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

Figure 9.8. Nutshell composition.
the striking difference in the proportion of cob fragments
may also indicate that maize was cultivated at
Thomas/Luckey but not at Broome Tech. This would
particularly be the case if Broome Tech was only seasonally
occupied and did not represent a village or
hamlet, as is the case for Thomas/Luckey. If Broome
Tech was only seasonally utilized, then detached maize
kernels may have been transported to the site from
another location.
Earlier it was noted that, based on percentage composition,
mast products assumed a greater economic
role at Broome Tech when compared to
Thomas/Luckey. In an apparent contradiction, nutshell
indices that divide total nutshell by total carbon
weight indicate that the density of nutshell at
Thomas/Luckey is 12.6, 4 times greater than the 3.0
ratio at Broome Tech (Table 9.5). However, the greater
relative contribution of mast products at Broome Tech
is masked by the relatively greater abundance of all
non-wood plants at Thomas/Luckey. Examination of
the compositions of the nutshell assemblage suggests
that butternut (63 percent) was the most important
mast resource at Broome Tech, followed by hickory,
representing 24 percent of the assemblage (Figure 9.8).
At Thomas/Luckey the pattern is reversed, with hickory
(47 percent) the favored nut and butternut representing
nearly one-third of the mast remains. Acorn
(Quercus spp.) shells are important, but minor, constituents
accounting for 10 and 7 percent of the
Thomas/Luckey and Broome Tech nutshell, respectively.
Trace amounts (less than 1 percent) of bitternut
hickory (Carya cordiformus) and hazelnut (Sorylus sp.)
were recovered from Broome Tech, but were absent
from Thomas/Luckey.
The recovery of relatively large amounts of butternut
shell from both sites is intriguing, given that butternut
is believed to have been only a minor constituent
of the forest environment in the Upper
Susquehanna Valley (Asch Sidell 1999; Braun 1950;
Versaggi 1987:93). It is intriguing that less than 1 percent
of the wood charcoal recovered from Broome Tech
was identified as butternut (Asch Sidell 1999) 7 , yet
butternut mast was clearly an important high-fat and
high-calorie food targeted by the residents of these two
182 Knapp