Prehistoric Subsistence on the Coast of North Carolina: An Archaeobotanical Study Kimberly A. Schaefer A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology. Chapel Hill 2011 Approved by: C. Margaret Scarry Vincas P. Steponaitis Dale L. Hutchinson R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr . Brett H. Riggs UMI Number: 3477598 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3477598 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 © 2011 Kimberly A. Schaefer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ii Abstract Kimberly A. Schaefer Prehistoric Subsistence on the Coast of North Carolina: An Archaeobotanical Study (Under the direction of C. Margaret Scarry.) When European settlers first arrived on the coast of North Carolina, they encountered Native Americans who they described as living in permanent villages and pursuing a mixture of hunting, fishing, and farming. Very little is known of the subsistence practices of people in the area before the arrival of Europeans, however. My dissertation seeks to help rectify this by increasing our knowledge of plant use on the coast during prehistory. I analyzed plant remains from 606 flotation samples from eight sites on the coast and synthesize data from 13 previously reported sites. These sites are found on all subregions of the coast and include material from most periods of prehistory from the Early Archaic to the Late Woodland. Using this data, I explore several topics of interest to coastal archaeology in general: the value and use of coastal resources, seasonal mobility of coastal groups, and the nature of the adoption of agriculture on the coast. I discuss prehistoric subsistence in North Carolina within the framework of human behavioral ecology. I compile estimated handling return rates for different plant foods found on the coast and rank them in accordance with diet-breadth model building. I then explore the implications of the diet- breadth model and central place foraging models for prehistoric subsistence in coastal North Carolina. The plant resources with the highest estimated return rates correspond fairly well with the plant remains most frequently recovered from archaeological iii contexts. My results suggest that during most of prehistory people on the coast of North Carolina collected a fairly wide array of nuts, fruit, starchy and oily seeds, and weeds. Nuts, particularly hickory, seem to have been a mainstay of people's diets for most of prehistory. There is currently no evidence for farming on the coast before the Late Woodland period. During this time, some, but not all, coastal people began farming maize and, to a lesser extent, beans and squash. Over all, plant-based subsistence practices on the coast of North Carolina seem to have been fairly consistent throughout most of prehistory although the adoption of agriculture seems to have been highly localized. iv Acknowledgements I would not have been able to complete this dissertation without the help and support of many people to whom I owe many thanks. Firstly, I must thank my committee for their patience and insight at many stages of this project. My advisor, Margie Scarry, has always been there to help solve problems, discuss possibilities, goad me back into action when I stalled, and give wonderful, detailed feedback. This dissertation truly would not have been possible without her help and mentorship. Dale Hutchinson was a great help in suggesting the direction of this project and locating materials. Vin Steponaitis, besides providing great feedback on the correspondence analysis, helped to facilitate the acquisition of some key radiocarbon dates for my dissertation, which were funded very generously by the Research Laboratories of Archaeology and the Timothy P. Mooney Fellowship. Steve Davis and Brett Riggs also shared valuable feedback and their vast and enthusiastic knowledge of North Carolina archaeology. The flotation samples I based my dissertation on were provided by several very helpful people. Charles Ewen and Randy Daniel at East Carolina University let me have access to material from several sites in their collections. Scott Seibel at Environmental Services, Inc. provided the material from the Windsor site project, which was funded by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, and the Southside site. Rachel Tibbets of Archaeological Consultants of the Carolinas, Inc. provided the material from 31ON1578 and was very helpful in providing background information on the site even when the project was on hiatus. Heather Millis at TRC Garrow Associates, Inc. provided v the material from Broad Reach and was very patient and helpful with my requests for more samples and more information. During the summer of 2006, I had the opportunity to work as an intern for the Office of State Archaeology to organize some of the material from Mark Mathis' excavations at Broad Reach. This allowed me to get a much better understanding of a site that would prove to be very important for this dissertation and to gain a much better understanding of North Carolina archaeology in general. In addition, they provided access to site reports during the later stage of my dissertation. Many thanks are due to all the people there but especially Dolores Hall, Lee Abbot, John Mintz, and Susan Myers. My thanks also go to fellow students and friends who helped and encouraged me throughout the dissertation process. Charles Heath provided valuable information on the Cape Creek site when I was at a loss and encouraged me with his enthusiasm for North Carolina archaeology. Kandi Hollenbach and Amanda Tickner are due a great deal of thanks for lab companionship and shared contract work. Special thanks go to Amanda for helping with flotation out in the hot sun. Britt Kubacki and Gladys Chong were the best cheerleaders and very patient with my whining when things got tough. Last but most certainly not least, many thanks to my family who have supported me in more ways than I could possibly name. Special thanks go to my parents who will be very happy that this dissertation is done but never wavered in their encouragement. vi Table of Contents Page List of Tables.....................................................................................................................xii List of Figures....................................................................................................................xv Chapter One:Introduction....................................................................................................1 Chapter Two: North Carolina Coastal Archaeology............................................................5 Coastal Archaeology.................................................................................................5 Use and Value of Maritime Resources.........................................................6 Mobility and Seasonality of Coastal Groups................................................9 Impact of Domesticated Plants on Coastal Subsistence.............................10 The North Carolina Coastal Environment.............................................................12 North Carolina Coastal Prehistory.........................................................................16 Previous Research on Subsistence on the North Carolina Coast...........................20 Chapter Three: Human Behavioral Ecology and Diet-Breadth.........................................28 Human Behavioral Ecology...................................................................................28 Optimal Foraging Theory.......................................................................................30 Diet-Breadth...............................................................................................33 Central Place Foraging...............................................................................38 Chapter Four: Archaeobotanical Datasets and Methods....................................................40 Barber Creek (31PT259)........................................................................................42 Windsor (31BR201/201**)....................................................................................44 vii Southside (31NH802)............................................................................................45 Brooks Island (31DR32)........................................................................................46 Broad Reach (31CR218)........................................................................................47 31ON1578..............................................................................................................49 Jordan's Landing (31BR7).....................................................................................51 Cape Creek (31DR1)..............................................................................................52 Laboratory Methods...............................................................................................54 Analytical