Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

5 cm levels to produce more or less detailed vertical
contextual resolution. At Grand Banks, in particular,
we expected to find complex stratigraphy in which
cultigen remains might appear, so we elected to proceed
with careful attention to stratigraphic detail.
Lone Pine is the only site we have systematically surface
collected. The shallowness of the site has resulted
in a high frequency of artifacts on the surface, a few of
which mend with excavated artifacts in the same 1 m
units. Several transects of the surface of Lone Pine have
been piece-plotted in order to facilitate excavation location
decisions. In general, however, 1 m square units
were placed to allow some understanding of the spatial
limits of the site and artifact distribution patterns over
the site. Two areas were subsequently selected for more
detailed examination. At Grand Banks, on the other
hand, testing was only secondarily designed to clarify
horizontal patterning and settlement information. In
this first phase of research here, efforts concentrated on
comprehending floodplain and site formation processes
through time, while intensively flotation sampling.
All soils from cultural layers from Grand Banks and
Lone Pine were routinely screened through 3 mm mesh
if not collected for flotation. Plowed overburden at
Young 1 was screened though 6 mm mesh. Paleosols at
Grand Banks have generally been entirely sampled. In
addition, features and posts are sampled in their entirety
for flotation. Otherwise a minimum of 20 percent of
the soil from particular contexts was collected for flotation.
In the flotation process, heavy fractions were
recovered with 2 mm mesh; light fractions were recovered
using a 425 micron geological sieve.
Grand Banks has been the focus of geomorphological
research in order to explore floodplain structure
and development (Crawford et al. 1997a; Walker et al.
1997). More than 150 narrow-gauge auger holes were
drilled at grid intersections over a 1,000 by 200 m area
to provide topographic and lithostratigraphic data that
set the archaeological excavations in a broader context.
Sediment samples were taken from each bore hole.
Riverbank cuts have also been logged and surveyed.
Grand Banks (AfGx-3)
The Grand Banks site is situated on a 10 ha floodplain
bar of the Grand River about 30 km from its
mouth. Chert flakes and pottery fragments are scattered
over much of the bar and are visible along about
1,000 m of river edge. The bar is eroding into the river
and as a result, artifact-bearing deposits are most visible
in an exposed palaeosol in the present riverbank for
a distance of about 200 m. Geomorphological research
has determined that the floodplain is a vertically
accreted lateral bar, that is, it was formed by successive
deposits of riverine silt through superposition instead
of being deposited horizontally (Crawford et al. 1997b;
Walker et al. 1997).
From 1993 to 1995 we excavated a total of 80 square
meters in a strip parallel to the riverbank at about 10-
16 m from the present river’s edge (Figure 5.3). The
oldest occupation of the site, buried by about three
thousand years of alluvial deposits, required excavations
in some areas to more than 2 m below the surface.
As a result, we have excavated an estimated 90 cu. m of
fill. These excavations are in three localized areas (for
now labeled A, B, and C in Figure 5.3).
Earlier test excavations by Stothers at Cayuga Bridge
and Grand Banks indicated a complex stratigraphy
that he interpreted as representing three episodes of
Princess Point occupations in dark soil strata separated
by alluvium and interspersed with pits. Thus forewarned,
our research strategy was designed to investigate
this complex stratigraphy in a detailed fashion. As
it turns out, our interpretation of the stratigraphy at
Grand Banks is quite different from what Stothers
inferred. The coring by the geomorphologists has provided
an important overview of the processes that
resulted in the floodplain as it is structured today
(Walker et al. 1997). In general, bedrock is at a depth of
2.5 m and is overlain by gray-colored gley. Above this
is drier alluvium followed by a 20-30 cm thick
palaeosol (PI). Overlying PI is about 1 m of alluvium
followed by another palaeosol, PII. PII is capped by 50-
60 cm of alluvium. We interpret this cap to postdate
A.D. 1700, and it is typical of post-settlement alluvium
(PSA) resulting from European land clearance found
throughout riverine eastern North America (Crawford
et al. 1997b; Walker et al. 1997). Although this is the
standard lithostratigraphy at Grand Banks, it is not the
only one. Excavations in Area A and the southern half
of Area B exhibit the lithostratigraphy described above.
Two clearly definable paleosols are not evident in Area
C and the north half of Area B. Instead, artifacts are
concentrated in a 25-55 cm deep zone with little stratigraphic
differentiation. This results from a combination
of local subsurface topographic variation that brings PI
and PII closer to the surface and recent plowing that
has mixed the shallower portions of Areas B and C
(Crawford et al. 1997b). PI, from the presence of two
Kramer points, one in Area A and another from Area C,
and a radiocarbon date of 3100 B.P., apparently contains
a Late Archaic/Early Woodland occupation. In
addition is a date of 3000 B.P. from Stothers’ investigations.
He rejected the date at the time, but it probably
102 Smith and Crawford