Early Cultivated Beans ( <i>Phaseolus vulgaris</i> ) from an Intermontane Peruvian Valley

Abstract

Examples of fully domesticated common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) were recovered from deposits in Guitarrero Cave (PAn 14-102) in the Callejón de Huaylas, Ancash, Peru. Carbon-14 dates for stratum II, in which the earliest beans were found, range from 7,680 +/- 280 to 10,000 +/- 300 years before the present.