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July 3, 2017—The town of Escalante in southern Utah is no small potatoes when it comes to scientific discovery; a new archaeological finding within its borders may rewrite the story of tuber domestication.
Researchers from the Natural History Museum of Utah and Red Butte Garden at the University of Utah have discovered potato starch residues in the crevices of a 10,900-year-old stone tool in Escalante, Utah — the earliest evidence of wild potato use in North America. This is the first archaeological study to identify a spud-bearing species native to the southwestern United States, Solanum jamesii, as an important part of ancient human diets. The researchers pieced together evidence from stone tools, ethnographic literature and modern gardeners to show that Utahans have used the species intermittently for over 10,000 years. The Escalante area was even previously known as “Potato Valley” to early settlers.
he new study deals with S. jamesii, a wild species found in the shady shelter of oaks, sagebrush and piñon pines across the Four Corners region of the southwestern U.S. The so-called Four Corners potato is most abundant in the highlands of New Mexico, where its green leaves and delicate white flowers are scattered throughout piñon-juniper woodlands. In Utah, however, the plants only grow in sparse, isolated populations near archaeological sites, suggesting that ancient people carried the tubers to the area. Only five small populations of plants are known in the Escalante Valley, including one just 150 meters from the archaeological site, North Creek Shelter. Though rarely used today, the potato was an important staple for people living across its range.
“The use of Solanum jamesii by the Hopi people is not so much now, but in the past as the famers would be out in their fields down below the mesas they would dig the wild potatoes and bring it home to add to their diet,” says Max Taylor, botanist at the Hopi Tribe Water Resources Program. “There were many ways to prepare the potatoes, but one way for sure was to boil the potatoes in a white clay to draw out the toxins from the potato to make it edible. Tñhe particular clay is called the potato clay for that reason, it’s a clay similar to the one from which the potteries are made.”
originally posted by: punkinworks10
a reply to: Trueman
Hi Trueman,
I was shocked that it was Utah amd not SA, and that they were cultivated, not just gathered from the wild.
originally posted by: skunkape23
They have potato cannons that can hit North Korea.
originally posted by: c2oden
Idaho is going to be mad.
The last thing we need right now is weaponized Idaho potato farmers setting their sight on Utah.
I believe they also found minute traces of onions+sour cream.
originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: punkinworks10
More proof that the Irish were the first Europeans to reach the Americas.
The weather at the time, although rotten for the grains, was great for the potato, and there was such a surplus they were piled in the streets, yet the french refused to eat them. The potato became a staple for the poor in britain, and the poorest of all were the irish.
originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: punkinworks10
The weather at the time, although rotten for the grains, was great for the potato, and there was such a surplus they were piled in the streets, yet the french refused to eat them. The potato became a staple for the poor in britain, and the poorest of all were the irish.
The irony about the above statement , the French get to name the fried version of it, today potatoes can be found among gourmet dishes of many varieties when it was once considered food fit for swines..
originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: punkinworks10
Wow! so what does this imply about culture and technological migration, or was this an independent development which is quite possible.