years. The area’s environment includes the island, the lake and the shore Xaltocan saline land and deep alluvial soil, the foothills and mountains, areas that provide different resources, whose exploitation is clear from the Paleoethnobotanical remains recovered from archaeological excavations.

Maize, basic resource in the daily life of Xaltocan, was also affected by sociopolitical and economic circumstances, so, it is possible that a different type of maize was used in each period of the locality. This is the interesting point to characterize morphometrically the maize from a context housing for the early Postclassic. To do so requires the application of different techniques (methodical process) to get to the characterization of corn: sample, flotation, separation and identification, measurement of corn through a microscope that could be complemented with electron microscopy scanning (SEM) to reveal possible microstructure.

In the measurement technique applied to the samples, the cob is divided into different sections; all of them can be measured, element by element, with a stereoscopic microscope for subsequent statistical analysis.

The study includes 231 sediment samples, distributed in 19 different depths and areas inside and outside of two dwelling domestic units. From 31,230 macrorremains, 6,140 were identified as Zea mays.

Keywords

biologicalmorphologyarchaeology
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1374: Symposium S8 – Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Issues in Materials Science , 2012 , pp. 235 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012

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References

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