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

consists of large concentrations of fire-cracked rocks,
charcoal flecks and charcoal-saturated soil, and firereddened
soil, as well as small amounts of artifacts.
The largest of these measured 117 by 145 cm and up
to 15 cm thick. Flotation samples produced fragments
of calcined bone and some seeds (tentatively identified
as chenopodium). The rock beds might have
functioned as roasting or steaming platforms for the
cooking of fish, meat, or plant food. Later, during the
Middle Woodland, the fire-cracked rock concentrations
were no longer utilized. Instead, hearth features
were smaller and contained significantly fewer rocks.
The most likely explanations for the change in feature
structure and content are a change in patterns of food
consumption or the technology of food processing.
Rather than roasting or steaming foods in hearths,
where the numerous rocks would retain the heat like
an earth oven, food was being processed in a different
manner. We suggest the smaller features were the
remains of smoky fires, which did not require the use
of rocks, in which fish and possibly meat were smokedried
for storage.
The smoke-dried meat and fish could be stored for
winter use, or could have been further processed by
grinding and mixing with either fat, berries, or other
fruits, a common method of food storage among
Native Americans. Dried fish or meat pemmican can
be eaten without further preparation. Unground
smoke-dried fish or meat is easily prepared by brief
boiling, and the cooking liquid consumed as a warming
cold weather drink. The poorly fired, thin-walled
Middle Woodland pottery would make suitable boiling
pots, especially for more mobile peoples who
needed to carry a small pot for quick cooking.
According to Reid (1989:170), poorly fired “meat
pots” were used by several peoples in northwestern
North America, including the Blackfoot, Kutenai, and
Sarsi, among others. The vessels, which were not fired
well enough to achieve a hard ceramic fabric, were
intended for simmering meat or fish, or rendering oils
or fat from bone fragments or blubber. These vessels
were used in hot stone cooking, or were placed near
the fire or in the embers, rather than over open flames.
Some of these vessels were fragile and easily broken,
while others were vulnerable to disintegration with
prolonged exposure to dampness (Reid 1989:171-172).
The early Middle Woodland pottery at Schuylerville,
dated between 2200±160 B.P. (cal 2σ 763 B.C. [349, 318,
221, 218, 207 B.C.] A.D. 128) and 1765±130 B.P. (cal 2σ
39 B.C. [A.D. 225, 304, 316] 595), was not well fired, nor
was it well made, when compared to later pottery.
Even more poorly fired was the contemporaneous
and similarly decorated and manufactured pottery
from the Paris No. 2 site, Town of Berne, Albany
County (Brumbach 1996), which was AMS-dated by
associated hearth charcoal to 1790±60 B.P. (cal 2σ A.D.
81 [240] 402). The poorly fired sherds from this site
appeared to be not much harder than the alluvial silt
and clay matrix in which it was found. Paris No. 2 is
believed to have been a special purpose site for mobile
task groups, who perhaps otherwise seasonally nucleated
at fishing stations similar to Schuylerville. The
appearance of such soft pottery at a dispersion site
lends support to the idea that Middle Woodland populations
were using poorly-fired “meat pots” similar to
those described by Reid (1989).
The reliance on fish and other lacustrine and riverine
resources by the populations in the upper Hudson
Valley continued throughout much of the Middle
Woodland. By the end of the Middle Woodland (ca.
A.D. 750-900), there are some major changes in the
archaeological record of this area. The site at
Schuylerville was no longer as heavily utilized.
Instead, a major episode of occupation began about 9
km upriver on Fish Creek at the site of Winney’s Rift.
While this location is also favorable for harvesting
anadromous fish (the “rift” or shallows in the river
impedes the upriver progress of the fish), at this location
the river occupies a level floodplain composed of
light, sandy soil, which is still regularly planted with
maize. We suggest that this shift in occupation location
during the late Middle Woodland to early Late
Woodland transition signals a process in which cultigens
were probably introduced into the subsistence
systems of the upper Hudson Valley. Exactly when
maize was first introduced and when reliance on
maize was increased is difficult to determine at this
time due to a scarcity of maize remains that have been
either directly dated or recovered from well-dated
and undisturbed contexts.
Ceramics change greatly during this time period as
well, and we believe these signal changes in patterns
of food preparation relating to an increasing reliance
on cultigens in the diet. At Winney’s Rift, the thinwalled
Middle Woodland vessels with predominantly
smoothed surfaces and stamped decorations are
gradually replaced by larger, thicker-walled vessels
with smoothed, corded, smoothed-over-corded, or
fabric -impressed exterior surfaces, and flat, rounded,
or thickened lips. Some vessels bear appliqued collars.
Decorations, when present, consist primarily of
corded-stick impressions arranged in oblique or vertical
bands on lips, collars, or exterior surfaces, often in
association with conical punctates (Brumbach 1995:57).
Chapter 12 Woodland Period Settlement and Subsistence Change in the Upper Hudson River Valley 235