1 PREHISTORY OF CANAAN VALLEY: AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW ...
1 PREHISTORY OF CANAAN VALLEY: AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW ...
1 PREHISTORY OF CANAAN VALLEY: AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW ...
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<strong>PREHISTORY</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>C<strong>AN</strong>A<strong>AN</strong></strong> <strong>VALLEY</strong>: <strong>AN</strong> <strong>ECOLOGICAL</strong> <strong>VIEW</strong><br />
George D. Constantz, Canaan Valley Institute<br />
A Point of View<br />
Biologists have a long tradition of applying the theories of ecology, animal behavior, and<br />
evolutionary biology (e.g., Darwin 1871, Morris 1967, Wilson 1978, Diamond 1992,<br />
Ehrlich 2000) to interpret the human condition. Two beliefs have supported this<br />
approach: (a) Homo sapiens and other modern primates evolved from a common<br />
ancestor, and (b) humans and other animals have interacted with environmental factors in<br />
fundamentally similar ways.<br />
I am one of those biologists, with interests in the evolutionary ecology of<br />
Appalachian animals (Constantz 1994). From this perspective, I offer an ecological<br />
interpretation of prehistoric humans in Canaan Valley.<br />
Time Periods<br />
Archeologists divide the human past into periods distinguished by cultural indicators. I<br />
developed general descriptions of the following major periods from several sources<br />
(McMichael 1968; Niquette and Henderson 1984; Ison et al. 1985; Gardner 1986; Lesser<br />
1993; Thomas 1993, 1994; Fagan 2000; Sullivan and Prezzano 2001a).<br />
Paleo-Indian Period [12,500-11,000 years before present (YBP)]<br />
Towards the end of the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million-10,000 YBP), at full<br />
Wisconsin glaciation, a tundra-like environment existed at least 300 km south of the ice<br />
margin at elevations as low as 820 m. Canaan Valley, which is about 225 km south of<br />
that zone (Van Diver 1990) and 975-1310 m in elevation, would have been within this<br />
periglacial region. During this epoch, a diverse set of large-bodied mammals, including<br />
the ground sloth, giant armadillo, dire wolf, short-faced bear, saber-toothed tiger, woolly<br />
mammoth, mastodon, horse, giant tapir, camel, caribou, moose, elk, bison, and musk<br />
oxen, roamed North America (Kurten 1976).<br />
Studies of prehistoric human teeth, nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, virus strains,<br />
and languages support the theory that the first Americans immigrated from Siberia<br />
(Diamond 1987). Human artifacts dated at 25,000 and 12,000 YBP have been found at<br />
Beringia's western and eastern (Alaska) ends, respectively. It is consistent that the first<br />
humans in eastern North America used the core- and blade-based technology that was<br />
standard in the Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia (Carr et al. 2001).<br />
At the end of the Pleistocene, the climate began warming. In the Mid-Atlantic<br />
highlands, by 12,700 YBP the boreal spruce forest replaced tundra (Lesser 1993, Yahner<br />
1995), and by 10,500 YBP, near the time of human arrival, the boreal forest was in turn<br />
replaced by a mixed coniferous-deciduous forest.<br />
The Canadian ice sheet between Alaska and the contiguous U.S. partly melted at<br />
11,700 YBP to yield a long narrow north-south ice-free corridor just east of the Rocky<br />
Mountains (Pielou 1991). Some early Americans probably dispersed southward through<br />
this gap, while others may have arrived via Pacific coastal routes. Within a few centuries,<br />
the distinctive stone weapon called Clovis fluted point appeared throughout North and<br />
Central America (Flannery 2001). People spread 16,000 km from Alaska to Patagonia<br />
within 1,000 years, a dispersal rate of only 16 km per year. This is why the entire Clovis<br />
toolkit is virtually identical throughout North America. The Appalachians were initially<br />
1
penetrated by humans by 12,000 YBP (Carr et al. 2001). Possible pre-Paleo-Indian<br />
artifacts at Meadowcroft Rockshelter in the Appalachin Plateau province of<br />
southwestern Pennsylvania, about 150 km northwest of Canaan Valley, have been dated<br />
at 17,000 YBP (Adovasio et al. 1990, Adovasio and Page 2002, Sullivan and Prezzano<br />
2001b), but several critics assert the samples were contaminated. A pre-Clovis presence<br />
is supported by two other sites, (1) Monte Verde, Chile at 12,500-13,000 YBP; and (2)<br />
Hell Gap, Wyoming at 11,400 YBP (Carr et al. 2001).<br />
Terminal dates of the Clovis horizon are close to those for the extinction of 35-40<br />
species of large-bodied mammals. This synchrony has led some paleoecologists to<br />
champion the "overkill hypothesis," in which Clovis hunters exterminated much of the<br />
Pleistocene megafauna (Martin 1984). Alternately, perhaps additively, they died out<br />
because of climatic warming (Flannery 2001).<br />
Eastern Paleo-Indians seem to have followed a more diverse hunting-gathering<br />
subsistence strategy than their western big-game hunting contemporaries (Thomas 1994,<br />
Walker et al. 2001). More regionally, from small sites in major stream valleys, especially<br />
along the eastern and western flanks of the Appalachians (Lane and Anderson 2001), they<br />
exploited nuts, hackberries, fish, waterfowl, and small mammals in a lifeway called<br />
broad-spectrum foraging (Carr et al. 2001). It is consistent that in the East fluted points<br />
