Project Grant 2211043

The National Science Foundation awarded a two-year, $147,602 Project Grant to the University of California, Santa Barbara under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program (CFDA 47.075). The grant will support collaborative research to document the origins and early consumption of key Neotropical food crops like maize and manioc through micobotanical analysis of samples from archaeological sites in northern Neotropical forests dating from 12,500 to 1,000 calibrated years before present. Project members will excavate two remote rockshelter sites with good organic material preservation to obtain grinding stones and dental calculus for analysis. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone will provide chronological control. Identifying domesticated and wild plant remains processed and consumed will indicate when crops like maize and manioc were incorporated into human diets and how their importance changed over time. Data will be shared with descendant communities and published findings translated to local languages. The research also aims to promote science training for women and underrepresented students.