Isotopic Evidence for Protohistoric Field Locations in Northeastern Illinois

Author(s): Mark Schurr; Madeleine McLeester

Year: 2021

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Finding Fields: Locating and Interpreting Ancient Agricultural Landscapes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the western Great Lakes region of the USA, late prehistoric and early historic Indigenous fields are often difficult to investigate because their archaeological signatures are faint and easily destroyed. They have been identified largely via rare remnants of ridged fields and historical records. With the majority of Indigenous fields destroyed, important aspects of cultivation remain ambiguous, especially the ecology of cultivated areas. In addition to archaeological indicators of field location, the choice of specific environmental settings (prairie, wetland, upland forest, etc.) can be encoded in the stable isotope ratios of cultigens. Stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope ratios of maize kernels and wild plants from the Middle Grant Creek site (11WI2739), an early seventeenth-century village in northeastern Illinois, are used to better understand agricultural practices during one of the coldest periods of the Little Ice Age.

Cite this Record

Isotopic Evidence for Protohistoric Field Locations in Northeastern Illinois. Mark Schurr, Madeleine McLeester. Presented at The 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2021 ( tDAR id: 466802)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -103.975; min lat: 36.598 ; max long: -80.42; max lat: 48.922 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32144