The Beginnings of Cultivation in the Midwest‐Riverine Area of the United States

Abstract

Archaeology has become increasingly concerned with the interpretation of prehistoric subsistence settlement systems. In the area of the major river valleys south of the Great Lakes, a significant example of this concern has been the question o f the role of cultivation in changing subsistence economies from the Late Archaic through Woodland periods. This article assembles all published (and unpublished) archaeological information on the remains o f cultivated plants recovered f r o m Woodland sites in the Midwest-Riverine area. It then reviews current hypotheses for the beginnings of cultivation in light of this evidence.WITH THE GROWING concern of archaeology in recent decades for understanding prehistoric cultural-ecological adaptations, considerable attention has been focused on the problem of the beginnings of cultivation and its role in cultural development. Since prehistoric cultivation in temperate North America involved hoe and digging stick technologies exclusively, cultivation was largely or entirely restricted to lighter soils particularly associated with forested areas and river valley systems. Therefore, a logical area in eastern North America to look for the beginnings of cultivation in prehistory would be the complex of major river valleys lying immediately south of the Great Lakes. Here, the drainages of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Wabash, and lesser streams converge in a complex network of valleys, offering a particularly advantageous situation for initial experiments with cultivation.The study of prehistoric subsistence settlement systems has come into vogue in the past ten years. This has resulted in the excavation of many Early and Middle Woodland Period habitation sites, with special care taken to recover the entire range of faunal

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