Acorns and Bitter Roots: Starch Grain Research in the Prehistoric Eastern Woodlands

By Timothy C. Messner

Starch grain analysis in the temperate climates of eastern North America using the Delaware River Watershed as a case study for furthering scholarly understanding of the relationship between native people and their biophysical environment in the Woodland Period
  People regularly use plants for a wide range of utilitarian, spiritual, pharmacological, and dietary purposes throughout the world. Scholarly understanding of the nature of these uses in prehistory is particularly limited by the poor preservation of plant resources in the archaeological record. In the last two decades, researchers in the South Pacific and in Central and South America have developed microscopic starch grain analysis, a technique for overcoming the limitations of poorly preserved plant material.
 
Messner’s analysis is based on extensive reviews of the literature on early historic, prehistoric native plant use, and the collation of all available archaeobotanical data, a review of which also guided the author in selecting contemporary botanical specimens to identify and in interpreting starch residues recovered from ancient plant-processing technologies. The evidence presented here sheds light on many local ecological and cultural developments as ancient people shifted their subsistence focus from estuarine to riverine settings. These archaeobotanical datasets, Messner argues, illuminate both the conscious and unintentional translocal movement of ideas and ecologies throughout the Eastern Woodlands.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Release date: Apr 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9780817385316

Book preview

ACORNS AND BITTER ROOTS

Starch Grain Research in the Prehistoric Eastern Woodlands

TIMOTHY C. MESSNER

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS

Tuscaloosa

Copyright © 2011

The University of Alabama Press

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United states of America

Typeface: Bembo

∞

The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National standard for Information sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Messner, Timothy C.

   Acorns and bitter roots : starch grain research in the prehistoric Eastern Woodlands / Timothy C. Messner.

       p. cm.

   Includes bibliographical references and index.

   ISBN 978-0-8173-1727-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8173-5649-1 (paper : alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-8173-8531-6 (electronic) 1. Woodland Indians—Delaware River Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.)—Antiquities. 2. Excavations (Archaeology)—Delaware river Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.) 3. Plant remains (Archaeology)—Delaware river Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.) 4. Starch—Delaware River Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.)—Analysis. 5. Paleoethnobotany—Delaware River Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.) 6. Ethnoarchaeology—Delaware River Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.) 7. Paleoethnobotany—Methodology. 8. Ethnoarchaeology—methodology. 9. Delaware River Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.)—Antiquities. 10. Delaware River Watershed (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.)—environmental conditions. I. Title.

   E78.E2M47 2011

   974.9'01—dc22

                                                        2010032809

Disclaimer: While the author has made every effort to provide accurate Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

To my wife

Contents

List of Illustrations

Note on Supplemental Material

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Interactions between People and Plants

3. The Biology and Archaeology of Starch Grain Research

4. Approaches to and Outcomes of Plant Processing

5. Starch Grain Studies in the Delaware River Watershed and Beyond

6. Woodland Period Plant Use in the Delaware River Watershed

7. The Environment of Paleoethnobotany

References Cited

Index

Illustrations

FIGURES

1.1. Map of the project area: the Delaware River Watershed and surroundings

2.1. Relative frequency of carbonized mast remains isolated from archaeological contexts throughout the study area

3.1. Several common starch grain forms and the terms used to describe them

3.2. Common surface features used to characterize starch grains

4.1. The most widely cited plant processing procedures referenced within the ethnobotanical and ethnohistoric literature

4.2. Ground modern maize starch (Osage dent) showing a pitted or scooped hilum resulting from grinding

4.3. Approaches to plant processing in the Eastern Woodlands and associated plant materials

4.4. Idealized schematic depicting geophyte processing strategies described in the text and the potential pathways of starch deposition

4.5. Starch fermentation damage

5.1. Map of locations of study sites included in this research

5.2. Williamson site stone artifacts analyzed for starch residues

5.3. Wilgus site artifacts analyzed for starch residues

5.4. Ceramic sherd from Excavation 14 analyzed for starch residues

5.5. Maycock's Point artifact assemblage analyzed for starch residues

5.6. Cobble tool from the Total Turf site analyzed for starch residues

5.7. Starch identified as Nymphaea odorata (waterlily) isolated from Williamson pestles and modern waterlily rhizome starch

5.8. Carbonized residue encrusted on the interior surface of an Early Woodland ceramic vessel from the Williamson site

5.9. Unidentified starch grains from the Wilgus and Gully sites

5.10. Nelumbo lutea (American lotus) tuber starch adhering to a ceramic sherd from Excavation 14

5.11. Iva annua (marshelder) specimens from the Manna site

5.12. Modern distribution of Iva annua vs. Distribution based upon archaeobotanical evidence

5.13. Lilium sp. (lily) bulb starches isolated from a jasper biface from Shelly Road 3

6.1. Archaeological distribution of the Eastern Agricultural Complex

6.2. Sites located throughout the project area from which maize remains have been identified

TABLES

2.1. Nutritional composition of mast commonly represented in the archaeobotanical and ethnohistoric record

2.2. Fleshy fruit seeds commonly encountered in the Delaware River Watershed

2.3. Taxa represented in the macrobotanical record of the Delaware River Watershed

2.4. Grasses (Poaceae) represented in the literature review and the Northeast archaeological record

4.1. Vitamin C content of Kenyan root crops before and after processing

5.1. Starch grain analysis results

Note on Supplemental Material

The supplemental material is a starch grain comparative collection that comprises 25 families, 63 genera, and over 100 different species of angiosperms. The majority of the plants are featured in Chapter 2. When available, conspecific or congeneric taxa were also included in order to assess the range of variability present in starch grain morphology between closely related taxa. Some of the species presented in Chapter 2 are not included. Their absence is due to either their lack of starch (such as oily seeds and nuts) or the author's inability to obtain samples for this research. This collection is ongoing and will remain a work in progress for some time. The supplemental material can be accessed at: www.uapress.ua.edu.

CONTENTS FOR SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Introduction

Taxonomic Keys

Plant Taxonomy

Acoraceae

Alismataceae

Apocynaceae

Araceae

Araliaceae

Aristolochiaceae

Asclepiadaceae

Berberidaceae

Brassicaceae

Caprifoliaceae

Chenopodiaceae

Cyperaceae

Dioscoreaceae

Fabaceae

Fagaceae

Liliaceae

Nelumbonaceae

Nymphaeaceae

Papaveraceae

Poaceae

Polygonaceae

Smilacaceae

Typhaceae

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Preface

Relationships between people and plants are as deeply rooted in complexity as they are in time. In today's postmodern, postindustrial world, most people in North America are unaware of the extent to which they rely on plants and plant products. Today, plant-based substances compose a substantial portion of the raw materials used in the textiles industry: for example, cotton (Gossypium sp.), sisal (Agave sp.), seagrass (Halophila sp.), and hemp (Cannabis sp.) (Langenheim and Thimann 1982). Researchers suggest that as many as 25 percent of modern prescription drugs contain at least one compound now or once derived or patterned after compounds derived from higher plants (Duke 1993:664). Many cultures around the world utilize plants for an array of ritualistic practices. For instance, every year in late December many Christians in the United States bring a spruce tree (Picea sp.) into their homes that is then decorated with lights and ornaments. Following the celebration that usually occurs on December 25, the tree is then unceremoniously discarded with the remainder of the household debris. In another ritual held in springtime, palms—usually obtained from locations far outside their natural range of distribution—are distributed by clergymen to signify another momentous occasion. The most obvious way plants are incorporated into peoples’ lives, however, is through their stomachs. Carbohydrates—a principal component of energy production and storage in plants—account for an overwhelming percentage of the world's diet. Contemporary Americans obtain approximately 50 percent of their daily energy from carbohydrates, mainly derived from cereals and dairy with about 15 percent of this daily intake derived from added sugar (Eaton 2007:388). This reliance on plants for dietary, medicinal, utilitarian, and spiritual purposes demonstrates the importance plant resources play in the lives of people.

Peoples of the past likely utilized plants for similar purposes to those of today—i.e., utilitarian, medicinal, spiritual, and comestible. As a result, archaeologists can gain valuable insights into many elements of prehistory through the recovery and analysis of archaeobotanical data. This book utilizes a rapidly developing methodology for recovering evidence of prehistoric people and plant interactions and, by extension, enhances our understanding of ancient human lifeways. Starch grain analysis looks at identifiable microscopic plant residues adhering to the surfaces of plant processing tools as a means for understanding prehistoric plant use. This methodology is based on the knowledge that as people use tools to process plant material (such as to produce flour or to slice or peel tubers) starch grains get embedded and trapped within cracks and crevasses on the surface of these tools, where they remain until recovered in a laboratory. Since starch grain morphology is often indicative of taxonomy, these residues can be identified using a comparative collection. The following chapters explore this methodology as it applies to our understanding of people and plant interactions in the Middle Atlantic and greater Eastern Woodlands. Data gathered from this study are then used in conjunction with related lines of archaeobotanical inquiry to address questions surrounding resource selection and utilization and the environmental implications resulting from exploitative relationships between people and plants.

Acknowledgments

I need to thank R. Michael Stewart, Anthony Ranere, Dolores Piperno, and John P. Hart for all their help in making this book possible. I would also like to thank Temple University, the botanists at the Academy of Natural sciences herbarium in Philadelphia, and the USDA Germplasm resources information network for providing many taxa needed for the comparative collection. Special thanks also go out to the following people: Sandhya Ganapathy, Ruth Dickau, Matt Harris (who made the maps), Bill Schindler, Chris Hummer, Greg Lattanzi, Chuck Fithian, Jesse Walker, Christie Rockwell, William Messner, Eleanor Messner, Muriel Kirkpatrick, Bruce Smith, Justine Woodard McKnight, Martin Gallivan, and Kathy Cummins.

The National Science Foundation and Temple University provided support for this research.

1

Introduction

The selection and utilization of subsistence resources filters through most aspects of prehistoric lifeways, influencing how archaeologists perceive and interpret the archaeological record. Human/environment relationships can even be understood by detecting evidence of the plants and animals people targeted and the methods utilized in their exploitation. For these reasons, archaeologists rely heavily upon subsistence data in their quest to understand ancient lifeways and human/environment interactions. Ultimately, our understanding of prehistoric people and plant relationships is contingent upon our ability to detect evidence of them in the archaeological record.

Over the past several decades, researchers have made great strides in advancing Eastern Woodlands paleoethnobotany (Asch and Asch 1985b; Crawford and smith 2003; Fritz 1990; Gremillion 1997, 2002a; Scarry 1993; Smith and Yarnell 2009). However, given the inherent fragmented nature of the archaeological record we remain left with an incomplete picture of the past, especially when we rely upon unilateral approaches to archaeobotanical inquiry. Starch grain analysis enables researchers to gain further entry into many of the complex relationships between ancient humans and their environments, as starch is not subject to the same preservation biases found in macrobotanical, phytolith, or pollen analyses. As a result, starch grain analysis, when viewed in combination with all other archaeobotanical inquiries, provides the most accurate representation of prehistoric people and plant interactions.

The seven chapters presented here provide an in-depth examination of Woodland period people and plant interactions in the Middle Atlantic's Delaware River Watershed (DRW) and adjacent areas. To accomplish this task, starch grain analysis is used in combination with findings from other key archaeobotanical studies. These data provide empirical evidence for many local ecological and cultural developments/adaptations witnessed as people increased, then abandoned, their focus on riverine and estuarine landscapes. These archaeobotanical data sets also illuminate both the conscious and the unintentional translocal movement of ideas and ecologies across large segments of the Eastern Woodlands.

Archaeologists from each of eastern North America's four corners have used a range of calendar dates and cultural-historic categories to bracket and divide the Woodland period (Anderson 1994; Anderson and Mainfort 2002; Custer 1989, 1996; Farnsworth and Emerson 1986; Ritchie 1980; Scarry 1997). Such diversity in categorization emphasizes the variability in lifeways once present across this physiographically, ecologically, and culturally variegated landscape. To provide clarity to this conversation, the Woodland is herein defined by the Late Holocene, that is, beginning ca. 3000 B.P. and continuing to just prior to European colonization. During this era, many Eastern Woodlanders increased their reliance upon food-producing economies.

The trajectory through which different groups of people adopted food-producing lifeways appears fraught with complexity, as localized subsistence strategies, in many areas, remained intact long after maize increased in importance within neighboring economies. Segments of the Middle Atlantic and Northeast regions typify this scenario (Ceci 1979–1980; Chilton 2008; Largy and Morenon 2008; Stewart 1992a). The use of domesticated plant resources in economies of the inner and outer coastal plains differed, often dramatically, from that among people inhabiting interior regions. Furthermore, the botanical composition of these agroeconomies consisted of crop assemblages introduced into the Middle Atlantic and Northeast regions from points west in the midcontinent and beyond. These introductions resulted in an intricate agroecological system with potential social, economic, and environmental ramifications.

This book accomplishes two independent yet complementary tasks. First, it establishes the foundation for starch grain research in eastern North America. Using this methodology, in conjunction with all other archaeobotanical data sets, this book, secondly, then addresses several critical questions surrounding prehistoric people's relationships to their environment. These questions include (1) what sorts of localized subsistence choices were people making and how were these plants being utilized; (2) how were relationships between people and plant resources embedded within larger settlement and subsistence practices throughout the Woodland period; (3) to what extent were people of the region connected with broader food-producing strategies consisting of midcontinental and tropical domesticates; and (4) what were the local ecological ramifications of these practices?

DELAWARE RIVER WATERSHED

To address the above questions, this study uses archaeological sites distributed throughout the DRW as a proxy for larger issues concerning Middle Atlantic and Northeast prehistory (Figure 1.1). The area in question extends from the headwaters of the West Branch Delaware River in southeastern New York to Cape Henlopen in the Atlantic ocean (Delaware) some 410 miles (660 km) away. The entire basin includes some 13,539 square miles (21,773 km²). Major tributaries in Pennsylvania—the Lackawaxen, Schuylkill, and Lehigh—extend to the Susquehanna River basin in south-central New York and central Pennsylvania. In New Jersey, the Rancocas, Musconetcong, Maurice, Oldmans, and Raccoon rivers extend deep into the outer coastal plain. Tributaries in New York include the Mongaup and Neversink rivers and Callicoon Creek. When the Delaware River reaches the falls at Trenton, it becomes subjected to tidal influence and takes on both tidal and freshwater qualities. Abundant wetland ecosystems fill the landscape in this area. In fact, of the 500,000–1,000,000 ha of freshwater tidal wetlands along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 100,000–140,000 ha are in New Jersey (Odum et al. 1979).

This watershed also incorporates several southwest to northeast–trending physiographic provinces, including the Allegheny Plateau, ridge and Valley, Piedmont, Newark-Gettysburg Basin, Inner Coastal Plain, and Outer Coastal Plain. Diverse environmental settings characterize this watershed, as the geology, pedology, hydrology, and vegetation change depending on the province. Given its geographic position relative to the Ohio Valley, New York, and the Atlantic Coast, the DRW represents an important location for understanding prehistoric cultural interaction spheres and their relationship to plant utilization strategies, including the dispersal and adoption of maize-centered farming.

ETHNOHISTORY AND THE MISSING PAST

Throughout eastern North America early colonists describe the native population as utilizing a wide range of plant resources for utilitarian, medicinal, spiritual, and dietary purposes (e.g., Acrelius 1912; Banister 1970; Barlowe 1589; Carver 1974; Cheever 1848; Danckaerts 1913; Hamel and Chiltoskey 1975; Heckewelder 1819; Herrick 1977; Hilger 1951; Lindestrom 1925; Newcomb 1956; speck 1925, 1927; Speck and Dexter 1951, 1952; Tantaquidgeon 1972; Turner et al. 1980; Whitthoft 1977). The variety of plant resources described in these accounts far outnumbers the taxonomic range witnessed in the macrobotanical record (see Yarnell 1964). These findings suggest that either (1) the plant resources utilized by historic Native populations were a relatively recent sociocultural adaptation or (2) the archaeobotanical record as currently understood fails to account for the full range of plant resources utilized throughout prehistory. Given the time and complexity involved in knowledge acquisition, especially as it applies to dietary plants, it seems more probable that people maintained an in-depth understanding of their local floral communities and that the macrobotanical record neglects to represent many important aspects of these relationships.

APPROACHING THE PROBLEM

Examining plant resource selection and utilization through the Woodland period sheds light on the complex nature of human/environment interactions. The application of innovative approaches such as starch grain analysis can offer new insights into the range of plants utilized within the subsistence economies of the DRW and several immediately adjacent areas. Starch grain analysis uses identifiable microscopic plant-based residues isolated from processing tools and containers (e.g., chipped and ground stone tools, ceramics) to determine the taxonomic identity as well as the physiological origin (seed, tuber, fruit) of plant matter utilized for subsistence, medicinal, or utilitarian purposes. Starch residues are a powerful form of archaeobotanical inquiry due to (1) their resilient molecular composition facilitating their preservation for extended periods of time and (2) the ability of researchers to taxonomically identify plants based on morphological starch grain characteristics.

Many economic seeds, subterranean storage organs, and fruits commonly targeted for subsistence, medicinal, and utilitarian purposes often contain high levels of carbohydrates in the form of starch. In order to consume or ingest many of these plants, to preserve them for extended periods of time, or merely to adhere to cultural guidelines surrounding dietary preparation, humans must first process them. Processing carbohydrate-rich plant tissues often results in the deposition of starch grains upon and within the surfaces of tools or in ceramic pots. In these archaeological contexts, starch has the potential to preserve for extended periods of time in environmental conditions otherwise poorly suited for organic preservation (Loy et al. 1992; Piperno et al. 2004).

Additionally, starch residues recovered from plant processing tools enable researchers to further understand aspects of artifact function, strengthening interpretations based upon use-wear analyses (Babot 2001; Babot and Apella 2003; Barton et al. 1998; Chandler-Ezell et al. 2006; Fullagar 1991; Fullagar et al. 2006; Fullagar et al. 1999; Lentfer et al. 2002; Pearsall et al. 2004; Perry 2004; Piperno, Ranere, et al. 2000; Rots and Williamson 2004; Zarrillo and Kooyman 2006). Through these studies, insight into culinary practices can also be gleaned, as can aspects of the paleoenvironment (Chandler-Ezell et al. 2006; Denham et al. 2003; Fullagar et al. 1998; Lentfer et al. 2002).

While the ability to isolate starch from plant processing tools provides researchers with information concerning subsistence choice (e.g., carbohydrate vs. oily plants, seeds vs. nuts) and tool function (plant processing vs. mineral grinding), the ability to identify the plant represented by these starch residues, as well as the plant tissue (seed vs. root) targeted, requires a modern starch grain reference collection (Perry 2001; Piperno and Holst 1998; Torrence and Barton 2006; Zarrillo and Kooyman 2006). One of the primary goals of this research involved constructing a starch grain comparative collection composed of known economic plants indigenous to, or prehistorically introduced into, eastern North America. Assembling taxa for this purpose first involved conducting an extensive literature review.

The adage work from the known to the unknown is true in many aspects of our discipline. Paleoethnobotany is no