Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene, Indigenous peoples across North America began to shift their subsistence strategies and implement new cooking technologies to adapt to a changing world. The late Alston Thoms referred to these changes in subsistence strategies as the “Carbohydrate Revolution,” and some of the foremost technological changes were the development of earth ovens and ground stone—both used to process primarily plant resources. There has been substantial archaeological research into this time period in North American history, but much of the research has overlooked cooking and plant processing technologies in favor of hunting and animal processing tools. This symposium brings together case studies from across North America to examine Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Indigenous cooking features and honors the legacy of Alston Thoms.

Other Keywords
Subsistence and Foodways • Paleoindian and Paleoamerican • Paleoethnobotany • Archaic • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: Residue Analysis • Rockshelter • Earth Ovens • Cooking • starch grain analysis • Material Culture and Technology

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United States of America (Country) • USA (Country) • Arizona (State / Territory) • Utah (State / Territory) • Nevada (State / Territory) • California (State / Territory) • Canada (Country) • North America • New Mexico (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • Beyond Boiling and Baking? Cooking Plant Foods in the Early US Midsouth (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kandace Hollenbach.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Eastern Woodlands of North America, researchers tend to discuss cooking technologies of early foragers at the close of the Pleistocene and early Holocene in terms of nut processing rather than for use of...

  • Carbohydrate Revolution Conceived: Alston Thoms’s Legacy (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Black.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The North American Carbohydrate Revolution was conceived by a prolific researcher who spent decades in the Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies, and South-Central North America exploring the data potential represented by...

  • Cooking across the Continent: Overview of Pleistocene Archaeobotanical Remains and Exploration of Biases Affecting Botanical Visibility (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katelyn McDonough. Madeline Mackie.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding how Indigenous communities used plants during the Pleistocene is fundamental to addressing questions about long-term ecological relationships, dietary practices, and adaptive strategies. Pleistocene plant...

  • Early Holocene Earth Oven Cooking in Southwest Texas (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles Koenig. Leslie Bush. J. Kevin Hanselka. Chase Mahan. Amanda Castañeda.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Eagle Cave (41VV167) is a dry rockshelter in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas containing a 13,000-year record of hunter-gatherer lifeways. Beginning around 10,500 cal BP, Lower Pecos foragers began constructing earth...

  • For Fiber or Fiber: Paleoarchaic Desert Plant Baking as Calories or Raw Material? (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bryon Schroeder.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The West Texas–Big Bend region preserves some of the earliest examples of hot rock cooking in North America. These smaller early thermal features are thought to be the remnants of early plant baking subsistence events....

  • Fueling Earth Oven Useage: Differential Trends in the Southern and Central Plains (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Crystal Dozier.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The work of Alston Thoms and colleagues has highlighted the importance of earth oven cooking technologies throughout the world, and especially within North America. One advantage of earth oven (heated rock) cooking is...

  • Geophyte Exploitation in Northern Great Basin: Starch Granule Analysis of Bedrock Metates in Warner Valley, Oregon (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stefania Wilks. Lisbeth Louderback.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geophytes store starch in underground organs considered highly valued food resources across many human societies. For example, Indigenous people in the northern Great Basin plan social activities around the seasonal...

  • Starch Grain Analysis of Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene Coprolites and Ground Stone from Two Northern Great Basin Rockshelters (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Haden Kingrey. Geoffrey Smith. Dennis Jenkins. Lisa-Marie Shillito. John Blong.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent macrobotanical analyses of late Pleistocene rockshelters in the Great Basin have shown that plants have always made up a portion of Indigenous peoples’ diets. This is despite a relative lack of ground stone...

  • What’s Hot in Beringia? Cooking during the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition in Central Alaska (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Briana Doering. Grace Stanford. Kassandra Dutro. Joshua Reuther.

    This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The subsistence traditions of the early Americans residing in Beringia have played a key role in debates surrounding the spread of people across the continent. Hunting and related technologies have garnered the most...