Mind the Gap: Maize Phytoliths, Macroremains, and Processing Strategies in Southern New England 2500–500 BP. This study presents preliminary results from a phytolith analysis of carbonized food residues and sediment soils from sites in southern New England (Connecticut and Rhode Island) dating 2500–500 BP. Phytolith analyses of carbonized food residues from sites across northeastern North America outside of southern New England demonstrate that maize (Zea mays L.) was introduced to the region as early as 2300 BP, hundreds of years before major shifts in settlement strategies became widespread. Phytolith evidence for maize in eastern North America likewise appears hundreds of years earlier than most maize macroremains, such as kernels, cobs, and cupules, appear. This has puzzled researchers attempting to piece together how maize was first circulated and used in the Eastern Woodlands. Preliminary phytolith analysis of carbonized food residues from seven sites indicates that, consistent with research outside the study area, at least some groups in southern New England cooked maize as early as 2300 BP. The results also indicate that maize cooking practices varied in ways that likely reflect broader subsistence strategies and that may explain the temporal gap between maize phytoliths and maize macroremains.

注意差距：新英格兰南部2500–500 BP的玉米植石，宏观残留物和加工策略。这项研究提供了对新英格兰南部（康涅狄格州和罗德岛州）2500-500 BP站点的碳化食物残渣和沉积物土壤进行植物硅酸盐分析的初步结果。对新英格兰南部以外的北美东北部地区的碳化食物残渣进行的植硅石分析表明，玉米（玉米）L.）最早在2300 BP引入该地区，几百年后定居策略的重大转变开始广泛传播。北美东部玉米的植硅石证据同样出现比大多数玉米宏观残留物（例如玉米粒，穗轴和吸盘）出现的时间早了数百年。这使试图拼凑玉米如何在东部林地首次流通和使用的研究人员感到困惑。对七个地点的碳化食物残渣进行的初步植石分析表明，与研究区域外的研究一致，新英格兰南部至少有一些群体早于2300 BP煮熟了玉米。结果还表明，玉米烹饪方式的变化可能反映了更广泛的生存策略，并且可以解释玉米植硅体和玉米宏观残留物之间的时间差异。