The Ecology of Early Food Production in Upland Drainages of Eastern North America

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Kristen Gremillion and her collaborators will conduct two seasons of archaeological and geomorphological research in the Red River drainage which flows through the Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky. The goal is to advance understanding of the origins and development of Native American prehistoric food production in eastern North America though an analysis of the ecological and economic variables that shaped this process within the uplands of eastern Kentucky between 7000 and 2000 years ago. Dr. Gremillion wishes to answer questions about why and how food production was a successful behavioral adaptation in this setting whose high relief and limited expanses of alluvium (river margin) imposed unusual constraints. To accomplish this, fieldwork will target archaeological sites that complement a rich data base already available from a series of dry caves which, because of excellent protection afforded, preserve a wide range of floral and faunal remains. The team will target occurrences which represent repeated occupations of alluvial landforms such as terraces and floodplains and that span the period representing the transition from foraging to a mixed foraging and farming mode of subsistence. Sites will be sampled intensively for macrobotanical, microbotanical and sedimentological evidence of changes in diet and environment during this period. The same types of data will be obtained through collection of sediment cores from non-archaeological contexts that are less directly affected by human activity and more directly indicative of environmental conditions. Dr. Gremillion will employ an optimum foraging framework both to posit specific questions and to interpret the data collected. This research is significant for several reasons. From the standpoint of regional culture history, it will serve to fill a significant gap in knowledge of the use of the rugged uplands of Kentucky and thus aid in assessing explanations for the early development of food production in North America. The project is unusual in its explicit employment of pollen, phytolith and macrobotanical evidence to track the development of food production and anthropogenic environmental change in eastern North America. Finally, the proposed work applies evolutionary ecology to the understanding of archaeological data and the explanation of subsistence change. In doing so, it promises to contribute to an improved understanding of the underlying processes which led to food production on a global scale.