2 minute read
Lay of the Land
The Foods of the World
When Columbus stumbled on to the New World some 500 years ago,he started a process that continues at an ever accelerating pace today. He was making this planet smaller and more homogeneous.In this issue of American Archaeology, author Brian Fagan focuses on food and how Columbus’s discovery changed what we all eat.Try to imagine Italy without the tomato,or Ireland without the potato.Try to imagine the Navajos without fry bread.
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While the exchange of germs cost the lives of millions on both sides of the Atlantic,the exchange of food undoubtedly saved millions by diversifying the world’s food supply. Archaeologists are hard at work tracking down the origins of dozens of New World foods and their long and ponderous paths to domestication. Zea mays, or corn, took 3,600 years to become today’s staple feed grain.
By the time Columbus arrived, Native Americans had domesticated 300 plants, far more than their European conquerors. Plant pollen and seeds preserve well for many centuries and they are telling archaeologists what was being grown hundreds of years ago.They also allow scientists to trace the progress from wild plant to domesticated staple.In modern archaeology, even the tiniest of remains can play a huge role in telling the
MARK MICHEL, President
story of the past,and in the case of food,that story is how the dinner tables of the world were filled.
—Evelyn Billo and Robert (Bob) Mark
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