Multiproxy methods for identifying early farming and food management in the Maya lowlands at 6000 BP.
with Keith Prufer and Nadia Neff
Findings suggest that maize cultivation and animal management developed together much earlier than previously recognized. Instead of viewing maize farming and animal management as separate innovations, their study shows that they likely formed complementary parts of a greater adaptive food system as early as 6,100 years ago.
Keith Prufer
Keith Prufer is an archaeologist, isotope ecologist, and core faculty in the Center
for Stable Isotopes (CSI) at University of New Mexico. He has directed
long-term interdisciplinary field and laboratory studies for the past
two decades focused on human adaptation in the neotropics throughout the
Holocene. Since 2015, he has worked collaboratively combining
archaeometric and genomic data on tropical foragers and farmers in
Central America. He has also worked extensively public archaeology
outreach and consultations with Indigenous Maya communities and other
stakeholders. His current research addresses issues of mobility,
migration, diet, and social organization.
Keith is a Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Harvard University, Washington DC,
Nadia Neff
is a PhD candidate and an archaeologist and isotope biochemist at the University of New Mexico. (More to follow.)