Late Prehistoric Food Choices in the Upper Great Lakes Region: Evidence from 20OT283 and 20OT3 in the Lower Grand River Valley of Michigan

Summary

Research into Late Prehistoric subsistence strategies used by residentially mobile hunter-foragers in the Upper Great Lakes region indicate that there is a complex interplay in the choices made between the exploitation of natural resources and the incorporation of maize and other domesticated plants into those economies. Recent excavations of food processing and storage features coupled with soils analysis elucidating their depositional histories at two Late Prehistoric sites have provided new insights into the nature of these adaptations. Paleobotanical, phytolith, organic residue, and faunal analysis indicate that wild rice, aquatic tubers, and sturgeon are also important components of the traditionally assumed dominance of deer, nuts, and maize as key subsistence resources during this period.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Great Lakes Archaeology: Current Research and Perspectives   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage