Archaeological Investigations at Yourhaney Plantation (38GE18)

176The abundance of maize demonstrated the importance of this crop to residents, both as a dietarystaple and possibly as a cash crop that may have been transported to market for sale. Therecovery of a peach pit offered evidence of a cultivated yard tree. The presence of mulberry andnutshell suggested the inhabitants supplemented their diet with gathered wild resources.The relative abundance, high ubiquity, and low mast to wood ratio of nutshell indicated theimportance of acorns, hickory nuts, black walnuts as a nutritious dietary supplement. The recoveryof both mast and oak and hickory wood indicated that these nut-bearing shade trees were growingin the site vicinity throughout the 18 th century. Two edible herbs found in the flotation samples areindicators of environmental disturbance at this site, and provided evidence of edible herbaceousweeds that may have been gathered and consumed as seasonal greens and/or made into flour.Additional evidence of disturbance was provided by the recovery of two herbaceous weeds. Therecovery of two condiments, bayberry and sage, offered evidence of possible ornamental plantingsaround the property.WOOD CHARCOAL ANALYSISWood charcoal analysis offered evidence of the composition of the local forest from the WoodlandPeriod through the end of the 19 th century and how the local forest was altered from a hardwooddominated bottomland forest to a pine-dominated successional forest in response to land-clearingpractices associated with farming. The Woodland Period forest was apparently a relativelyundisturbed bottomland hardwood forest with a heterogeneous mix of floodplain-loving treespecies. The much higher proportion of pines in the Mississippian Period was strongly suggestiveof significant forest clearing. The identification of maize cupules in both Mississippian and mixedWoodland/Mississippian contexts indicated that the local Mississippian site residents were activelyfarming at this locality.The significantly greater proportion of hardwoods in the 18 th -century component relative to both thepreceding Mississippian and subsequent 19 th -century occupations suggested that the pinedominated successional forest present in the site locality in the Mississippian Period had returned toa relatively undisturbed and mature bottomland hardwood forest prior to initial European settlementof the project locality. The high species diversity in the 18 th -century samples and significantpercentage of floodplain taxa, in addition to indicating a relatively undisturbed bottomlandhardwood forest in the mid-18 th century, suggested that the Historic Period inhabitants harvestedwood on the floodplain, close to its consumption point. The proportion of pine associated with the19 th -century component at Site 38GE18 was exceptionally greater than that of the 18 th century.The 97 percent proportion of pine, in combination with the identification of field crops in thearchaeobotanical assemblage, was indicative of significant land clearing in the site vicinity by themid-1800s.Finally, wood charcoal from three hearths and five postholes indicated fuel-wood preferences andwood gathering practices, and what woods were selected for building materials. First, the poorrepresentation of excellent fuel-woods such as oak and hickory, the heterogeneity of theassemblage, and high proportion of poor fuel-woods indicated that 18 th and 19 th -centuryinhabitants gathered most of their fuel from locally available deadwood, and that they likely did notpurchase higher quality fuels at local markets. Second, the almost exclusive identification of pine inthe postholes indicated that this taxon was favored as a building material.