Ancient quinoa seeds found at an archeological site in Brantford have been identified by a University of Torontoo professor.
The discovered seeds date back to 900 B.C.
Prior to their discovery, the quinoa variety has never been located north of Kentucky at this point in history, professor Gary Crawford of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, said in a news release this week.
The 140,000 seeds are domesticated goosefoot (C. berlandieri spp. jonesianum), a variety of an ancient grain native to eastern North America.
They were discovered during the clearing of a home construction site in Tutela Heights, now a housing development, in Brantford in 2010.
The site underwent an archeological assessment, carried out by Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI), prior to site development.
Previous to this discovery, corn dated to 500 A.D. was the oldest known crop in Ontario.
