People, Places and Plants: An Appraisal of Subsistence, Technology, and Sedentism in the Eastern Woodlands DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Paul Edward Patton Graduate Program in Anthropology The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Professor Kristen Gremillion, Advisor Professor Julie Field Professor Robert Cook Professor Elliot Abrams Copyrighted by Paul Edward Patton 2013 Abstract The transition from foraging to farming has cross-culturally been associated with major changes in human technology, settlement patterns and social organization. This research project tests these relationships among prehistoric human populations inhabiting the Eastern Woodlands by considering how increasing reliance on cultivated foods during the Holocene led to economic circumstances in which investment in the specialization of plant-food processing tools was beneficial. It further identifies that tool investment benefits were only adaptive when seasonally strategic mobility had decreased to such a degree that tool carrying costs were offset by expanded tool use-life. Using the Model of Technological Investment, grounded in neo-Darwinian theory and Human Behavioral Ecology, this study uses quantitative and qualitative archaeological data to 1. Provide a general survey of the changes in human botanical diet from the Hocking Valley, Ohio, for the Late Archaic through Middle Woodland Periods, 2. Determine the relative correlation between investments in food processing technology and the incorporation of cultivated foods into the prehistoric Woodlands diet, and 3. Establish the seasonal occupation at each of the sampled sites in order to determine different degrees of sedentariness and residential stability throughout the temporal periods surveyed. A variety of archaeological methods were utilized in this study, including macro-archaeobotanical analysis, pottery and ground stone macrocharacteristic analysis, and analyses of settlement and feature data from habitation sites The results of these analyses indicate ii that 1. Relatively high levels of investment in the construction of food-processing technology only occurred after population mobility decreased to such a degree that allowed for an extended use-life of an individual tool, 2. Middle Woodland populations in the Hocking Valley were essentially residentially stable farmers, and 3. The relationship between plant domestication, technological innovation, and sedentariness was co-evolutionary. iii To my Grandfather, David L. Patton, Who taught me that our accomplishments Are built on the shoulders of those who came before us And helped to pave our way. This dissertation is as much yours As it is mine. iv Acknowledgments Many people contributed to this dissertation, and their contributions cannot go without acknowledgement. Firstly, my advisor Kristen Gremillion, and my committee, Julie Field, Robert Cook, and Elliot Abrams, provided exceptional support in my research and writing; without their assistance, I could not have completed this project or my degree. I am incredibly grateful for the guidance and training provided by my Masters advisors, AnnCorinne Freter and Elliot Abrams, whose research and encouragement are the cornerstone for all that follows. The data used in this research were the result of the toil and dedication of dozens of undergraduate students enrolled in the Ohio University Archaeological Field School between the years of 2000 and 2012; they are the unspoken “heroes” who gave their summers to preserve the archaeological record of the Hocking Valley so that future generations could appreciate the lives and ingenuity of those humans who came before them. Of these students, Delaney Panyter, Kate Olterstorf, Meggie Krause, Sarah Karpinski, and Taylor Weddle went above and beyond the call of duty by spending extra hours in the field to make sure that all the “digging” was done. Allen Patton deserves thanks for giving up his days off work to make sure that the Patton 3 site was fully excavated. Special thanks to Josh McConaughy for serving as a sounding board for many of the ideas in this manuscript. v I give special thanks to many of my colleagues who have contributed their time and expertise to unveiling the lifeways of prehistoric humans in the Hocking Valley, particularly Sarah Weaver, Tracy Formica, and Kristina Keeling; your research has proved invaluable to understanding one of the great transitions in human subsistence and domestic economy. Much gratitude goes to Kristie Martin and Lise Byars-George for reviewing early drafts of this dissertation and serving as a constant sounding board. I am grateful for Nancy Tatarek, Thomas Carpenter, Lynn Lancaster, William Owens, Ruth Palmer, and Steve Hayes for their mentorship and friendship throughout the many phases and incarnations of my education and research. I am greatly appreciative of the Hudnell Fund of Ohio University and the Larsen Research Fund of The Ohio State University for providing the financial support necessary to obtain radiocarbon and AMS dates for the sites included in this study. Too often overlooked are the folks responsible for the “behind the scenes” work; I refuse to make such a mistake, and so I offer my thanks to Jean Whipple, Elizabeth Freeman, Wayne Miller, and Dave Sweasey for all the hard work that they do every day to make sure that the Department of Anthropology at The Ohio State University stays afloat. I am indebted to the Graduate Studies Committee and the Department of Anthropology, as well as the Undergraduate Research Office of The Ohio State University, particularly Helene Cwerene and Allison Snow, for providing me graduate assistantships that largely paid for my doctoral education. My family has provided unwaivering support throughout the course of my education and research. My mother and father worked long days to provide more vi opportunities for their children than they had had, just as their parents had done before them. As the first of my family to receive my doctorate, I know that my success is largely endebted to the struggles and commitment of my family to provide more opportunities for each subsequent generation. I am grateful to my parents and grandparents for these and many other reasons, but particularly for allowing field excavations of their properties which produced the astonishing assemblages of the Patton 1 and Patton 3 sites. Finally, this dissertation could never have been completed without the heartfelt love and devotion of my husband, Michael Pistrui, who happily floated hundreds of liters of sediment and counted thousands of hickory nutshell fragments when my eyes had given out on me for the night. vii Vita 1999................................................................Wadsworth High 2004................................................................B.A. Anthropology and Classical Civilizations, Ohio University 2007................................................................M.S. Environmental Studies, Ohio University 2009 to 2010…………………………………Graduate Administrative Associate, Undergraduate Research Office, The Ohio State University 2008 to 2009…………………………………Graduate Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University 2010 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University 2011 to present………………………………Instructor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio University viii Publications Patton, P. E., E. M. Abrams, A. Freter 2009 A Geochemical Analysis of Archaeological Ceramics in the Hocking Valley, Ohio. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 79: 54-74. People, N. E. Abrams, A. Freter, B. Jokisch and P. Patton 2008 Lithic Surplus Production and Tribal Formation: Evidence from the Taber Well Site (33Ho611), Southeastern Ohio. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 33: 107-127. Fields of Study Major Field: Anthropology ix Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Vita ................................................................................................................................... viii Publications ........................................................................................................................ ix Fields of Study ................................................................................................................... ix Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ x List of Tables .................................................................................................................. xvii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xxi Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction and Problem .......................................................................................... 4 Chapter Contents ............................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspective ..................................................................................