Maize, Fish, and Deer: Investigating Dietary Staples among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Villages, as Documented from Tooth Samples

Pfeiffer, Susan; Sealy, Judith; Williamson, Ronald F.; Needs‐Howarth, Suzanne; Lesage, Louis

doi:10.1017/s0002731600003978

Cited by 23 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…A major source of calories for these communities derived from agricultural produce, primarily maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) [13], but also other crops, including common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), squash (Cucurbita pepo), and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) [14]. Non-cultivated foods included a wide range of terrestrial animals and plants [14,15], but with freshwater fish being an important source of animal protein for at least some populations [16,17].…”

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confidence: 99%

Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Hart

Feranec

2020

PLoS ONE

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Native Americans developed agronomic practices throughout the Western Hemisphere adapted to regional climate, edaphic conditions, and the extent of dependence on agriculture for subsistence. These included the mounding or "corn hill" system in northeastern North America. Iroquoian language speakers of present-day New York, USA, and Ontario and Qué bec, Canada were among those who used this system. While well-known, there has been little archaeological documentation of the system. As a result, there is scant archaeological evidence on how Iroquoian farmers maintained soil fertility in their oftenextensive agricultural fields. Using δ 15 N values obtained on fifteenth-and sixteenth-century AD maize kernels from archaeological sites in New York and Ontario, adjusted to take into account changes that result from charring as determined through experiments, we demonstrate that Iroquoian farmers were successful at maintaining nitrogen in their agricultural fields. These results add to our archaeological knowledge of Iroquoian agronomic practices. Our results also indicate the potential value of obtaining δ 15 N values on archaeological maize in the investigation of Native American agronomic practices. OPEN ACCESS Citation: Hart JP, Feranec RS (2020) Using Maize δ 15 N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth-and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0230952. https://doi.org/ 10.Groups using the mounding system in northeastern North American included Iroquoian language family speaking peoples in present-day New York, USA, and Ontario and Québec, Canada. From the fourteenth century AD onwards, Iroquoians lived in villages and towns that were occupied for 20 to 40 years or more [9] and housed hundreds to well over 1,000 individuals [10][11][12]. A major source of calories for these communities derived from agricultural produce, primarily maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) [13], but also other crops, including common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), squash (Cucurbita pepo), and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) [14]. Non-cultivated foods included a wide range of terrestrial animals and plants [14,15], but with freshwater fish being an important source of animal protein for at least some populations [16,17]. The only domesticated animal present was dog (Canis lupus familiaris), which was consumed occasionally at feasts and ceremonies [18].The typical seventeenth-century AD ethnohistorically documented Iroquoian agricultural field consisted of many small mounds measuring approximately 46-120 cm in diameter and spaced 76-180 cm apart, which were formed with wooden, bone, antler, or stone hoes ([18], p. 178). Each mound contained 3-4 maize plants [18]. Common bean vines often were grown in the same hills with maize whose stalks acted as climbing poles for the bean vines, while squash vines were planted at intervals and occupied spaces around the mounds [19,20]. These fields were highly productive with some estimates suggesting they surpassed that of contemporaneous European and Euro-American farms [21]. While t...

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Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Hart

Feranec

2020

PLoS ONE

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“…Additionally, MixSIAR incorporates the uncertainty in the trophic enrichment factor between the food sources and the consumer in the model. Data for prey (source) animal species were obtained from Booth (2014), Guiry et al (2016), Morris (2017), Morris et al (2016) and Pfeiffer et al (2016). Bone reported from these sources within span approximately AD 900-1600 with 6 of 44 samples reported in Guiry et al (2016) dating to the historical era.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lawrence River, that would have been utilized by peoples in northern New York. Assayed fish bone is from archaeological sites bordering the north shore of Lake Ontario and its tributaries in southern Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, with the exception 7 of 91 samples reported by Pfeiffer et al (2016) that are from more northerly southern Ontario sites. Given that the northern New York sites border Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, the isotope values reported for the Ontario sites are reasonable proxies for the current analyses.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The seven-source model was our preferred model as it provided the fewest total sources while taking into account taxonomy, ecology, differences in body size (e.g., small, large), and statistically significant differences in stable isotope values. For example, isotope values were first compared based on their ecological groupings as in Pfeiffer et al (2016), and ultimately split into three separate sources based on statistically significant differences among taxa in δ 15 N values. Black bear and white-tailed deer were combined into one source as there were no statistically significant differences between those species in either δ 15 N or δ 13 C values.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Peer Review #1 of "Freshwater reservoir offsets on radiocarbon-dated dog bone from the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River, USA (v0.1)"

Meadows¹

2019

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Isotopic analysis of dog (Canis lupus familiaris) bone recovered from archaeological sites as proxies for human bone is becoming common in North America. Chronological placement of the dogs is often determined through radiocarbon dating of dog bone. The Great Lakes, their tributaries, and nearby lakes and streams were important fisheries for Native Americans prior to and after sustained European presence in the region. Carbon entering the food web in freshwater systems is often not in full isotopic equilibrium with the atmosphere, giving rise to spuriously old radiocarbon ages in fish, other aquatic organisms, and their consumers. These freshwater reservoir offsets (FROs) have been noted on human and dog bone in several areas of the world. Here we report the results of multi-tracer Bayesian dietary modeling using δ 15 N and δ 13 C values on dog bone collagen from mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenth-century Iroquoian village sites at the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River, New York, USA. Results indicate that fish was an important component of dog diets. A comparison of radiocarbon dates on dog bone with dates on deer bone collagen or maize from the same sites indicate FROs ranging from 97±24 to 220±39 14 Cyr with a weighted mean of 132±8 14 Cyr. These results suggest that dog bone should not be used for radiocarbon dating in the absence of modeling to determine fish consumption and that previously reported radiocarbon dates on human bone from the larger region are likely to have FROs given the known importance of fish in regional human diets.

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“…For all of these people, maize was a staple of the diet (Katzenberg et al 1995;Pfeiffer et al 2014Pfeiffer et al , 2016, but they all supplemented the foods they grew with wild species of plants and animals (Tooker 1991;Waugh 1916). Additionally, animals were harvested for furs and hides for personal use, and for trading (Tooker 1991).…”

Section: Iroquoian Peoples In Ontariomentioning

confidence: 99%

Tending and drive hunting: A density-mediated attrition model can explain age profiles of white-tailed deer at Iroquoian village sites

Needs‐Howarth

Hawkins

2016

Environmental Archaeology

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In a 1993 paper, Noble and Crerar suggested, based on the age and sex distribution of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) longbones from four Attawandaron Iroquoian sites around the western end of Lake Ontario, that the contact-period Attawandaron were managing local deer populations, in response to the aboriginal trade in hides. Having observed similar patterns of differential preservation of elements and epiphyseal fusion at nearby Iroquoian sites that are not ascribed to the Attawandaron, and which pre-date the hypothesised trading period, we argue that these patterns may instead relate to bone density and/or vulnerability to taphonomic effects of late-fusing epiphyses. We further support our argument through age profiles based on dental eruption and wear.

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Maize, Fish, and Deer: Investigating Dietary Staples among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Villages, as Documented from Tooth Samples

Cited by 23 publications

References 19 publications

Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Peer Review #1 of "Freshwater reservoir offsets on radiocarbon-dated dog bone from the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River, USA (v0.1)"

Tending and drive hunting: A density-mediated attrition model can explain age profiles of white-tailed deer at Iroquoian village sites

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