The Hidden Voice of Forests: Revisiting Archaeobotanical Legacy Collections from Southeastern U.S. Shell Rings

Author(s): Donna Ruhl

Year: 2019

Summary

This is an abstract from the ""Re-excavating" Legacy Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees as a metaphor conveys that we sometimes cannot assess situations while we are in the midst of them. Archaeobotanists often report that the most ubiquitous plant type at a site is charred wood. But have we really assessed what these once trees represent: fuel, building remains, indirect evidence of food, or something else? This presentation reviews European settlement legacy accounts, witness-tree documents, paleoecological data and the reevaluation of selected legacy archaeobotanical collections from southeastern U.S. shell ring sites to introduce new research questions. Have we accepted climate as the primary agent of vegetation change during the Holocene? Can charred archaeobotanical assemblages be reexamined beyond diet and subsistence to assess anthropogenic agents of change to forests? For example, are hickory mast deposits at sites evidence of silvicultural or other land management practices, or even potential sacred places? This paper will consider a few traditional perspectives and attempt to develop new challenges for various legacy data sets and how they may inform ancient plant husbandry practices. "Can one see the forest for the trees" or should it be "Can we see the trees for the forest?"

Cite this Record

The Hidden Voice of Forests: Revisiting Archaeobotanical Legacy Collections from Southeastern U.S. Shell Rings. Donna Ruhl. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 451995)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -93.735; min lat: 24.847 ; max long: -73.389; max lat: 39.572 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23585