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

confluence with the Susquehanna River. The site, located
approximately 300 m north of the current river
channel, falls on an extensive peninsular section of
floodplain created by a large meander. Periodic flooding
of the river flats deposited deep, well-drained fine
sandy loams (USDA 1973:84). This meander plain lies
at an elevation between 810 and 820 ft asl. Despite the
general levelness of the floodplain, cross-cutting
Thomas/Luckey in an east-west direction is a series of
swales and flat ridges. Moving away from the floodplain,
the southern bluffs climb to over 1,700 ft asl,
while those to the north rise to greater than 1,500 ft asl.
The geology and drainage patterns of the Chemung
Valley influence the distribution of local forest types.
Distinctive forests are mapped onto the active floodplain
and the dramatically rising bluffs of the
Chemung River, producing a forest contact setting.
Thomas/Luckey falls in a fingerlike northward extension
of the Oak and Oak-Chestnut Forest (Braun
1950:233-242, 408). Chestnut, red oak, and white oak
are the primary trees composing this forest; also present,
but in fewer numbers, are hickory, sugar maple,
hemlock, tulip, and beech. These Southern Forest projections
follow major drainage lines, and are surrounded
by the upland Hemlock-White Pine-Northern
Hardwoods Forest dominated by sugar maple, beech,
yellow birch, hemlock, and white pine (Braun
1950:393-410).
Excavations conducted by PAF and Binghamton
University’s Field School in 1994 completely uncovered
a single longhouse and 72 features (Knapp
1996). 1 Cooking and/or heating features documented
at Thomas/Luckey include hearths and earth ovens.
Although each feature type may serve to cook food,
each implies a distinctive cooking technology.
Cooking hearths involve the use of an open-fire kindled
on the ground surface or within relatively shallow
basins. In contrast, earth ovens are typically
deeper cooking features
. . . in which preheated rocks were used as a
source of heat. Food would be placed amidst layers
of grass, vegetation, and earth piled atop the
oven. Cooking would take place slowly; presumably,
the heat produced in such a context was not
as intense as that produced by an open fire. (Stahl
1985:122)
Two classes of storage features were identified at
Thomas/Luckey based on size, shape, and presumed
functional distinctions. Large deep-storage features,
with a volume greater than 0.3 cu. m, are believed to
have served as food-storage receptacles, while small
(less than 0.3 cu. m), relatively shallow storage pits
may have served as personal caches. The 0.3 cu. m
threshold was arrived at from other research in the
Eastern Woodlands (Stahl 1985:135) and empirically by
comparing Thomas/Luckey feature volumes to ratios
of pit length/depth (Knapp 1996:125). Increasing pit
size while minimizing surface-area-to-volume ratio
enhances preservation of stored grains (DeBoer 1988:3;
Reynolds 1977:127). Therefore, large deep pits with relatively
narrow openings function to more effectively
preserve grain.
Nine botanical samples derived from feature contexts
at Thomas/Luckey have been radiocarbon-dated
(Table 9.1). In the initial site report, five wood charcoal
samples were dated using the standard radiocarbon
method, and provided mixed results (Knapp 1996).
The calibrated intercepts for these standard dates range
from A.D. 662-1439, with the maximum calibrated 2σ
range covering more than a millennium (A.D. 561-
1622). Several of these dates were believed to be incompatible
with the associated pottery types (Knapp 1996).
Recently, a series of four AMS dates on maize and bean
remains have clarified the age of Thomas/Luckey by
avoiding some of the problems associated with standard
radiometric dating of wood samples. The calibrated
AMS intercepts display a much tighter range of
A.D. 1292-1434, with the three maize dates forming a
very tight cluster between A.D. 1409 and 1434. The
maximum AMS 2σ range includes A.D. 1260-1483. The
probabilistic nature of the radiocarbon technique tends
to disperse dates, often creating a chronological range
that overestimates a site’s occupation length (Asch and
Brown 1990; Ottaway 1987; Shott 1992). Given this, and
setting aside the problematic wood dates, it appears
that Thomas/Luckey most likely dates between A.D.
1300 and 1450.
THE BROOME TECH SITE
Broome Tech (SUBi-1005) is a stratified multicomponent
site located on the west bank of the Chenango
River, approximately 5 km from its confluence with the
Susquehanna River (Figure 9.3). Excavations conducted
by PAF in 1997 and 1998 documented four distinct
occupations, including two Transitional, one Middle
Woodland, and one Late Prehistoric (Knapp 1998;
Versaggi and Knapp 2000). The Chenango River also
falls in the glaciated portion of the Appalachian
Plateau. The site lies approximately 85 m west of the
former location of the main river channel prior to
rechanneling associated with the construction of
Chapter 9 Pits, Plants, and Place: Recognizing Late Prehistoric Subsistence and Settlement Diversity in the Upper Susquehanna Drainage 171