A mass of charred seeds found while clearing a home construction site in Brantford, Ont. has been identified as ancient, domesticated goosefoot, a form of quinoa native to eastern North America.
The seeds date back to 900 BC, and have never been found north of Kentucky this early in history, says Gary Crawford, a professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, who was brought in by Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI), the archaeological consulting firm that excavated the site.
Archaeological discoveries don’t normally shock Crawford, but this one comes close.
“Finding domesticated seeds that are so old in Ontario is special,” Crawford says. “The next time we find a crop in the province is about 500 AD, and it’s corn. All previous research on this species of quinoa, which is now extinct, has taken place in the central United States: Arkansas, Illinois and Kentucky.”
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Image via University of Toronto.