Reconstructing Ancient Foodways at the Jones Mill Site (3HS28), Hot Spring County, Arkansas

Abstract

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.