have not been recovered in association with the remains of large Pleistocene mammals.<br />
Eastern Paleo-Indians, subsisting as thinly scattered mobile multi-family bands, produced<br />
a great variety of fluted points. This comparatively higher diversity of projectile points<br />
has been labeled the Eastern Fluted Point Tradition (Fagan 2000).<br />
In the East, Clovis points have been found in Nova Scotia, Massachusetts,<br />
Pennsylvania, Illinois, along the Ohio River, and in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee,<br />
Georgia, and Alabama. Although Paleo-Indians were rare in the Appalachian Mountains<br />
(Turner 1984), possibly because they generally avoided heavily dissected uplands<br />
(Brashler 1984, Bush 1996), fluted points have been found in West Virginia along the<br />
Lower Monongahela River and at the Ohio River at Parkersburg, and more locally at<br />
Judy Gap and Marlinton, and in Preston County (Lesser 1993). The Paleo-Indian<br />
extended-use site closest to Canaan Valley may have been about 100 km east along the<br />
Shenandoah River.<br />
Archaic Period (11,000-3,000 YBP)<br />
The climate continued warming until only the highest summits remained suitable for<br />
spruce and fir. Throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic highlands, the ecological transition<br />
from spruce-pine boreal forest to the mesic oak-hickory community was completed<br />
during 10,000-9,000 YBP (Braun 1950, Lane and Anderson 2001). With temperatures<br />
similar to those of higher latitudes, Canaan Valley's cold humid climate has maintained a<br />
refugium for boreal plants.<br />
Growing human populations began to concentrate in the region's floodplains. In the<br />
Appalachian Plateau physiographic province, which includes Canaan Valley, streams run<br />
through narrow V-shaped valleys, so large floodplains were an uncommon habitat (Wall<br />
1981) (Fig. 1). Archaic sites have been uncovered in large floodplain areas along the<br />
Cheat, Tygart Valley, and South Branch Potomac rivers (Brashler 1984).<br />
A hallmark of the Archaic Period was subsistence generalization. Hunting was<br />
deemphasized. In contrast to the specialized fluted point designed for hunting big<br />
2
animals, archaic toolkits were more diverse. At minimal energy expense, gardening<br />
diversified their foods. Eastern Archaic people also relied on nuts, like hickory and black<br />
walnut, because they could be collected efficiently and yielded almost 5 times the energy<br />
as the same mass of lean meat (Ison 1996).<br />
A band's annual movements appear to have been based on exploiting multiple,<br />
diffuse resources (Cleland 1976). Through seasonal rounds, people moved between yearround<br />
floodplain base camps and temporary specialized upland resource collection<br />
camps. An abundant, temporarily available mass resource in the uplands along the<br />
Shenandoah Valley, for example, was fruits of the American chestnut (Castanea dentata).<br />
Stated in a different way, "extensified" uses of the uplands may have been part of<br />
"tethered nomadism," in which base camps were the focus of increasingly sedentary<br />
occupations, from which short-term forays were made to upland procurement sites<br />
(Custer 1996).<br />
Versaggi et al. (2001) developed such a settlement-subsistence model for the Late<br />
Archaic in the Susquehanna Valley. Overnight upland sites were used by daily foragers,<br />
possibly women procuring and processing seasonally aggregated foods, who ranged out<br />
of residential base camps on valley floors.<br />
Increasing sedentism allowed each group to adapt its own brand of subsistence for<br />
exploiting local resources. By the Late Archaic, local specialization had generated<br />
stylistic regionalization of artifacts (Sullivan and Prezzano 2001b). Other trends included<br />
greater levels of population, specialization and efficiency, cultural complexity, interregional<br />
trade (in Late Archaic), and mortuary ceremonialism (Gardner 1996).<br />
The Archaic Period featured several technological innovations: (1) mortar and<br />
pestle for grinding nuts and seeds into meal, which was easier to digest, transport, and<br />
store; (2) the linked package of notched and stem points and the atlatl, a spear thrower<br />
with greater force and accuracy than a hand-impelled spear; (3) chipped stone axe, for<br />
chopping, digging, skinning, and many other purposes, which was more versatile than the<br />
groundstone axe (introduced at 8,000 YBP) because it held an edge better; (4) twist drill<br />
for piercing stone and bone; (5) stone bowl (introduced at 3,000 YBP) for cooking on hot<br />
rocks, but which was probably too heavy to move from base camp; and (6) use of two<br />
complexes of plant cultigens (cultivated varieties): (a) native plants like goosefoot, marsh<br />
elder, and sunflower, and (b) non-native species like gourd, squash, and corn.<br />
In the East, the general Archaic sequence has been uncovered in the Shenandoah<br />
Valley of Virginia, at St. Albans in southwestern West Virginia, through the central Ohio<br />
River valley, and in Tennessee and North Carolina. More locally, Archaic sites have been<br />
found in the transition zone between the Ridge and Valley and Appalachian Plateau<br />
provinces, and in the floodplains of the Cheat, Tygart Valley, and South Branch Potomac<br />
rivers.<br />
Woodland Period (3,000-800 YBP)<br />
The Woodland Period's climate was essentially the same as todays. Canaan Valley<br />
averages -4.2 C and 8.9 cm of precipitation in January; July means are 19.2 C and 13.2<br />
