Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mound Centers and Seed Security: A Comparative Analysis of Botanical Assemblages from Middle Woodland Sites in the Lower Illinois Valley

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Mound Centers and Seed Security

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Plant Science ((BRIEFSPLANT))

Abstract

The earthen mounds built by the Middle Woodland inhabitants of the Eastern Woodlands have been the focus of archaeological research for more than a century. Within these mounds, excavations have revealed naturalistic art worked on exotic materials from points as distant Wyoming, Ontario, and the Gulf Coast (Carr 2006a, b). At the turn of the twentieth century, the makers of this 2,000-year-old art and architecture were named the Hopewell culture and envisioned as a cohesive and highly sophisticated society inhabiting southern Ohio (Moorehead 1892). In the century since, Hopewell has been transformed into a descriptor of a complex network of exchange and interaction spanning the river valleys of the Eastern Woodlands.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    A note on comparability: It is unclear from the published descriptions of methods (Asch and Asch 1985a, 1985c, 1986; Calentine 2005; Staab 1984) whether or not any attempt was made to develop Seed Number Estimates for taxa which are identifiable as fragments. However, it seems likely that for Chenopodium berlandieri, at least, some extrapolation from raw counts was employed. These seeds often split into three parts (two halves of the testa and the perisperm/embryo), which are all diagnostic, making a raw count of fragments extremely misleading as an indicator of total number of seeds. The only other taxon discussed comparatively for which SNEs differ from total counts in my analysis is sumac (Rhus sp.). Since sumac is relatively abundant at Mound House, I have used SNEs in the comparison order to err on the side of caution and not overstate the variability in sumac frequency between Mound House and other sites. Total number of seeds for each assemblage includes unidentifiable seeds, but not seed fragments, since these would only compound the problem of calculating minimum numbers of seeds uniformly between sites.

References

  • Anderson E (1952) Plants, man and life. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis

    Google Scholar 

  • Asch DL (1976) The Middle Woodland population of the lower Illinois valley: a study in paleodemographic methods. Northwestern University archaeological program scientific papers 1 Evanstan, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Asch DL, Asch NB (1985a) Archaeobotany. In: Stafford BD, Sant MB (eds) Smiling dan: structure and function at a Middle Woodlands settlement in the lower Illinois river valley. Center for American Archaeology, Kampsville, pp 327–400

    Google Scholar 

  • Asch DL, Asch NB (1985b) Archaeobotany. In: Conner MD (ed) The Hill Creek Homestead and the Late Mississippian settlement in the lower Illinois river valley, vol 1. Kampsville Archaeological Center, The Center for American Archaeology, Kampsville, pp 115–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Asch DL, Asch NB (1985c) Archaeobotany. In: Farnsworth KB, Walthall JA (eds) Massey and archie: a study of two hopewellian homesteads in the western Illinois uplands, Research Series, vol 3, Center for American Archaeology. Kampsville, IL, pp 327–401

    Google Scholar 

  • Asch DL, Asch NB (1985d) Prehistoric plant cultivation in west central Illinois. In: Ford RI (ed) Prehistoric food production in North America, vol 75, Museum of anthropology. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, pp 149–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Asch DL, Farnsworth KB, Asch NB (1979) Woodland subsistence and settlement in west central Illinois. In: Brose DS, Greber N’o (eds) Hopewell Archeaology: the Chillicothe Conference. Kent State University Press, Kent, pp 80–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Asch NB, Asch DL (1986) Woodland period archeobotany of the Napoleon hollow site. In: Wiant MD, McGimsey CR (eds) Woodland period occupations of the napoleon hollow site in the lower Illinois valley. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, IL, pp 427–512

    Google Scholar 

  • Badstue LB, Bellon MR, Berthaud J, Juàrez X, Rosas IM, Solano AM, Ramírez A (2006) Examining the role of collective action in an informal seed system: a case study from the central valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. Hum Ecol 34(2):249–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackman BK, Rasmussen DA, Strasburg JL, Raduski AR, Burke JM, Knapp SJ, Michaels SD, Rieseberg LH (2011) Contributions of flowering time genes to sunflower domestication and improvement. Genetics 187:271–287

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bohrer VL (1991) Recently recognized cultivated and encouraged plants among the hohokam. Kiva 56:227–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Borojevic K (1994) Rhus spp.: Sumacs. electronic document, http://artsci.wustl.edu/∼gjfritz/Rhus_spp.html. Laboratory Guide to Archaeological Plant Remains from Eastern North America. Accessed 1 Feb 2012

  • Braun DP (1979) Illinois hopewell burial practices and social organization: a reexamination of the Klunk-Gibson Mound Group. In: Brose DS, Greber N’o (eds) Hopewell archaeology. Kent State University Press, Kent, pp 66–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Britton NL, Brown A (1913) An illustrated Flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions: from Newfoundland to the parallel of the Southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the I02d meridian, 2nd edn. Charles Scribner’s, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brose DS (1979) A speculative model of the role of exchange in the prehistory of the eastern Woodlands. In: Brose DS, Greber N’o (eds) Hopewell archaeology: the chillicothe conference. Kent State University Press, Kent, pp 3–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Buikstra JE (1976) Hopewell in the lower Illinois valley: a regional approach to the study of human biological variability and prehistoric behavior. Northwestern University archaeological program scientific papers 2, Evanstan, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Buikstra JE (1979) Contributions of physical anthropologists to the concept of hopewell: a historical perspective. In: Brose DS, Greber N’o (eds) Hopewell archaeology. Kent State University Press, Kent, pp 211–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Buikstra JE, Charles DK, Rakita GFM (1998) Staging ritual: hopewell ceremonialism at the Mound House site, Greene County, Illinois. Kampsville Studies in Archeology and History 1. Center for American Archaeology, Kampsville, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke JM, Tang S, Knapp SJ, Rieseberg LH (2002) Genetic analysis of sunflower domestication. Genetics 161:1257–1267

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell JR (1964) Interacting spheres in prehistory. In: Caldwell JR, Hall RL (ed) Hopewellian studies: the chillicothe conference, Illinois State museum paper no. 12. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL. pp. 133–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Calentine L (2005) The spoon toe site (11MG179): Middle Woodland gardening in the lower Illinois river valley. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr C (2006a) Historical insights into the directions and limitations of recent research on Hopewell. In: Carr C, Tory Case D (eds) Gathering hopewell: society, ritual and ritual interaction. Springer, New York, pp 51–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr C (2006b) Rethinking interregional hopewellian “Interaction”. In: Carr C, Troy Case D (eds) Gathering hopewell: society, ritual, and ritual interaction. Springer, New York, pp 575–623

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles DK (1995) Diachronic regional social dynamics: mortuary sites in the Illinois valley/American bottom region. In: Beck LA (ed) Regional approaches to mortuary analysis. Plenum Press, New York, pp 77–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles DK, Buikstra JE (eds) (2006) Recreating hopewell. University Press of Florida, Gainesville

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles DK, Van Nest J, Buikstra JE (2004) From the Earth: minerals and meaning in the hopewellian world. In: Boivin N, Owoc MA (eds) Soils, stones and symbols: cultural perceptions of the mineral world. UCL Press, London, pp 43–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Costea M, Tardif FJ (2004) The biology of canadian weeds: Polygonum aviculare L. Can J Plant Sci 131:481–506

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowan WC (1985) Understanding the evolution of plant husbandry in eastern north America: ­lessons from the botany, ethnography and archaeology. In: Ford RI (ed) Prehistoric food production in north America, vol. 75. Museum of anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

    Google Scholar 

  • Wet D, Jan M, Harlan JR (1975) Weeds and domesticates: evolution in a man-made habitat. Econ Bot 29(2):99–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delcourt PA, Delcourt HR (2004) Prehistoric native Americans and ecological change: human ecosystems in eastern north America since the pleistocene. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dragoo DW (1964) The development of the adena culture and its role in the formation of Ohio hopewell. In: Caldwell JR, Hall RL (ed) Hopewellian studies, Scientific Papers, vol. 7. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Farnsworth KB (1990) The evidence for specialized middle woodland camps in western Illinois. Illinois Archaeologist 2(1&2):109–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Farnsworth KB, Asch DL (1986) Early woodland chronology, artifact styles, and settlement distribution in the lower Illinois valley region. In: Farnsworth KB, Emerson TE. Early woodland archaeology, Kampsville seminars in archaeology, vol. 2. Center for American Archaeology, Kampsville, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Farnsworth KB, Koski AL (1985) Ceramics. In: Farnsworth KB, Koski AL (ed) Massey and Archie: a study of two hopewellian homesteads in the western Illinois uplands. Research Series, vol. 3. Center of American Archeology, Kampsville, IL. pp. 124–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Fie SM (2006) Visiting in the interaction sphere: ceramic exchange and interaction in the lower Illinois valley. In: Charles DK, Buikstra JE (eds) Recreating hopewell. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, pp 427–445

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford RI (1979) Gathering and gardening: trends and consequences of hopewell subsistence strategies. In: Brose DS, Greber N’o (eds) Hopewell archaeology: the chillicothe conference. Kent State University Press, Kent, pp 234–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz GJ (1990) Multiple pathways to farming in eastern precontact North America. J World Prehist 4(4):387–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz GJ (1999) Gender and the early cultivation of gourds in eastern North America. Am Antiq 64(3):417–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz GJ (2010) The meaning of maygrass. Paper presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology, Columbus, OH

