Two accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates obtained from samples of Zea mays from the Holding site, 11MS118, in the American Bottom near East St. Louis, Illinois, establish the presence of maize in the Mississippi Valley between 170 B.C. and A.D. 60. The dates finally establish the occurrence of Middle Woodland maize in Illinois and are the earliest dates thus far for maize east of the Mississippi River. Other reports of early Middle Woodland maize in the Midcontinent region should not be discounted unless AMS dating and other supporting information show the maize to be a contaminant at the site at which it occurs. Recent stable carbon-isotope experiments suggest that the relative contribution of maize to Middle Woodland diets is still an open question.
The Baumer construct defines the Early and Middle Woodland periods in the lower Ohio Valley in the confluence region of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers. Originally defined by University of Chicago investigations in the 1930s, Baumer remains a poorly understood cultural unit. This paper reports the botanical and environmental data from Baumer features excavated in recent work at Kincaid Mounds. These data demonstrate a stable plant food regime highlighted by a major emphasis on nut harvests as well as the cultivation of Eastern Complex seed crops. The Kincaid data show that Baumer and related Crab Orchard groups inhabiting large stream floodplains are more strongly committed to horticulture than their relatives living in small interior stream drainages in southern Illinois. Maize was also recovered but it is clearly of Mississippian origin.
Analyses of botanical and faunal samples and a new radiocarbon date provide a detailed picture of Indian foodways at the Jones Mill site on the Ouachita River in Arkansas. Hunting, plant processing, and fishing with nets is seen from Middle Archaic artifacts and features. Burned hickory nutshell found among clusters of fire-cracked rock shows the importance of nut masts as food between 6000-4300 B.C. By 1450 A.D., a more substantial community of people lived at Jones Mill. Refuse associated with traces of a Caddo period house provided direct evidence for the cultivation of maize and native Eastern Complex starchy seed crops and procurement of select wild plants and animals for food.
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