Plants and Environment: A Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of the Vosburg Site (21FA002)

Summary

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

Recognized archaeologically by their distinct material culture, Oneota sites exist in many ecological zones across the Upper Midwest. Consequently, the sites are hardly homogenous. Across localities, Oneota groups are recognized as late Precontact food producers who grew Zea mays (maize), Cucurbita pepo (squash), and later Phaseolus vulgaris (bean). The utilization of other wild and domesticated botanical resources across localities is not as well documented. While extensive paleoethnobotanical analyses have been completed for the late Precontact period in southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin, little is known about plant utilization by Oneota groups on the Minnesota prairie. The Vosburg site (21FA002) is a late Precontact (c. 1300-1400 CE) Oneota site located within the woodland-prairie transitional ecotone of Minnesota. The macrobotanical remains from half of a large, culturally significant feature from the Vosburg site were analyzed and compared to those of previous paleoethnobotanical studies from contemporaneous Oneota sites in the Upper Midwest. Moreover, this study provided a more accurate understanding of the environment of southern Minnesota c. 1300-1400 CE. This study is a significant contribution to archeologists’ limited understanding of diversity in Oneota plant assemblages and of the Blue Earth phase of Oneota in southeastern Minnesota.

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): 40445.0