A quarterly research and development magazine
Technical contact
Ted Borek
(505) 844-7758,
ttborek@sandia.gov
Media contact
Neal Singer
(505) 845-7078
nsinger@sandia.gov
Pot sherds collected by New Mexico state archeologist Glenna Dean and chemically analyzed by Sandia researcher Ted Borek suggest that food or beverages made from fermenting corn were consumed by native inhabitants of the American Southwest centuries before the Spanish arrived.
Dean, researching through her small business Archeobotanical Services, says many archeologists believed – possibly mistakenly – that the Spanish first introduced alcohol to local inhabitants when they brought grapes and wine in the early 16th century.
“By this reasoning, ancestral puebloans would have been the only ones in the Southwest not to know about fermentation,” she says.
Historical evidence suggests fermented beverages existed for surrounding native groups before Spanish contact. The Tarahumara Indians in northern Mexico to this day drink a weak beer called tiswin, made by fermenting corn kernels.
To check her hypothesis that puebloans may have done the same, Dean presented Borek with three types of samples: pots in which she herself brewed tiswin, tiswin-brewing pots used by Tarahumara Indians, and pot sherds from 800-year-old settlements in west-central New Mexico.
Using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to analyze vapors produced by mild heating of pot samples, Borek checked for the presence of similar organic species.
“We see similarities,” says Borek. “We have not found that smoking gun that definitely provides evidence of intentional fermentation. It’s always possible that corn fermented in a pot without the intent of the owner and that it wasn’t meant to be drunk.”
Analysis is now under way to highlight patterns of organic species that might provide a more definite result.
Borek did the work through Sandia’s New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, which allows the Lab to apply a portion of the gross receipts taxes it pays the state each year to provide technical advice and assistance to New Mexico small businesses.