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

Asch Sidell 1999; Cowie et al. 1999). This has already
cost many thousands of dollars at this one institution
alone, probably well over $100,000 to $150,000 cumulatively.
These costs are related to the retention of feature
fill during fieldwork, its processing in the laboratory,
and payment for analysis of samples.
How will such labor-intensive and potentially very
expensive research be possible for those of us who only
do nonconsulting research? It probably will not be possible
in many cases for various reasons. Consequently,
without systematic recovery and processing of Middle
and Late Woodland samples and correlative paleoethnobotanical
analysis, we should be cautious regarding
pronouncements about the nature of regional subsistence
patterns during these (and other) periods.
Likewise, past samples derived from excavations
screened using only 1/4 inch mesh, or those left completely
unscreened, cannot be used to reliably reconstruct
subsistence, generally, no matter how carefully
they were excavated and analyzed.
Paleoethnobotanical Data
Moving on to the results of the regional research of
paleoethnobotanists, a wide range of domesticates and
native, noncultivated plants have been identified over
the past decade. We need not fully repeat these results
here, given other chapters in the present volume and
the recent volume edited by Hart (1999c). Nonetheless,
the available paleoethnobotanical evidence alone suggests
that Late Woodland peoples used a wide variety
of cultivated and wild plant resources, along with wild
animal foods. We believe that minimally cultigens
were commonly raised and perhaps became important
in riverine settings across New England and to the
south and west during early Late Woodland times, that
is, ca. A.D. 1000-1300 (uncalibrated), and more certainly
by A.D. 1300 (e.g., Chapdelaine 1993; Fritz 1990;
King 1999; Smith 1989:1570). Although still relatively
rare, divergent dates are available for maize at various
sites in the broad Northeast, in some cases only generally
associated and in others directly dated, among
other cultigens and more diverse wild plant remains
(Table 14.1).
Details from recent paleoethnobotanical research
and absolute dating, if taken on face value, suggest that
maize took more than 1,500 years to spread from Ohio
and Pennsylvania to its prehistoric limit in the
Northeast and far Northeast, with pertinent dates still
older farther south and west. Beans seemingly arrived
later and squash arrived much earlier, although relevant
data are scarce. Here we are tentatively assuming
that the general associations between radiocarbon
dates and cultigens we have included in our review are
correct (see Table 14.1) and that cultigens were grown
locally where they have been recovered and dated.
More conservatively, using direct AMS dates alone, it
appears that it took 500 to 1,000 years for maize horticulture
to spread from Ohio and southern Ontario into
northern New England, but this time span may not be
fully representative due to the small number of available
dates. In any case, the relevant AMS dates for
cultigens are as early as ca. A.D. 380-450 (A.D. 442, 448,
468, 482, 530 and A.D. 562, 592, 596 calibrated) at Grand
Banks in southern Ontario.
In northern New England, the few direct AMS dates
on Late Woodland cultigens range from ca. A.D. 1110 to
1380 (A.D. 1216, 1275 and A.D. 1334, 1336, 1400 calibrated)
combined. These direct dates are based on
maize at the Headquarters site on the Missisquoi River
in Vermont, a bean at Skitchewaug on the Connecticut
River in Vermont, and maize at Little Ossipee North on
the Saco River in Maine, for example. From the
Hudson River eastward to Maine, maize apparently
spread over this same period, between A.D. 1110 (A.D.
1216 calibrated) in the west and A.D. 1380 (A.D. 1334,
1336, 1400 calibrated) in the east, using the few available
direct AMS dates (see Table 14.1; cf. Crawford et
al. 1997:Table 1; Hart 1999b:Table 1, 1999c). Maizebeans-squash
horticulture also appeared more widely
and perhaps more rapidly in various other nearby
areas, including the full breadth of the Middle Atlantic
region by ca. A.D. 900-1200 (uncalibrated), or so various
researchers have argued (e.g., Custer 1996:263-264;
Dent 1995:254, 268; Potter 1993:143, Table 9; but see
Hart and Scarry 1999; Hart et al. 2002). As noted above,
however, there are apparently notable exceptions such
as along much of the Delmarva Peninsula, coastal New
York on Long Island, and some of the southern coast of
New England, where cultigens are rare or have yet to
be commonly identified (e.g., Bernstein 1999; Stewart
1994:Figure 82).
Additional data from New England are relevant
here. In the Connecticut River drainage of Vermont,
maize apparently appeared by at least A.D. 1100±50
(A.D. 1212 calibrated), as represented at the
Skitchewaug site, with beans and squash roughly contemporaneous
at Skitchewaug or soon thereafter.
However, most of the Skitchewaug dates are only general
associations (Heckenberger et al. 1992). Several
recent AMS dates for beans from Skitchewaug include
A.D. 1185±50 (A.D. 1275 calibrated), along with A.D
1280 (A.D. 1297 calibrated) and A.D. 1350 (A.D. 1327,
1346, 1393 calibrated) (Hart and Scarry 1999). Notably,
270 Petersen and Cowie