Peoples living in the Eastern Woodlands of North America domesticated a suite of small-seeded crops between five thousand and two thousand years ago, making this region one of roughly ten independent centers of domestication across the globe. In the Southern Appalachian region, foraging peoples began cultivating these native crops around thirty-five hundred years ago (during the Late Archaic period [3000–800 BCE]); by the start of the Early Woodland period (800–200 BCE), they had significantly altered their lifeways and surrounding landscape. This included a change in the physical landscape, as demonstrated by paleoethnobotanical data, with an increase in weedy plants at the expense of bottomland forests. Groups also significantly shifted their lifeways, becoming more sedentary, as evidenced by an increase in storage pits, more substantial structures, and the adoption of ceramic vessels. Storage pits also tend to be smaller, indicating a shift from community-based food procurement and storage to the household level. This may reflect the development of private property and distinctions among households with differential access. Community-based rituals, as evidenced in several caves and rock-shelters in the region, may have been established to strengthen group ties in the face of the broader changing social and physical landscape.

中文翻译：

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从觅食到耕作：三千年前中南地区的驯化景观

生活在北美东部林地的人们在 5000 到 2000 年前驯化了一套小种子作物，使该地区成为全球大约 10 个独立的驯化中心之一。在南阿巴拉契亚地区，觅食的人们开始种植这些本地作物大约在 3500 年前（在古代晚期 [公元前 3000-800 年]）；到早期林地时期（公元前 800-200 年）开始时，他们已经显着改变了他们的生活方式和周围的景观。这包括物理景观的变化，正如古民族植物学数据所证明的那样，杂草植物的增加以牺牲低洼森林为代价。群体也显着改变了他们的生活方式，变得更加久坐不动，如存储坑的增加所证明的那样，更坚固的结构，并采用陶瓷容器。储藏坑也往往更小，这表明从以社区为基础的食品采购和储存转向家庭层面。这可能反映了私有财产的发展和不同家庭之间的区别。以社区为基础的仪式，正如该地区的几个洞穴和岩石庇护所所证明的那样，可能已经建立起来，以在面对更广泛的不断变化的社会和自然景观时加强群体联系。