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

Table 9.5. Plant Indices for Thomas/Luckey and Broome Tech.
Index Thomas/Luckey Broome Tech
Total Plant Weight (g) 44.06 307.87
Soil Matrix Volume (l) 99.00 595.30
Total Plant Weight/Soil Volume 0.45 0.52
Weight-Controlled Ratios
Maize Count/Plant Weight 13.82 1.02
Nut Count/Plant Weight 12.62 3.03
Seed Count/Plant Weight 7.19 0.48
Total Count/Plant Weight 33.77 4.54
Volume-Controlled Ratios
Maize Count/Volume 6.15 0.53
Nut Count/Volume 5.62 1.57
Seed Count/Volume 3.20 0.25
Total Count/Volume 15.03 2.35
Comparative Ratios
Maize count/Nut count 1.10 0.34
Maize/Seed 1.92 2.11
Nut/Seed 1.75 6.27
Percentage Maize Composition
Edible portions (kernels and embryos) 20.5% 77.7%
Cob fragments (cupules and glumes) 79.5% 22.3%
were incorporated into archaeological contexts in
relatively far greater amounts at Thomas/Luckey
given the very low ratio of non-wood plants to total
carbon weight represented in the Broome Tech assemblage.
While it is clear that greater relative amounts of nonwood
plant remains are associated with
Thomas/Luckey, this does not address differences in
sample composition between the two sites. To facilitate
comparisons, plant remains were initially grouped into
one of the following categories: crops, nut remains
(shells and meats), and seeds (excluding crops).
Arranging the data in these gross divisions and evaluating
their percentage composition suggest clear differences
in the plants recovered from these two sites
(Figure 9.7). Crop foods are the most numerous
remains at Thomas/Luckey, with maize and beans representing
41 percent of the total plant remains 4 . This is
significantly more than Broome Tech’s maize and
squash, which account for only 23 percent of the plant
assemblage. At Broome Tech, nutshell represents the
most abundant plant remain, accounting for two-thirds
(67%) of the identified plants, whereas only slightly
more than a third (37 percent) of the Thomas/Luckey
plants are nuts. These data suggest that crop foods
played a relatively larger role in the Thomas/Luckey
diet vis-à-vis Broome Tech, while nutshell assumed a
relatively larger role at Broome Tech. Seeds were recovered
from both sites in small proportions. However,
seeds at Thomas/Luckey account for twice as much of
the non-plant assemblage when compared with
Broome Tech (21 percent vs. 11 percent), indicating that
seeds played a more important economic role at
Thomas/Luckey. Although it is clear that crops, nuts,
and seeds vary between these two Late Prehistoric
sites, it is important to more closely examine these categories
and their constituent plants to produce a richer
understanding of subsistence variation.
While cultivated plants were present at both sites,
clear distinctions in the types of domesticates recovered
are apparent. Residents at each site consumed
maize; while the assemblage from Thomas/Luckey
includes beans and sunflower, and Broome Tech
includes squash 5 . Despite very intensive flotation of
Broome Tech features and midden matrix, no beans
were recovered from an early Late Prehistoric context.
The absence of beans from Broome Tech’s early Late
Prehistoric component is in line with the recent suggestion
that beans were introduced into the Northeast
after A.D. 1300 (Hart and Scarry 1999) 6 . While the
absence of beans from Broome Tech may reflect temporal
trends, the lack of squash remains at
Thomas/Luckey more likely relates to the poor preservation
of these very fragile remains and/or the total
180 Knapp