ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author converts the food resources of the Guila Naquitz area to calories and protein, estimates the harvest area necessary to support the cave occupants during their stay, and reconstructs their diet from archaeological remains. The most common plant food recovered from Guilá Naquitz was the acorn. Based on numerous random samples of local acorns, a 100-g portion averaged 31 specimens; thus an average acorn weighed 3.2 g. Mesquite was perhaps the most important legume at Guilá Naquitz. It was most likely used for the jellylike material in the fresh pods, although it is also possible that the seeds were saved to be roasted and eaten at a later time. Americans are among the world’s best-fed people, but Robson and Elias make the point that the hypothetical Guila Naquitz diets “compare favorably with the simulated American diet, as they provide similar proportions of nutrients and they easily exceed the US caloric levels on less total food”.