cm, respectively (Stephenson 1993a). Annually, the Valley averages 305 cm of snowfall,<br />
90 frost-free days, and 160 cloudy days (80-100% cloud cover). Freezing temperatures<br />
can occur in any month.<br />
3
Canaan Valley is within the Allegheny Mountain Section of West Virginia. This<br />
section, with deep valleys and the state's highest elevations and heaviest rainfall, supports<br />
a set of plants classified as Northern Forest, which in turn can be subdivided into two<br />
community types (Strausbaugh and Core undated, Clarkson 1964, Stephenson 1993b):<br />
1. The Northern Evergreen Forest – Red spruce (Picea rubens), the most distinctive<br />
representative of this community type, was formerly abundant on mountaintops<br />
and plateaus. Canaan Valley supported one of the finest climax red spruce forests<br />
in the East (Fortney 1993). Other trees include balsam fir (Abies balsamea),<br />
eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), and<br />
American mountain-ash (Sorbus americana). Frequent fog, cold temperatures,<br />
and abundant precipitation contributed to the development of the forest. Forests of<br />
this type were extremely dense and featured giant trees 2 m in diameter and 40 m<br />
tall. Heath thickets made parts of the Valley almost impassable.<br />
2. Northern Hardwood Forest – This community type, which covers extensive areas<br />
with rich moist loamy soil, occurs below the Northern Evergreen Forest and<br />
above 915 m in elevation. This community includes yellow and black (Betula<br />
nigra) birch, sugar (Acer saccharum) and red (A. rubrum) maples, American<br />
beech (Fagus grandifolia), American basswood (Tilia americana), eastern<br />
hemlock, eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), white ash (Fraxinus americana),<br />
black cherry (Prunus serotina), cucumbertree (Magnolia acuminata), tulip poplar<br />
(Liriodendron tulipifera), and northern red (Quercus rubra) and chestnut (Q.<br />
prinus) oaks.<br />
Woodland peoples' foods came increasingly from gardened cultigens and foraged<br />
wild plants. Effective storage of surplus corn, beans, squash, and sunflower sustained<br />
scattered hamlets in river floodplains. During seasonal rounds that integrated hunting,<br />
fishing, horticulture, and plant gathering, the uplands were used for short-term hunting<br />
and gathering.<br />
In the East, the shift from reliance on wild plants and animals to food production<br />
economies passed through several stages (Smith 1989): (1) domestication of four plant<br />
species (listed in paragraph above) during 4,000-3,000 YBP, (2) emergence of food<br />
production economies at 2,250-1,800 YBP, and (3) a rapid, broad-scale shift to<br />
agriculture dominated by non-indigenous maize during 1,200-900 YBP.<br />
Cultural trends included increasing levels of floodplain occupation, aggregation of<br />
dispersed single-household hamlets into larger settlements, sedentism, agriculture, food<br />
storage, stone mound burials, inter-regional trade, and pottery-making. The uplands were<br />
used less during the Woodland Period (Cunningham 1983, Stewart 1983, Wall 1981). By<br />
1,000 YBP, diverse vibrant cultures occurred throughout the Appalachian Mountains.<br />
Late Prehistoric (800-450 YBP) and Protohistoric (450-300 YBP) Periods<br />
Some classifications include Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric periods. Late Prehistoric<br />
people maintained palisaded villages in floodplains, relied on corn agriculture, and used<br />
small camps on upland stream terraces. Just antedating recorded history, Protohistoric<br />
people had access to European trade goods but no direct contact with Europeans. In<br />
southwestern West Virginia, some Protohistoric villages featured burials with pottery<br />
(Maslowski 1984).<br />
4
How many native North Americans were living in 1491? Estimates range widely,<br />
from 900 thousand to 18 million (Verano and Ubelaker 1991), in part because many died<br />
before a first estimate was possible. The indigenous genome conferred little resistance to<br />
some Old World diseases like smallpox, measles, cholera, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and<br />
influenza (Horse Capture 1991). Swift hemisphere-wide pandemics started at points of<br />
contact with the first explorers and traders. Native populations were reduced by 50-90%<br />
(Viola 1991) and cultural systems profoundly changed (Henderson 1992) before literate<br />
observers arrived (Diamond 1998).<br />
Historic Period (350 YBP-present)<br />
Before 300 YBP, aboriginal people appear to have abandoned most of West Virginia.<br />
Although several reasons for this hiatus have been offered, such as the holocaust from<br />
infections, depopulation by the Iroquois Confederacy, and westward displacement by<br />
aggressive Europeans, the causes remain a mystery.<br />
Trails<br />
The rapid spread of Paleo-Indian fluted points, Archaic atlatls, Woodland horticulture,<br />
and pathogens was presumably facilitated by a network of trails (Haynes 1996) (Fig. 2).<br />
Via trails, people of the western Mid-Atlantic participated in a larger cultural sphere that<br />
shared ideas, tools, and other cultural elements (Gardner 1984). In a heavily dissected<br />
region with a dendritic drainage pattern, like the Canaan Valley area, travel occurred<br />
along ridges and stream bottoms (Bush 1996). [The Native American trail system is the<br />
basis of our mountain highway system (Sullivan and Prezzno 2001c).] The resulting<br />
cultural diffusion contributed to a regional identity (Sullivan and Prezzano 2001c).<br />
Facilitated by trails, prehistoric people of the Mid-Atlantic uplands participated in<br />
an extensive trade network that reached from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains and<br />
from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Valued rocks, like cherts from Ohio, flints<br />
from Illinois, and obsidian from Yellowstone, were passed hand to hand, from one band<br />
to another, over hundreds, even thousands, of miles. Other trade items included mica<br />
from North Carolina, copper from the Great Lakes, and mollusk shells from the Gulf of<br />
Mexico. All of these items have been found at prehistoric sites within the cultural sphere<br />
that includes Canaan Valley.<br />
A dominant path, known as the Great Warrior Trail, extended along the grain of the<br />
Appalachians from New York to Alabama (Sullivan and Prezzano 2001a). Probably<br />
functioning by 5,000 YBP, this well-worn route enabled the movement of commodities,<br />
people, and ideas (Watson 2001).<br />
Projectile points from all prehistoric periods have been recovered from West<br />
Virginia and adjacent areas (Lesser 1993). Because its artifact assemblages reflect<br />
cultural influences from the Ohio Valley, the northeast, and the southeast, the Mid-<br />
Atlantic uplands appear to have been a melting pot of the prehistoric cultures of eastern<br />
North America.<br />
Therefore, because North America was criss-crossed by trails, which presumably<br />
facilitated the movement of people, valued items, and ideas over vast distances, the<br />
prehistoric people of the Canaan Valley area were part of the regional, even continental,<br />
cultural trends that characterized the major prehistoric periods.<br />
5
Archaeological Site<br />
The distribution of archeological sites throughout the Canaan Valley region suggests an<br />
interesting pattern (Fig. 3). Multiple sites have been found in major valleys along the<br />
Cheat, Tygart Valley, and South Branch Potomac rivers. In contrast, the upland areas<br />
have yielded fewer prehistoric sites.<br />
To illustrate the diversity of prehistoric land uses in the Mid-Atlantic highlands, I<br />
summarize the findings at four archeological areas:<br />
1. The Cheat River area is a series of 31 sites along 55 km of the Cheat River, 20<br />
km west of Canaan Valley (Jensen 1970). Although this area has yielded no<br />
evidence of Paleo-Indians, two fluted points have been found in neighboring<br />
Preston County. The earliest evidence of humans in this area is within Horseshoe<br />
Bend at 8,200 YBP. The area was next occupied at 7,500 YBP, possibly by<br />
nomadic hunting families. The area's projectile points suggest immigration from,<br />
or trade with, the South. Woodland signs include stone burial mounds and<br />
limestone tempered pottery. These people lived in small villages with an economy<br />
based on hunting and corn-beans-squash agriculture. The important Seneca Trail<br />
crossed the Cheat River at Horseshoe Bend (Fig. 2).<br />
During 1,000-400 YBP, people of the Monongahela culture lived here in<br />
fortified villages, hunted with small triangular points that were probably propelled<br />
by bow and arrow, and practiced sophisticated horticulture. By 300 YBP, the<br />
Cheat River area was empty of people.<br />
2. The Burnsville Reservoir area, composed of 23 sites along 16 km of the Little<br />
Kanawha River, is 110 km southwest of Canaan Valley (Broyles et al. 1975,<br />
Fitzgibbons et al. 1979). Even though it was occupied from 10,500 YBP to the<br />
early 17th century, and is located in wide valley areas with tributaries and<br />
terraces, it appears that no site was more than a seasonal camp or bivouac. Some<br />
sites served for lithic reduction (crafting a tool from a raw stone). The artifact<br />
assemblage reflects affinities with the Carolina piedmont and upstate New York.<br />
3. Three Tygart Valley sites, located on the western slope of Cheat Mountain 45 km<br />
southwest of Canaan Valley, reveal prehistoric lithic technologies.<br />
At the Files Run Quarry site, the Greenbrier Formation features exposed<br />
nodules of chert, a stone that local people began using in the Early Archaic<br />
(Lesser 1988). Although Greenbrier chert is only fair to mediocre in its knapping<br />
qualities, it may have been the best stone available locally. The site's debitage<br />
assemblage indicates intense or long-term activity. Nodules were collected or<br />
extracted, then moved to a reduction station below and adjacent to the quarry, as<br />
well as to another reduction station 4 km southwest of the quarry.<br />
Multicomponent sites within 9.5 km have also yielded Greenbrier chert points.<br />
The Limekiln Run site, located on a sandstone bench less than 100 m below<br />
an outcrop of Greenbrier limestone, served as a reduction and manufacturing<br />
station (Brashler and Lesser 1985). Artifacts suggest the chert was extracted and<br />
moved below to be reduced from raw material to tools.<br />
The Hill site is a typical example of an Archaic settlement in the floodplains.<br />
Most of its debitage consists of Greenbrier chert (Lesser 1986).<br />
4. A new Canaan Valley site is situated on the east side of West Virginia Route 32<br />
in the Valley, on a small knoll near a spring at an elevation of 985 m (Traver et al.<br />
6
2002). In June 2002, over 200 shovel test pits yielded 15 prehistoric artifacts,<br />
including three types of chert flakes and a fragment of a bifacial tool (Robert F.<br />
Hoffman, pers. comm.). Based on local lithology, the chert is probably not local.<br />
Although the artifacts could not be affiliated with a specific culture, the lack of<br />
