NEW DATES AND DATA ON EARLY AGRICULTURE - THE LEGACY OF COMPLEX HUNTER-GATHERERS

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) method of radiocarbon dating h as shortened the history of maize agriculture by demonstrating that pu rported earliest cobs from Mexico, New Mexico, and eastern North Ameri ca are younger than, and intrusive into, earlier archaeological strata . Models of agricultural origins based on a 5000 B.C. or earlier date for cultigens must be discarded or validated by directly dated specime ns. A more recent date (ca. 3000-3500 B.C.) for maize domestication le ads to a new focus on settled hunter-gatherers in resource-rich zones. Social complexity in nonagricultural societies elsewhere is becoming more generally appreciated. In the Lower Mississippi Valley, nonagricu ltural mound builders persisted until 1100 A.D., and in Florida, Calif ornia, and the Pacific Northwest, stratified hunter gatherers flourish ed until Europeans arrived. These examples of sustainable harvesting d emonstrate the long-term viability of such systems.