RESEARCH

ROOTS (Research in the Origins and Organization of Tropical Societies) is reconstructing the lives of people living in the neotropics during the past. The primary focus of this project is the earliest populations from 14,000-4,000. The earliest people lived in low density residentially mobile groups. During the Middle Holocene people underwent major subsistence shifts and began to cultivate a wide range of crops including maize, beans, and squash.   The shift to surplus agriculture was gradual and by 4,000 BP people were committed farmers.