ceramics is consistent with an Archaic culture (Hoffman, pers. comm.).<br />
The pattern of lithic scatter suggests the site hosted at least two brief<br />
stopovers for hunting and curation of stone tools. Neither fire-cracked rock,<br />
ground or stone pecked stone tools, pottery sherds, nor evidence of a village or<br />
base camp were found.<br />
Although four projectile points had previously been found near this site, this<br />
seems to be the first published report of prehistoric artifacts in Canaan Valley.<br />
Why have so few artifacts been found in the Valley? Obvious possibilities include<br />
inadequate archeological sampling and scant prehistoric use. I will discuss this<br />
more in following sections.<br />
The Canaan Valley site is an example of a small lithic scatter, the most<br />
common site type in the uplands (Turner 1996, Wall 1996). Other lithic scatter<br />
sites have yielded primary reduction, secondary, and retouch flakes, and seem to<br />
have supported tasks like stone procurement, biface reduction, and tool<br />
resharpening (Tourtellotte 1996, Custer 1996). Upland lithic scatters may have<br />
been left by specialized parties who knew the area's resources and used the<br />
uplands for procurement tasks (Haynes 1996).<br />
Both the general patterns of space use during the major prehistoric periods and the<br />
specific findings at local sites suggest that prehistoric people occupied Canaan Valley for<br />
short periods.<br />
Why did prehistoric people visit Canaan Valley?<br />
Prehistoric people may have used Canaan Valley for several possible reasons; including<br />
plentiful water, escape from parasites, gathering of psychoactive plants or specialized<br />
materials for baskets, and refuge from aggressive bands, but possibly the most significant<br />
were acquiring stone and food.<br />
Stone<br />
Prehistoric knappers made tools by removing flakes from a stone by hitting it with a<br />
harder stone, or with a bone (Gardner 1986). In some cases, the flake was the desired<br />
tool; in other cases the piece remaining, or core, would be fashioned into a tool.<br />
In the East, raw forms of valued stone appear to have anchored centrally based<br />
wandering societies (Fagan 2000), a relationship that may explain a strong statistical<br />
correlation between Paleo-Indian sites and lithic sources (Bush 1996). If certain kinds of<br />
stone were needed for specific applications, the location of material would have restricted<br />
the distribution of people, or to have caused them to go great distances to acquire it<br />
(Haynes 1996). In contrast to the various kinds of useful stones in the Ridge and Valley<br />
province, only Greenbrier chert was available west of the Allegheny Front (Brashler<br />
1984, Haynes 1996) (Fig. 1).<br />
High quality chert deposits almost always show evidence of prehistoric use. The 3<br />
chert sites on Cheat Mountain described above are examples of quarries, defined as<br />
camps occupied for the extraction of rock from outcrops (Turner 1984).<br />
7
The raw stone materials in a prehistoric site closely (e.g., within 15-20 km) reflect<br />
the predominant geologic composition of the local area (Haynes 1996). Greenbrier chert<br />
nodules were formed from the siliceous spicules of sponges that lived in the open ocean,<br />
but such depositional environments did not exist at the relevant time at Canaan Valley<br />
(Thomas C. Wynn and David L. Matchen, pers. comm.). The source of Greenbrier chert<br />
closest to Canaan Valley may have been the Tygart Valley quarries (Fig. 1). I conclude<br />
that prehistoric people did not visit Canaan Valley for stone.<br />
Food<br />
As I have said, eastern peoples were not specialized big-game hunters (Thomas 1993).<br />
Sticking close to river valleys, they systematically moved within their home range, taking<br />
advantage of seasonally available plant and animal foods. Such a generalized ecological<br />
adaptation may have buffered people against the failure of any particular food species.<br />
Canaan Valley appears to have offered a variety of animal foods. Potential game<br />
mammals included snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), eastern (Sylvilagus floridanus)<br />
and New England (S. transitionalis) cottontails, red (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and gray<br />
(Sciurus carolinensis) squirrels, beaver (Castor canadensis), muskrat (Ondatra<br />
zibethicus), woodchuck (Marmota monax), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus),<br />
woodland bison (Bison bison), elk (Cervus elaphus), long-tailed weasel (Mustela<br />
frenata), fisher (Martes pennanti), mink (Mustela vison), river otter (Lutra canadensis),<br />
black bear (Ursus americanus), bobcat (Felis rufus), mountain lion (Felis concolor), gray<br />
fox (Urocyon cinereoargentus), and timber wolf (Canis lupus). Game birds included<br />
woodcock (Philohela minor), wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), ruffed grouse (Bonasa<br />
umbellus), passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), wood duck (Aix sponsa), and other<br />
duck (Anas) species. Edible fishes included white (Catostomus commersoni) and northern<br />
hog (Hypentelium nigricans) suckers, brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), rock bass<br />
(Ambloplites rupestris), green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), bluegill (L. macrochirus), and<br />
smallmouth (Micropterus dolomieu) and largemouth (M. salmoides) basses (Stauffer et<br />
al. 1995). Although moderately diverse, these animals were thinly dispersed and thus did<br />
