Native Horticulture Timeline

  • Until about 5000 years BC, Early and Middle Holocene foragers relied on gathering of wild products of a closed-canopy deciduous forest, heavily utilizing about 20 main taxa of nuts and fruits.
  • The period from 5000 to 3000 BC coincided with a period of river aggradations and stabilization resulting in rich valley habitats and settlement in these settings. Middle Archaic peoples utilized weedy seed bearing plants and native squash which flourished in anthropogenic settings, along with nuts and wild fruits.
  • By the Late Archaic (3000-1500 BC) there is evidence of manipulation and eventual domestication of at least four native seed-bearing plants.
  • 1500 BC to AD 200 saw the development of horticultural economies based on these native crops (i.e. the Eastern Agricultural Complex).
  • An expansion of field agriculture focused on growing native seeds characterized the period from AD 200 to AD 1200. Corn first appeared in the American Midwest circa AD 200 but remained a minor crop until its abrupt and widespread increase at AD 800-900 when its role as dominant crop plant coincides with the emergence of ranked agricultural societies (exemplified by the Mississippian tradition).
  • After AD 1100, maize centered agriculture, with beans and squashes predominate.