Resilience and Continuity in Iroquoia: An Analysis of Animal Remains from the 17th-Century Seneca Iroquois White Springs Site.

Summary

In the summer of 1687, the Marquis de Denonville led a punitive expeditionary force from New France against the Seneca Iroquois in what is now western New York State. As a response to imminent invasion, the Senecas fled under the protective umbrella of the Cayugas. Upon returning to their homeland the following year, with all four settlements destroyed, the Senecas constructed two nucleated villages, one of which was located at White Springs, near present-day Geneva, New York, where they remained until 1715. Since 2007, Cornell University excavations at White Springs have recovered large quantities of artifacts, plant remains and animal bone, in addition to identifying widespread evidence of daily life at the site, including hearths, post molds and trash deposits. The extent to which Seneca behaviors reflect the political uncertainty and threat of hostilities dominating the region during this period remains unclear. Through an analysis of faunal material recovered from a large extramural pit feature, the present study addresses this central question by examining evidence for Seneca Iroquois hunting strategies, economic endeavors and subsistence practices that indicate the persistence of Seneca lifeways despite turbulent times.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage