Rockshelters and Farming Villages: Complementary seasonal occupations at Woodpecker Cave

Summary

The Late Woodland Period in the Midwest of North America shows a marked shift in diet from mixed hunting, gathering and farming a few indigenous crops to a predominance of maize in the diet, indicated by radical changes is stable isotope ratios. The sumptuary displays of elite trade goods of the Adena and Hopewell Interaction Sphere in the Early and Middle Woodland were replaced by more egalitarian burial practices. Farming villages in the major river valleys underwent a major reorganization in spatial structure, also indicating increased egalitarianism. This economic and social transformation was accompanied, however, by increased occupation of rockshelters in upland areas during the Late Woodland. Analysis of the spatial structure of various artifact classes at Woodpecker Cave rockshelter in southeastern Iowa is employed to increase understanding of complementary seasonal exploitation of upland wild resources during a time of radical changes in the intensity of agriculture at farming villages.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Frison Institute/Geoarchaeology Interest Group Symposium: Archaeology and Geoarchaeology of Rockshelters and Caves

Keywords

Spatial Coverage