not lend themselves to specialized, efficient exploitation (Brashler 1984).<br />
Proposed Ecology of Prehistoric Humans in Canaan Valley<br />
Drawing from the broad regional trends and specific local findings, I synthesize a holistic<br />
model of the ecology of prehistoric people (sensu Lesser and Brashler 1996, Dancey<br />
2001) in the Canaan Valley. From this general model, I extract several testable<br />
hypotheses.<br />
General model<br />
The world is a heterogeneous place. Envision the environment as a universe of patches<br />
and gradients of dozens of variables (e.g., insolation, wind exposure, temperature,<br />
moisture, acidity, nitrate concentration, 3-dimensional structure, predators, food species,<br />
competitors, parasites, pathogens) presenting living things with a variety of resources and<br />
constraints (Krebs 1972, Ricklefs 1990). In the case of the Appalachian Plateau, the<br />
landscape features rugged terrain, abundant water, temperate deciduous forest, rocky<br />
soils, high biotic diversity, and narrow floodplains (Sullivan and Prezzano 2001b).<br />
8
The prehistoric human animal was intimately connected to its patchy environment.<br />
His or her life revolved around exploiting some resources (e.g., knappable stone, hickory<br />
nuts, and white - tailed deer) and avoiding sites with limiting factors (e.g., cold rain, thick<br />
mosquitoes, raiding bands). Like other animals, people responded to this spatial and<br />
temporal heterogeneity by selecting a few places for long-term occupation while avoiding<br />
others.<br />
Canaan Valley lies in the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau subdivision of the<br />
Appalachian plateau physiographic province (Cremeens and Lothrop 2001). In such a<br />
region of steep-sided valleys, narrow valley bottoms, and plateau tops, the only habitable<br />
areas are stream valleys, benches, rock shelters, and ridgetops (Hasenstab and Johnson<br />
2001).<br />
An area with a floodplain, tributaries, and terraces, like along the Cheat River,<br />
seems to have represented an optimal habitat for prehistoric people (Gardner 1983, Fagan<br />
2000). In contrast, people may have perceived Canaan Valley as sub-optimal. The<br />
Valley's high elevation dictated cool air temperatures and a short growing season; its<br />
concave form and heavy precipitation supported a high water table and extensive<br />
wetlands; its tangled understory was hard to move through; the humid forest was too fireresistant<br />
to create ecotones for game species and sight lines for defense; and its rock<br />
outcrops offered no lithic sources.<br />
A second factor in Canaan Valley's slight use may have been its distance from<br />
population centers. Located in the mountainous interior away from primary trails (sensu<br />
Lane and Anderson 2001), Canaan Valley was a day's hike (about 20 straight-line km)<br />
from settlements in the Cheat and South Branch Potomac floodplains.<br />
A third reason for the Valley's low inhabitance is that prehistoric people may have<br />
rejected the "feel" of Canaan Valley. In many animals, innate predispositions (e.g.,<br />
Partridge 1974) and juvenile experiences (e.g., Wecker 1964) are important in forming<br />
adult habitat preferences. Perhaps innate factors provide the coarse tuning and learned<br />
factors the fine tuning in habitat selection. Young adult hunter-gatherers, raised in semiopen<br />
floodplain villages, may have disfavored Canaan Valley's thick structure and dark<br />
appearance. Perhaps they favored open woodland, i.e., a savannah-like habitat similar to<br />
that of our species' African origins.<br />
Even though prehistoric people may have shunned Canaan Valley for several<br />
reasons, the broad regional trends and specific local findings indicate they were in the<br />
Valley at least for brief visits. Why were they there at all?<br />
How prehistoric people used space can be viewed at several temporal scales.<br />
Annually, groups of people may have followed flushes of food, occupying a series of<br />
sites, each for an extended (e.g., 1-2 months) period. At the daily scale, people may have<br />
left their long-term, but possibly overexploited settled areas, hiked to distant places to<br />
hunt and gather, and then returned quickly (e.g., 1-2 days) with a load.<br />
Annual migrations<br />
Along the Shenandoah River in northern Virginia, the Flint Run complex was<br />
intermittently occupied by Clovis people after 11,500 YBP; the site then exhibits a<br />
cultural continuum from Paleo-Indian into the Archaic (Gardner 1974, 1977, 1986). This<br />
floodplain base camp included living areas with favorable wind and sun, and a place<br />
where local jasper was fashioned into tools.<br />
9
Within the Flint Run complex, the Thunderbird site was a central base for mobile<br />
Paleo-Indians hunting throughout a broad range and then returning to the same location.<br />
Prime hunting areas, lithic resource zones, and plant collecting areas were periodically<br />
revisited. Jasper was abundant at nearby quarry sites. Away from quarry and base sites,<br />
the population dropped sharply. This pattern of space use has been called a “centrallybased<br />
wandering” model. Applying this model, Canaan Valley may have served as one in<br />
a series of outlying foraging and hunting areas visited along an annual route.<br />
From an ecological point of view, such seasonal rounds are a form of migration, a<br />
type of behavior that allows organisms to exploit temporary resources and avoid seasonal<br />
constraints (Ricklefs 1990). One type of migration, to-and-fro migration (Dingle 1996),<br />
may be most relevant. The mule deer, for example, moves annually from high-elevation<br />
summer ranges to lower winter ranges with shallower snow. This kind of migration may<br />
assume circular or quasi-circular patterns with stops at several sites, each to exploit<br />
seasonally available foods. To-and-fro migration, in which individuals learn to follow<br />
routes that have been used over many generations, includes both lateral and vertical<br />
movements.<br />
In an ultimate evolutionary sense, an animal migrates because such movements<br />
have contributed to the reproductive success of its ancestors in environments that varied<br />
over space and time. One way to understand the adaptive significance of migration is<br />
through cost-benefit analysis (Dingle 1996). Assuming the unit of measurement is the<br />
number of offspring that in turn reproduce, if the benefit/cost (b/c) of moving > b/c of<br />
staying, migration will be favored by natural selection. A favorable b/c may occur if<br />
there are seasonal differences in resources, e.g., bursts of food at high elevations in late<br />
spring.<br />
At the proximal level, people may have been stimulated to migrate by various<br />
environmental cues, including day length, temperature regime, and leaf-drop. Such<br />
external signs may have triggered internal hormonal changes, which in turn may have<br />
caused fat deposition and/or restlessness. During long-distance migratory movements,<br />
people may have oriented by using natural landmarks like astronomical patterns,<br />
mountain ridges, and streams; man-made rock cairns and slashes on trees; and<br />
intracellular magnetic compasses in their brains.<br />
From an evolutionary archeology point of view (Dancey 2001), it is possible only<br />
some group members migrated. Prehistoric people may have exhibited partial migration<br />
(Dingle 1996), in which only some moved to the uplands while the rest stayed in the<br />
valley settlement. Who did the migrating may have been influenced by genes, age, sex, or<br />
rank. For example, older dominant men may have been more sedentary than younger<br />
subordinates.<br />
Central-place Foraging<br />
Another way prehistoric people may have used Canaan Valley is that they visited there<br />
for brief stays of a day or two to hunt and gather in ways that maximized their net energy<br />
intake. Optimal foraging maximizes net profit, i.e., benefits minus costs (Pianka 1994).<br />
Optimal foraging theory assumes that individuals maximizing their net energy gain leave<br />
more descendants on average than less efficient individuals (Pyke et al. 1977). In an<br />
optimal feeding model, the animal travels just far enough to supply its energy needs<br />
(Schoenher 1971).<br />
10
The ultimate currency for measuring optimal solutions is the number of offspring<br />
that in turn reproduce (Alcock 1984). In a more proximal sense, benefits can be measured<br />
in net gains of matter and energy, and costs can be measured in losses to predators, travel<br />
time not available for other tasks, and the load weight (Krebs and Davies 1987).<br />
Assuming prehistoric people in the Mid-Atlantic highlands gathered food optimally<br />
(sensu Dunham 1996); village-based hunting-gathering may have taken the form of<br />
central-place foraging. In this kind of space use, food is acquired distantly and loads are<br />
returned to a central site (Wetterer 1989). According to the central-place foraging model,<br />
when travel time is shorter, the load that maximizes profit is smaller; conversely load size<br />
should increase with distance (Krebs and Davies 1987). Prehistoric people would not<br />
have hiked from Horseshoe Bend to Canaan Valley for a pouch of snowshoe hares; they<br />
intended to haul out large packages of energy, e.g., carcasses.<br />
It is appropriate that a Woodland contemporary, the beaver, conforms to some<br />
predictions of central-place foraging theory. Beavers cut a smaller range of tree sizes<br />
(i.e., are increasingly selective) farther from their ponds (Jenkins 1980, Fryxell and<br />
Doucet 1991).<br />
The hypotheses of annual migration and central-place foraging are not mutually<br />
exclusive. It is possible that migrants moved through a series of extended-stay camps,<br />
from which central-place foraging was conducted daily.<br />
This leads me to summarize a general ecological theory of prehistoric peoples' use<br />
of Canaan Valley. Most people most of the time lived in the optimal habitats of major<br />
river valleys. Because it was sub-optimal habitat, they only occasionally visited Canaan<br />
Valley. When they did use the Valley, it was as a stop along an annual migration and/or<br />
for central-place hunting of large-bodied game. Proximal reasons for low visitation<br />
included behavioral avoidance and long distances from population centers.<br />
Specific hypotheses<br />
The general model suggests 15 testable hypotheses. Under either the migration or centralplace<br />
scenario, Canaan Valley:<br />
1. offered only a few kinds or low densities of valued resources;<br />
2. started to be used after optimal habitats (e.g., river valleys) were taken;<br />
3. will yield no artifacts of long-term occupation, e.g., permanent dwellings,<br />
gardens; and<br />
4. was used during the most optimal times of the year, e.g., early summer.<br />
Although annual migration and central-place foraging may be complementary, each<br />
behavior generates the following hypotheses that could allow rejection of either scenario.<br />
The former implies longer (e.g., 1-2 months) stays than the latter (e.g., 1-2 days).<br />
Annual migration – Canaan Valley:<br />
5. was used for many days (e.g., 30-60) at the same season each year;<br />
6. will yield toolkits composed of some heavy items;<br />
7. will reveal repeated-use hearths; and<br />
8. provided diverse, but low-density plant and animal foods.<br />
11
Central-place foraging – Canaan Valley:<br />
9. provided large-bodied prey (e.g., deer, elk, bison) that were carried back<br />
to permanent villages; small food items (e.g., nuts, brook trout,<br />
hares) were eaten on site;<br />
10. hosted brief (e.g., 1-2 days) visits after which users returned to more<br />
permanent camps;<br />
11. will yield few tools; if found, toolkits were made of traveling items;<br />
12. will yield debitage reflecting on-the-go tool maintenance, and with no<br />
re-use potential;<br />
13. was used by non-established individuals, e.g., young males;<br />
14. contains few or no hearths; if found, hearths were single-use; and<br />
15. contains few or no prehistoric burials; if found, burial sites contain no or<br />
few artifacts associated with long-term settlements.<br />
Testing hypotheses 5-15 will help us determine whether Canaan Valley was occupied as<br />
a camp along an annual migration, briefly while central-place foraging, or both. My<br />
subjective ecological judgment leads me to prefer the central-place foraging hypothesis.<br />
Most of these hypotheses are testable with current archeological methods; one (13) must<br />
await new techniques. In broad outline, my general model is consistent with Neumann’s<br />
(1992) partitioning of 205 South Branch Potomac sites into two clusters: (1) large, low<br />
drainage/low elevation sites and (2) small, high drainage/high elevation sites. To the<br />
extent this paper stimulates hypothetico-deductive tests of the general theory, I will<br />
consider it a success.<br />
Comparisons with Modern Humans<br />
I close with a sociobiological resolution of an apparent paradox.<br />
The literatures of aboriginal ethics and spirituality convey themes like "respect for<br />
the environment" and "intimate connection to the land." Their oral traditions seem<br />
consistent. In Cherokee myth, an animal killed by a hunter after use of a chant would<br />
come to life again, thereby avoiding the decline of game. Leaders felt responsible for 7<br />
generations into the future (Shenandoah 1992). "The frog does not drink up the pond in<br />
which he lives."<br />
Several modern scholars agree. Prehistoric Americans had a conservation ethic<br />
(Noss and Cooperrider 1994) that included a holistic respect for nature (Rockefeller and<br />
Elder 1992). The typical traditional American Indian attitude was to regard all parts of<br />
the environment as enspirited, i.e., with consciousness, reason, and volition (Callicott<br />
1989). Rocks, trees, and insects had personalities as fully as people.<br />
Yet several lines of evidence suggest that Native Americans degraded their<br />
environment. In the East, they slashed and burned forests to create canopy gaps for<br />
growing crops, and then depleted soils until decreasing yields pushed them elsewhere<br />
(Krech 1999). Fuel was exhausted, game became scarce. Like Indians in other parts of<br />
North America (Botkin 1995), Cherokees practiced periodic burning of the forest (Silver<br />
1996) to drive and kill deer, open travel corridors, and create open security zones where<br />
enemies could be detected; but sometimes they kindled destructive fires. Today, tribal<br />
governments sometimes favor resource extraction and other development projects even if<br />
they are projected to have serious environmental impacts (Krech 1999).<br />
12
How do we reconcile Native Americans' (a) respect for the environment,<br />
conservation ethic, and keen sense of interdependence; with their (b) depleting soils, over<br />
hunting game, and setting destructive fires? If we accept the proposition that the<br />
evolutionary processes of natural selection, and its extensions of sexual and kin selection,<br />
have functioned similarly in people of all times (Wilson 1975, Trivers 1985), then<br />
prehistoric and modern Canaan Valleyans have had the same basic needs, motives, and<br />
responses. In humanistic terms, we have been similarly contradicted–with differences<br />
among individuals within groups, and with inconsistencies within each of us expressed at<br />
different times. We have been hypocritical, short-sighted, and selfish; and also helpful,<br />
far-sighted, and altruistic. Perhaps they were no better or worse than the average person<br />
today.<br />
Acknowledgements<br />
I have been helped by many generous people. Lee Avery, Ruth Brinker, John Calabrese,<br />
Bob Hoffman, Hunter Lesser, David Matchen, Dewey Sanderson, and Tom Wynn shared<br />
scientific insights. Doug Wood helped to map the trails. Friends at CVI, including Kip<br />
Ambro, Beverli Badgley, Ryan Gaujot, Cindy Phillips, Ron Preston, Matt Sherald,<br />
Jocelyn Smith, Ron Wigal, Paula Worden, and especially Ellen Voss, helped in various<br />
ways. Leah Constantz, MAAR Associates, and Bob Maslowski provided literature.<br />
Nancy Ailes, Jim Rawson, and two anonymous reviewers criticized the manuscript.<br />
Thanks to all.<br />
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Figure 1. Floodplains and possible chert sources near Canaan Valley<br />
Figure 2. Trails potentially used by prehistoric people of the Canaan Valley area<br />
Figure 3. Archeological sites relevant to interpreting the prehistory of Canaan<br />
Valley<br />
22