PHYTOLITH, STARCH, AND PROTEIN RESIDUE (CIEP) ANALYSIS OF SAMPLES FROM THE MIDLAND SITE #8, 20MD38, MIDLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN

Summary

Midland Site #8 (20MD38), is a multi-component prehistoric site located in Chippewassee Park, Midland County, Michigan. The site was originally situated on stratified floodplain alluvium near the confluence of the Chippewa and Tittabawasee Rivers. In the 1970s, the city of Midland built Chippewassee Park and buried the site under a gravel parking lot and cleared grassy area (Kevin Schwarz, personal communication, November 12, 2018). Current archaeological investigations were conducted by ASC Group in Spring 2017 prior to the construction of a new bridge for the —20 road. Sediment, groundstones, and lithic samples were submitted to PaleoResearch Institute for phytolith and starch analysis; in addition to two lithic samples submitted for protein residue analysis.

The objective of these analyses is to better understand the subsistence practices of Archaic and Woodland cultures of central Michigan. Despite the typically limited macrobotanical evidence at prehistoric sites in Michigan, successful phytolith and starch analyses of archaeological samples in Ottawa County, Michigan, suggest that similar analyses, in addition to protein residue analysis, may help to indicate food processing strategies at Midland Site #8 (Hambacher et al. 2016; Ladwig and Cummings 2013). ASC Group posed two specific questions of the evidence prior to sample submission:

1. Does phytolith and starch evidence uphold the interpretation that Middle Woodland bladelets were multi-use tools, which included the processing of plants, and;

2. Does protein residue on Jack’s Reef horizon (JRH) projectiles support the hypothesis that JRH peoples living in riverine environments used projectiles in fishing?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• PaleoResearch Institute

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