Subsistence and Site Function in Historic Contexts

Summary

The empirical integration of large, composite, datasets drawn from published sources has seen recurring interest among archaeologists seeking to trace trade, cultural influence, and subsistence patterning. Following Landon’s call for increased data comparison in historic archaeology we investigate the potential to integrate zooarchaeological and ethnobotanical metadata from Anglo-American contexts in the 16th to 19th centuries in the Northeastern United States and Canada. This poster presents our findings on the influence of cultural and environmental patterning in subsistence practices using floral and faunal datasets from forts, farmsteads, and villages. Results highlight the inter-related nature of cultural and environmental factors on human subsistence and present a holistic view of subsistence patterns within the Anglo-American colonies. Statistical comparison of sites by function increases our understanding of the influence of local environments on colonial diets and may inform upon future investigation of social status, chronological subsistence change, agricultural niche construction, and cross cultural comparisons.

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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