A Taste for Fish among the Saint Lawrence Iroquoians of the Montreal Region

Summary

Iroquoian groups inhabiting the Saint Lawrence valley in the 15th and early 16th centuries were agriculturalists who complemented their diet with a variety of wild plant and animal foods. The relative importance of different food sources and their methods of preparation, however, likely varied from one community to another. To further document subsistence practices and foodways at the Iroquoian site of Dawson in Montreal, organic residue analysis was carried out on foodcrust and absorbed ceramic samples representing twenty-nine distinct containers recently excavated. Molecular characterization of lipids by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) show the presence of aquatic products in a great majority of samples. These data attest to the importance of freshwater fish for Iroquoians of the Montreal region and represent direct evidence of their frequent processing in ceramic containers, either alone or mixed with other ingredients. By combining these results with single compound isotope analysis (GC-c-IRMS) and the analysis of starch and phytolith microfossils, we hope to obtain a more complete picture of the range of foods prepared in pottery at the Dawson site, and ultimately shed new lights into food choices and culinary practices among the Saint Lawrence Iroquoians.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21411