Spanning the Southern Appalachians and the Archaic-Woodland Transition: Comparing Patterns of Plant Use and Land Use in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The transition from the Late Archaic to the Early Woodland periods in the Southern Appalachians is visible archaeologically by the widespread adoption of pottery, associated with changes in mobility. Here we compare changes in plant use on both sides of the mountains, which suggest that Late Archaic groups in East Tennessee cultivated native crops by 4000 years ago, while their neighbors in western North Carolina did not pick up this practice until the Early Woodland period, around 3000 years ago. We explore changes in land use between these two periods in both regions as well to tease out nuances in decisions to invest in native crops made by groups in the Ridge and Valley versus the Blue Ridge Mountain region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39915.0