Wrapping Up the Field Season

As we wrap up our 2012 field season, it has truly been unlike any other.  Our experience in planting and now harvesting manioc has allowed up to gain new insight into our archaeological research. It has also led to at least one Salvadorian farmer taking up organic planting. 

A few significant observations:
1. Growth of manioc can be very variable based on the micro-location growing conditions (e.g. the difference between our manioc plants in the there locations was very large).

Manioc Tubers from Field Plot 1

Manioc Tubers from Field Plot 3

Manioc Tubers from Field Plot 2

2. Culture plays a very powerful role in how people plant their food. Even when asked specifically to plant a certain way and having explained our research thoroughly, farmers still continued to plant manioc in the traditional way they were taught.

3. While we cannot confirm it due to the data issues we had, large manioc beds do seems to provide more drainage of water, somewhat less compacted soils, and appear to offer a slight advantage in harvesting.

4. Harvesting large manioc (the size of which the Classic Maya at Ceren were growing) is extremely difficult. It take the effort of multiple people working together. This leads me to believe that the ancient Ceren farmers had a large work group together in order to harvest the large amount of manioc that they did in such a short period of time. This fits with the idea that there was a large harvest underway at the site where many people gathered together to help with the harvesting.

Working Hard to Harvest Manioc

All in all it was a very successful field project, even if it did not go exactly as planned!