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz GJ, Smith BD (1988) Old collection and new technology: documenting the domestication of chenopodium in eastern North America. MidCont J Archaeol 13(1):3–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasser RE (1982) Hohokam use of desert plant foods. Desert Plants 3:216–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore MR (1977) Uses of plants by Indians of the Missouri river region. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln

    Google Scholar 

  • Gremillion KJ (1993) Crop and weed production in eastern North America: the chenopodium example. Am Antiq 58(3):496–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin JB (1952) Culture periods in the eastern United States prehistory. In: Griffin JB (ed) Archaeology of the Eastern United States. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall RL (1979) In search of the ideology of the adena-hopewell climax. In: Brose DS, Greber N (eds) Hopewell archaeology: the chillicothe conference. Kent State University Press, Kent, pp 258–265

    Google Scholar 

  • Harlan JR, de Wet JM (1965) Some thoughts on weeds. Econ Bot 18(1):16–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart JP (1999) Maize agriculture evolution in the eastern woodlands of North America: a Darwinian perspective. J Archaeol Method Theory 6(2):137–180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart JP (2001) Maize, matrilocality, migration and northern Iroquoian evolution. J Archaeol Method Theory 8(2):151–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johannessen S (1988) Plant remains and culture change: are paleoethnobotanical data better than we think? In: Hastorf CA, Popper VS (eds) Current paleoethnobotany: analytical methods and cultural interpretations of archaeological plant remains. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 145–166

    Google Scholar 

  • King JL, Buikstra JE, Charles DK (2011) Time and archaeological traditions in the lower Illinois valley. Am Antiq 76(3):500–528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King JL, Rudolf KZ, Buikstra JE (2010) Habitation occupations at floodplain mound sites in the lower Illinois valley: evidence from the mound house site (11GE7). Paper presented at the 55th annual meeting of the midwest archaeological conference, Bloomington, IN

    Google Scholar 

  • Konigsberg LW, Buikstra JE (1995) Regional approaches to the investigation of past human biocultural structure. In: Beck LA (ed) Regional approaches to mortuary analysis. Interdisciplinary Studies in Archaeology. Plenum Press, New York, pp 191–205

    Google Scholar 

  • Lopinot NH, Fritz GJ, Kelly JE (1991) The archaeological context and significance of polygonum erectum achene masses from the American bottom region. Paper presented at 14th annual meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology, St. Louis, MO

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin GJ (1995) Ethnobotany: a methods manual. Chapman and Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • McGimsey CR, Wiant MD (1986) The woodland occupations: summary and conclusions. In: Wiant MD, McGimsey CR (eds) Woodland period occupations of the Napoleon hollow site in the lower Illinois valley. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • McGregor JC (1958) The pool and irving sites: a study of hopewell occupations in the Illinois river valley. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuire SJ (2008) Securing access to seed: social relations and sorghum seed exchange in eastern Ethiopia. Hum Ecol 36(2):217–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Misiko M (2010) Indigenous seed institutions in fragile communities. In Second African Rice Conference. Innovations and Partnerships to Realize Africa’s Rice Potential, Bamako, Mali

    Google Scholar 

  • Moerman DE (2009) Native American medicinal plants: an ethnobotanical dictionary. Timber Press, Portland

    Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery FH (1977) Seeds and fruits of plants of eastern Canada and northeastern. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Moorehead WK (1892) Primitive man in Ohio. G.P. Putnam, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Munson PJ (1984) Weedy plant communities on the mud-flats and other disturbed habitats in the central Illinois river valley. In: Munson PJ (ed) Experiments and observations on aboriginal wild plant utilization in eastern North America. Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray PM, Sheehan MC (1984) Pehistoric polygonum use in the Midwestern United States. In: Munson PJ (ed) Experiments and observations on aboriginal wild plant food utilization in eastern North America. Indian Historical Society, Indianapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Potter LD, Ross Moir D (1961) Phytosociological study of burned deciduous woods, turtle mountains North Dakota. Ecology 42(3):468–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruby BJ, Carr C, Charles DK (2006) Community organization in the Scioto, Mann, and Havana hopewellian regions: a comparative perspective. In: Carr C, Troy Case D (ed) Gathering hopewell: society, ritual, and ritual interaction. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sauer JD (1950) Pokeweed, an old American herb. Ann Mo Bot Gard 38:83–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Scarry CM (1993) Introduction. In: Margaret Scarry C (ed) Foraging and farming in the eastern woodlands. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, pp 3–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder M (1998) Archaeobotanical analysis. In: Buikstra JE, Charles DK, Rakita GFM (ed) Staging Ritual: hopewell ceremonialism at the mound house site, Greene county, Illinois, Kampsville studies in archeology and history, vol. 1. Center for American Archeology, Kampsville pp. 180–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeman MF, Wilson HD (1984) The food potential of chenopodium for the prehistoric midwest. In: Munson PJ (ed) Experiments and observations on Aboriginal wild plant food utilization in eastern North America, Prehistory research series, vol 6. Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, pp 299–316

