Late Woodland-Emergent Mississippian Occupation and Plant Use at the AE Harmon Site (11MS136)

Bibliographic Data

ID11205392
AuthorsJulie Zimmermann Holt (corresponding author), Toshia Evans (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Marge Schroeder (Illinois State Museum), Shannon Moore (0009-0004-0145-487X, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Shannon L Moore, Cassandra Buskohl (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville)
Year2010
Volume35
Issue1
Pages57-90
Publication date2010-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMidcontinental Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0146-1109 • E-ISSN: 2327-4271
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/mca.2010.004
OpenAlexW1991415663
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited11

The 2002 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville field school was conducted at the AE Harmon site (11MS136), located on the bluff above the American Bottom in Edwardsville, Illinois. Artifacts recovered from the plow zone indicate that the site was occupied from the Archaic through Mississippian periods. Sub-plow zone excavations revealed a prehistoric house structure and six pit features. The style of the structure, as well as artifacts recovered from the structure and several associated pits, indicate occupation during the Late Woodland and Emergent Mississippian periods. Prehistoric activities at the site included manufacture, use, and maintenance of lithic artifacts, as well as ceramic manufacture. Subsistence remains show that native cultigens, maize, nuts, wild plants, fish, and venison were consumed. The sample of plant remains reported here adds to the Late Woodland-Emergent Mississippian paleoethnobotanical database for the American Bottom, most notably for the Late Woodland Sponemann phase. Sponemann phase inhabitants of the site collected wild plant resources and cultivated native seed crops. Whether they grew maize is uncertain since the one fragment of maize identified in a Sponemann phase feature was probably intrusive. This is consistent with evidence from other Sponemann phase sites, which suggests that while Sponemann phase people may have been the first in the American Bottom to grow maize on a consistent basis, it was not a significant portion of their diet. Given the importance of maize later in the Mississippian economy of Cahokia, the introduction of maize to the American Bottom was a critical event, or more likely series of events, in American Bottom prehistory. Data from AE Harmon and other sites indicate that this introduction was not a sudden takeover of local gardens and menus. Rather, it would appear that maize was adopted opportunistically and piecemeal, but what drove local decision-making in this transition is not clear

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Culture of the United States · Excavation · Geography · Paleoethnobotany · Pottery · Prehistory · Subsistence agriculture · Woodland · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies · Ecology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies