Among indigenous populations of Central America, over 70% of the human diet consists of plants. Plants are also preferred sources of fuel, medicine, and construction material. Existing evidence suggests this pattern has been consistent for at least 1600 years. One might think that the archaeological identification of ancient seeds, fruits, flowers, and wood (macroremains) is robustly developed and has revealed a much about ancient daily life. The current reality, however, is that with the exception of a handful of species, a great deal more is known about the variety of animals in the ancient Maya diet than about plants. The list of plant species and genera represented by the archaeological recovery of seeds, fruits, flowers, and wood numbers between 150 and 200 - this is in contrast to over 1500 species used and recognized by Maya populations studied by cultural anthropologists.
The largest obstacle to understanding ancient plant use in Latin America is a lack of comprehensive reference and plant identification resources, particularly online databases. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Jon Hageman will, with his colleagues, complete a Mesoamerican Online Ethnobotanical Database (MOED), an online ethnobotanical reference for over 1400 plant species.
The intellectual merit of the proposed project lies primarily in compiling data currently published in a variety of venues, many of which are out of print or prohibitively expensive to obtain, and making these data available to a broad audience of researchers. Ethnobotanical information and scaled color images of plants, wood, seeds, fruits, flowers for over 1400 plant species currently do not exist in one published source. The MOED database will remove the largest barrier to the study of ancient plant use by others in Central America and adjacent areas where the habitats of various plant species extend. This may also assist in facilitating more comprehensive studies of diet as well as help enable an understanding of ancient plant use in relatively unexplored topics such as ancient medicine.
Broader impacts of this project include making available resources of the Field Museum of Natural History's Searle Herbarium (known for its New World tropical plant collections) to traditionally underserved scholars, particularly those in smaller US institutions located far from large herbaria and in Latin America. This easily-accessed resource goes beyond the publication of an expensive book - such volumes with color photos and lengthy printed descriptions are out of reach for many individuals and institutions. Instead, this resource will be available to anyone with internet access, anywhere in the world. Plant identification can be taught to undergraduate and graduate students in classrooms using this resource. Archaeobotanists can compare images from MOED to their recovered macroremains in the field lab. Underserved scholars will have a bounty of information to help train new generations of students and foster novel research in the area. This database will serve scholars and train students in archaeology, cultural anthropology, and botany.
