Holes: The Beginners Guide to Food Caching

Summary

The Michigan State University Subterranean Storage Research Experiment (MSU SStoRE) employed experimental archaeology to better understand the storage efficiency, capacity, and reliability of hunter-gatherer food storage pits. Drawing on archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric information the project accurately recreated below ground storage pits for the late Late Woodland period (A.D. 1000-1600) of northern lower Michigan. Over three consecutive yearly cycles, subterranean storage pits were constructed with appropriate lining materials, filled with dried blueberries, acorns, and corn, and cached from November until late March. During the five month period the pits were monitored for temperature and humidity multiple times daily. Revisions were made each annual cycle, culminating in a successful storage episode. The most recent caching of foodstuffs was tested for microtoxins, pathogens, and water activity level in order to determine food safety. This paper discusses the lessons learned, resulting degree of success, and the importance of MSU SStoRE for archaeological research.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage