The initial spread of peaches across eastern North America was structured by Indigenous communities and ecologies

Jacob Holland-Lulewicz (), Victor Thompson, Amanda Roberts Thompson, RaeLynn Butler, Dario J. Chavez, Jay Franklin, Turner Hunt, Mark Williams and John Worth
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Jacob Holland-Lulewicz: The Pennsylvania State University
Victor Thompson: University of Georgia
Amanda Roberts Thompson: University of Georgia
RaeLynn Butler: Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Dario J. Chavez: University of Georgia
Jay Franklin: Logan Simpson Design
Turner Hunt: Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Mark Williams: University of Georgia
John Worth: University of West Florida

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract We conduct a synthetic archaeological and ethnohistoric dating program to assess the timing and tempo of the spread of peaches, the first Eurasian domesticate to be adopted across Indigenous eastern North America, into the interior American Southeast by Indigenous communities who quickly “Indigenized” the fruit. In doing so, we present what may be the earliest absolute dates for archaeological contexts containing preserved peach pits in what is today the United States in the early to mid-16th century. Along with our broader chronological modeling, these early dates suggest that peaches were likely in the interior prior to permanent Spanish settlement in the American Southeast and that peaches spread independently of interactions with Spanish colonizers. We further argue that that eventual spread of peaches was structured exclusively by Indigenous communities and the ecologies produced through long-term Indigenous land management and land use practices, highlighting and centering the agency of Indigenous societies in the socioecological process of colonization.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52597-8

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