Thursday, January 24, 2019

BRANTFORD, CANADA—CBC News reports that some 140,000 quinoa seeds have been recovered from a 3,000-year-old archaeological site in southwestern Ontario. Gary Crawford of the University of Toronto said evidence that the seeds were grown locally has not been found. “Of course the lack of evidence doesn’t mean they weren’t growing it,” he explained. “But for now I think the safe interpretation is this stuff was being imported.” He thinks the quinoa may have been grown in the Kentucky-Tennessee area and processed before it was transported north through an extensive trade network. Crawford and a team of botanists will next try to determine whether the crop resembles wild species native to the region. For more on archaeology in the area, go to “Mussel Mass in Lake Ontario.”