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

ation in feature contents. For multicomponent sites,
several components have been included in this summary,
even if sampling was not uniform among the
components. Table 13.6 at the end of this chapter lists
the number of samples and weight of charcoal examined
from each component.
Wood
Wood charcoal from most archaeological sites is
presumed to be the result of everyday cooking fires,
using deadwood collected near the site. Therefore, the
species composition of the wood charcoal can be used
to gain a rough idea of the nature of the vegetation in
the vicinity of a site.
Looking at charcoal composition grouped by indicator
species (Figure 13.3), it is evident that there are
regional differences in charcoal composition that relate
to the vegetational differences described by Braun. In
Figure 13.3, wood charcoal from each site or component
was grouped as follows: (1) beech-maple-birchwhite
pine (includes mesic species, basswood, hornbeam
and hop hornbeam, and all coniferous wood
except pitch pine); (2) oak-hickory-chestnut; (3)
bottomland forest (ash, elm, butternut, alder, and
willow); (4) disturbed woods or thicket (cherry,
hawthorn, poplar, sassafras, and pitch pine); and (5)
other (ring porous, diffuse porous, and unidentifiable).
In Maine most sites have more than 50 percent
wood charcoal, typical of a mature northern hardwoods-hemlock-white
pine forest—namely beech,
maple, birch, basswood, and coniferous wood. 1 In
contrast, southern New England and southeastern
New York sites, in the oak-chestnut forest region,
have less than 10 percent beech, maple, and other
trees that characterize the northern hardwoods-hemlock-white
pine forest. At the southern Connecticut
and southeastern New York sites, the majority of
wood charcoal was composed of oak, hickory, and
chestnut. There was also abundant oak and hickory to
the south in Pennsylvania. There is more variability in
New York sites, where southern species have migrated
into the state via the large river valleys. There is
more beech–maple–birch–white pine in the upland
sites (Raish, Park Creek I, Park Creek II) and at sites
that are in the uppermost reaches of the large river
valleys (Couse Goat, Fivemile Dam). At two New
York bottomland sites (Broome Tech, Lamb), there is
evidence both from wood charcoal and food remains
that human activities may have altered the natural
vegetation of the area through time. This evidence of
anthropogenesis will be discussed later.
Nut Trees and Nutshell
Various types of nutshell are routinely found in
small quantities at archaeological sites in the
Northeast. Gardner (1997) considers factors that
might have entered into mast exploitation strategies
in the Eastern Woodlands, including management of
nut trees. In the Northeast, where there is so much
variation in the number of widespread species of nut
trees and in the proportion of wood from nut trees
represented at archaeological sites (as discussed
above), the data on nutshell density can be used to
test the idea that use of nuts at a particular site might
be related to the availability of nut trees in the vicinity
of the site. The percentage of oak and hickory wood
charcoal was compared with a nutshell index based
on the number of shell fragments larger than 2 mm
per gram of total charcoal (Figure 13.4). The use of an
index based on charcoal weight rather than soil volume
eliminates differences that may relate to excavation
technique, such as selection of charcoal concentrations
instead of random sampling within cultural
horizons. It was found that there is a direct correlation
between percentage of oak and hickory wood charcoal
and nutshell concentration at sites in the oakchestnut
vegetation zone in southern New England
and southeastern New York State in the Hudson River
Valley. At the edge of the oak–chestnut zone at the
Memorial Park site in Pennsylvania there is also a
rough correlation between percentage of oak–hickory
charcoal and density of nutshell.
At the four small New York upland sites in this
study, there were very few oak and hickory fragments
in the wood charcoal and a corresponding very low
density of nutshell fragments. At four of the five bottomland
sites in New York, there was less than 10 percent
oak and hickory trees, and three of those four
sites had a very low percentage of nutshell. An exception
to this pattern was the Fivemile Dam site in the
middle Mohawk River Valley, where the Late Archaic
to Terminal Archaic occupations engaged in collecting
all kinds of nuts in the area, particularly butternuts.
The focus upon nut collecting at that site may mean
that there was a butternut grove located nearby.
Within the part of New York that Braun (1950)
mapped as having southern species in the major river
valleys, the Broome Tech site showed variation in the
percentage of oak–hickory trees through time that
may relate to anthropogenesis.
Chapter 13 Paleoethnobotanical Indicators of Subsistence and Settlement Change in the Northeast 247