University of Virginia Library

VEGETABLE REMAINS

By Frank C. Hibben

Foods

The following vegetable items were positively identified which
were possible food items:

Zea mays, 12-row and 8-row varieties; Cucurbita moschata; Juglans
major; Juglans rupestris; Bracket fungus (species); and starch
and protein meal other than maize.

Zea Mays. Maize remains were the most abundant of the food
items identified. Small cobs occurred in every level in about equal
quantities. Certain fire pits, however, such as those in Rooms 15 and
18, contained the greatest number of corn cobs. No room which might
be termed a granary was located.

In Room 1 was found a large deposit of vegetable material from
which most of the above identifications were made. This was a mass
of matter some two feet thick lying directly on the floor at a depth of
five and one-half feet from the surface and covering the entire floor
of the room. In this deposit occurred at least two hundred cobs of
12-row maize, and fragments from many more. This 12-row maize is
of the same variety as grown by the Navajos of the region today. The
most notable general aspect of this maize was its stunted appearance.
No complete cob was more than four and one-half inches long, and
most of them were under three and one-half inches. The diameters
also were quite small.[1] All of the cob remains exhibited lateral flattening
from the superincumbent earth load.

A limited number of cobs were recovered in a fragmentary condition
from the substructure (Pueblo 1) rooms on the northwest side of
the mound. These were of an 8-row variety, and were even more
stunted and warped than those from the Pueblo II above. No kernels
were found so that the variety has not been determined.

In connection with the maize it must be mentioned that several
varieties of meal found in the kivas were examined to see if corn meal
was represented. None of these was definitely established as corn meal,
although some of them contained starch.

Cucurbita moschata. The gourd family was represented at Tseh
So only by moschata, although all of the specimens were examined for
the possible presence of maxima this far north. Most of these identifications
were made on the basis of twenty-two fragmentary pumpkins,

represented by stems, rinds, and seeds found in the deposit in Room 1
mentioned before. Also, a potsherd containing some seeds of the
moschata was found on the floor of Room 2.

Juglans major. The large walnut is an interesting record for the
Chaco Canyon. This identification was made from three nuts which
formed part of a necklace found with burial Bc50 60/6. In this case
a portion of the shell had been cut away so that a cord might be passed
through the columella and the nut thus used as a bead. Fragments
referable to Juglans were also found charred in a fire pit in Room 16.

Juglans rupestris. The smaller species of walnut was also represented
by three shells on the same necklace mentioned above. These
had been cut in the same manner for suspension as were the major
specimens. The possible source of these walnuts is only a matter of
conjecture. There is little doubt that the trees did not grow in the
Chaco area.

Bracket fungus. A large section of bracket fungus was found
with the rest of the vegetable material in Room 1. It was impossible
to identify this as to species, but the cross sections displayed the unmistakable
structure of the bracket fungus. A large lump of resin on
its base seemed to indicate a fungus growing on a resinous tree, probably
pine or piñon in this case. The mere fact of its presence with the
maize and pumpkin remains, and the known edibility of some fungi are
the only basis for listing this as a possible food item.

Starch and protein meal. In Kiva 2 a small quantity of whitish
meal was found contained in a broken olla neck superimposed on a circular
potsherd as a base. The meal, when stained and observed in the
microscope, proved to be made up of about equal proportions of protein
and starch. This was definitely not corn meal. As most of the nut
meals would run much higher in protein, this meal may have been made
from beans but this is only a conjecture.

Another small quantity of meal from the same kiva proved not to
be vegetable at all but amorphous gypsum. However, this substance
(which, as far as appearance goes, is a true meal) seems from its
situation to have been used for a like purpose—not for gastronomical
purposes but possibly ceremonially in the kiva.

Identified Vegetable Material Other Than Food

The following non-subsistence items were also identified from
Tseh So:

Juniperus (sp.); Pinus ponderosa; Pinus edulis; Populus (sp.);
Equisetum (sp.); Sporobolus (sp.); and Yucca (sp.).

Juniperus. Large posts of juniper, several inches in diameter,
were used as vigas and as cross pieces in the roof construction of the
pueblo. Also, smaller poles of juniper were used as lintels in the
ventilating shafts of the kivas as well as lintels, uprights, and sills in
several of the room doorways, notably those in Rooms 2 and 4. Split
fragments and slabs of juniper were used also to augment the roof
covering of sacaton and horsetail. Large quantities of such juniper
fragments were found in connection with the cache of food in Room 1
mentioned before.

Juniper bark also seems to have been utilized by the inhabitants
of Tseh So. A small fragment of plain woven matting in Room 1
is made of this material. Fragments and scraps of juniper bark from
other sections of the pueblo seem to indicate the use of juniper bast
for both cordage and matting purposes.

Pinus ponderosa. Vigas of pine occurred in a fragmentary condition
in both the rooms and the kivas. The largest of these was
slightly under eight inches in diameter and was a long viga which ran
east and west across both Rooms 2 and 4. Pine beams used in the kivas
were somewhat smaller in diameter, judging from the fragments which
remain. The larger size of those from the rooms may have been made
necessary by the addition of a second story over the central portion.
Several bunches of charred pine needles also occurred in the ruin, a
mass of these being found in the fireplace in Room 16. These seem to
be the remnants of several bunches or tufts of long needles bound
together to make a small broom or whip. No evidence of the binding
was present, however.

Pinus edulis. As piñon occurs in large quantities in the immediate
vicinity of Chaco Canyon, and probably did even more so in ancient
times, it is but logical that the inhabitants of Tseh So used this species
to a very considerable extent. Fragments of piñon occurred in considerable
quantities in every fire pit which was examined. Piñon limbs
in small fragments were also used sparingly in the roof construction.
In general the piñon does not lend itself to the making of straight poles
or sticks which would be the most useful for this purpose.

Populus. Cottonwood is found (formerly much more abundantly)
along the Chaco River, and figures large in the vegetable remains from
Tseh So. In the ash pits it is second only to piñon, or perhaps equal in
importance, insomuch as cottonwood ash tends to reduce itself to a fine
powder which does not permit of identification. Cottonwood poles were
used exclusively in the roof structure of Room 7, and sparingly in the
rest of the pueblo. Some quantities of cottonwood bark also occurred
in the vegetable cache in Room 1.

Equisetum. Rushes referable to this genus were found in the
roof construction of approximately half of the rooms. This percentage
is somewhat uncertain insomuch as a number of the identifications
were made on the basis of prints in the roof adobe only. The rushes
were used, as stated before in the description of the roof materials, as
a covering over the poles, which were in turn laid at right angles to
the vigas. The rushes were carefully laid parallel, cut off at both ends
so as to form straight sticks which might be bound together in the
manner of a loosely-constructed matting. The binding used was two-ply
yucca fibre. Rough matting, similar to that used on the roofs,
was also employed for burial wrappings and for other general matting
purposes. A section of such matting, fourteen inches square, underlay
the immature burial Bc50 60/3. Fragments of similar nature occurred
in Room 8 on the floor, Room 7 possibly in connection with
burial Bc50 60/2, and on the floor of Kiva 3.

Sporobolus. Sacaton grass at the present time occurs sparingly
over a large area. Sporadic and diminutive clumps may be found in
certain wet portions of the Navajo Reservation, in a few isolated spots
of the New Mexico Gila and in a few places in the Rio Grande Valley.
Undoubtedly Chaco Canyon once supported a considerable growth of
this interesting plant. Most of the identifications were made from
roof material, where the sacaton grass was used in much the same
manner as the equisetum and possibly in even larger quantities. It
may be remarked that the adobe prints of the sacaton showing the
familiar sacaton nodes displayed a greater regularity of technique in
the manufacture of the roof covering than did those using the horse
tail. One example, also an adobe print, showed that the spacing between
the parallel reeds had been accomplished by knots in the yucca
binding interspersed between each stem. Two fragments of sacaton
grass were recovered from the floor of Room 1 which were undoubtedly
sections of compound arrows. Neither of these was complete enough
to show the wooden base or the wooden point, and they may never have
possessed them. However, one of these showed the remains of some
gut binding around one end, and the interior of the reed was reamed
out as though for the accommodation of a wooden neck or foreshaft.

Yucca. Judging from a number of fragments found throughout
the ruin, and especially in connection with the roof construction, yucca
cordage was in general use at this site. This, as well as could be determined,
was only of the two-ply variety.

In addition to yucca cordage, yucca leaves (of both narrow and
wide leaved varieties) were evidently used in the Chaco Canyon as
elsewhere during prehistoric times. The main evidence for this is an
almost complete sandal recovered from the floor of Room 3. This is

apparently of the regular Pueblo type, although unfortunately a portion
of the toe end is missing. The tying of the sandal (incomplete)
was of yucca cord. The preservation of this piece was due to the
position of the sandal underneath a sandstone slab lying directly on
the floor.