Do Cucurbita pepo Gourds Float Fishnets?

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Hart ◽  
Robert A. Daniels ◽  
Charles J. Sheviak
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Cucurbita Pepo ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Dried Fruits ◽  
Far North ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Indigenous Crops

Among the various pre-maize indigenous crops of eastern North America, Cucurbita pepo gourd is the most enigmatic.C. pepogourd remains have been found on mid-Holocene (8000–4000 B.P.) archaeological sites as far north and east as Maine. Their presumably extremely bitter flesh would have made the fruits inedible. Two not mutually exclusive hypotheses for use of the fruit are currently being debated: (1) the nutritious seeds were processed to remove bitterness and consumed, and (2) dried fruits were used as fishnet floats and/or containers for general use. We report on a series of experiments that demonstrate the gourds function extremely well as fishnet floats. These results lend support to the second hypothesis, but do not conclusively prove they were used for this purpose.

Remote Sensing as Community Settlement Analysis at Moundville

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jera R. Davis ◽  
Chester P. Walker ◽  
John H. Blitz
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
North America ◽  
Magnetic Anomalies ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Innovative Research ◽  
Settlement Analysis ◽  
Cultural Features

AbstractRemote sensing has revolutionized procedures for locating buried features at archaeological sites in eastern North America. However, the potential of instruments such as gradiometers to shape innovative research in ways that move beyond survey and testing is not always realized in practice. At the Mississippian site of Moundville, Alabama, we conducted a landscape-scale geophysical survey to serve as the guiding method of community settlement analysis. First, we mapped the distribution of magnetic anomalies across the site. Next, we defined the variability of anomalies and selected a sample for test excavations to correlate specific anomaly shapes and amplitudes with specific cultural features. Once confirmed as cultural features, we extrapolated sample results to identify unexcavated anomalies as specific building forms and other features with a higher degree of probability than would have been possible without confirmation by test excavation. Results include the identification and mapping of over 450 unexcavated probable buildings, nearly five times the number previously discovered in decades of traditional excavation. Because the buried probable buildings have different forms, sizes, distributions, and chronological spans, the interpreted gradiometer map is transformed through interpretation from a static palimpsest of anomalies to a picture of changing community settlement organization.

Bear-Human Relationships in Native Eastern North America

Bears ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 271-310
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Waselkov ◽  
J. Lynn Funkhouser
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Black Bear ◽  
Black Bears ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Population Densities ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Foot Bones ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ontological Turn

This volume’s case studies recognize the black bear (Ursus americanus) to be among the most socially consequent of species in Native Eastern North America, despite meager remains at many archaeological sites. Indeed, that sparseness offers valuable evidence for the social roles long played by bears. Ethnohistorical sources suggest bear population densities in some habitats were greater than seen today in Eastern North America. Most archaeological assemblages of bear skeletal remains have skull parts and foot bones but lack most other postcranial elements, often reflecting ritual off-site discard of post-cranial remains and feasting on head and feet. Differences in quantities of bear remains, their relative proportions to other mammals, and differing representations of various parts of the bear skeleton are sensitive indicators of a society’s relationship with black bears. We apply precepts of the new animism, or the ontological turn, to animate the zooarchaeology of bears in Eastern North America.

Plant Husbandry in Prehistoric Eastern North America: New Evidence for Its Development

1978 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Chomko ◽  
Gary W. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
New Evidence

Squash remains from three Late Archaic archaeological sites constitute the earliest evidence for cultigens in eastern North America. The new data indicate the tropical cultigen, squash, was introduced into the area prior to the domestication of native plant resources.

Pollen Preservation and Archaeology in Eastern North America

1975 ◽  
Vol 40 (2Part1) ◽  
pp. 180-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. King ◽  
Walter E. Klippel ◽  
Rose Duffield
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Depositional Environment ◽  
Tree Bark ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Pollen Deposition ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Copper Salts ◽  
Indian Village ◽  
Central Illinois ◽  
Pollen Preservation

The recovery of pollen from archaeological sites in Eastern North A merica has not been as successful as it has been in the western part of the continent. The depositional environment of eastern archaeological sites is generally unfavorable for pollen preservation and archaeologists have failed to search out special situations in which pollen may be preserved. At the Rhoads site, a Proto-Historic Indian village in central Illinois, abundant pollen has been found associated with copper artifacts and deeply buried tree bark. Pollen was preserved around copper, apparently due to dissolved copper salts which act as a fungicide. Tree bark, an excellent collection surface for air-borne pollen, can yield abundant pollen when preserved. When the factors involved in pollen deposition and preservation are considered, the prospects for archaeological palynology in eastern North America should be greatly enhanced.

The Identification and Study of Indian Shell Middens in Eastern North America: 1643–1861

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew L. Christenson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
North America ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Shell Midden ◽  
Shell Middens ◽  
Work Done

Although the interest in shell middens in North America is often traced to reports of the discoveries in Danish kjoekkenmoeddings in the mid-nineteenth century, extensive shell midden studies were already occurring on the East Coast by that time. This article reviews selected examples of this early work done by geologists and naturalists, which served as a foundation for shell midden studies by archaeologists after the Civil War.

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