    Google Scholar 

  • Shetrone HC (1920) The culture problem in Ohio archaeology. Am Anthropol 22:144–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff D (1972) Properties of the rarefaction diversity measurement. Am Nat 106(949):414–418

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon ML, Parker KE (2006) Prehistoric plant use in the American bottom: new thoughts and interpretations. Southeast Archaeol 25(2):212–257

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith BD, Yarnell RA (2009) Initial formation of an indigenous crop complex in eastern North America at 3800 B.P. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(16):6561–6566

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith BD (1992a) Rivers of change: essays on agriculture in eastern North America. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith BD (1992b) The role of chenopodium as a domesticate in premaize garden systems of the Eastern United States. In: Smith BD (ed) Rivers of change: essays of early agriculture in eastern North America. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, pp 103–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith BD, Funk VA (1985) A newly described subfossil cultivar of chenopodium: (Chenopodiaceae). Phytologia 57(7):445–448

    Google Scholar 

  • Staab ML (1984) Peisker: an examination of middle woodland site function in the lower Illinois river valley. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, Iowa City

    Google Scholar 

  • Stafford BD, Sant MB (eds) (1985) Smiling Dan: structure and function at a middle woodland settlement in the Illinois valley, 2. Center for American archaeology, Kampsville, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Steyermark JA (1981) Flora of Missouri, 6th edn. The Iowa State University Press, Ames

    Google Scholar 

  • Stromberg PM, Pascual U, Bellon MR (2010) Seed systems and farmers’ seed choices: the case of maize in the Peruvian Amazon. Hum Ecol 38:539–553

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Struever S (1964) The hopewell interaction sphere in riverine-western great lakes culture history. In: Caldwell JR, Hall RL (ed) Hopewellian studies, Illinois state museum papers no. 12. Illinois state museum, Springfield, IL, pp. 85–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Struever S (1968) Woodland subsistence-settlement systems in the lower Illinois valley. In: Binford SR, Binford LR (eds) New perspectives in archaeology. Aldine, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Struever S, Houart GL (1972) An analysis of the hopewell interaction sphere. In: EN Wilmsen EN (ed) Social exchange and interaction. Anthropological papers of the museum of anthropology, vol. 46. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. pp. 47–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner LM (1934) Grassland in the floodplain of the Illinois rivers. Am Midl Nat 15(6):770–780

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Nest J (2006) Some ethnogeological aspects of the Illinois valley hopewell mounds. In: Clark DK, Buikstra JE (eds) Recreating hopewell. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, pp 402–426

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson PJ, Kennedy MC (1991) The development of horticulture in the eastern woodlands of North America. In: Gero J, Conkey MW (eds) Engendering archaeology. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp 255–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiant MD, Farnsworth KB, Hajic ER (2009) The archaic period in the lower Illinois river basin. In: The archaic: diversity and complexity across the midcontinent. SUNY Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Wills DM, Burke JM (2006) Chloroplast DNA variation confirms a single origin of domesticated sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). J Hered 97(4):403–408

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson HD (1981) Domesticated Chenopodium of the ozark bluff dwellers. Econ Bot 35:233–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson HD, Heiser CB Jr (1981) The origin and evolutionary relationships of “Huauzontle” (Chenopodium nuttalliae stafford), domesticated chenopod of Mexico. Am J Bot 66:198–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wobst ER (1974) Boundary conditions for paleolithic social systems: a simulation approach. Am Antiq 39:147–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wray DE (1952) Archaeology of the Illinois valley:1950. In: Griffin JB (ed) Archaeology of the eastern United States. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 152–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Yarnell RA (1969) Contents of human paleofeces. In: Watson PJ (ed) The prehistory of Salts Cave, Kentucky. Reports of investigations, vol. 16. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL pp. 41–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Yarnell RA (1972) Iva annua var. macrocarpa: extinct American cultigen. Am Anthropol 74:335–341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zawacki AA, Hausfater G (1969) Early vegetation of the lower Illinois valley: a study of the distribution of floral resources with reference to prehistoric cultural-ecological application. Illinois valley archaeological program 1. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Natalie G. Mueller

Authors
  1. Natalie G. Mueller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mueller, N.G. (2013). Mound Centers and Seed Security: A Comparative Analysis of Botanical Assemblages from Middle Woodland Sites in the Lower Illinois Valley. In: Mound Centers and Seed Security. SpringerBriefs in Plant Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5921-7_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation