University of Virginia Library

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.