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AN EARLY WOODLAND DOMESTICATED CHENOPOD (CHENOPODIUM BERLANDIERI SUBSP. JONESIANUM) CACHE FROM THE TUTELA HEIGHTS SITE, ONTARIO, CANADA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 December 2018

Gary W. Crawford ,
Jessica L. Lytle ,
Ronald F. Williamson  and
Robert Wojtowicz
Gary W. Crawford*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, Ontario, CanadaL5L 1C6
Jessica L. Lytle
Affiliation:
Archaeological Services Inc., 200-2321 Fairview Street, Burlington, Ontario, CanadaL7R 2E3
Ronald F. Williamson
Affiliation:
Archaeological Services Inc., 200-2321 Fairview Street, Burlington, Ontario, CanadaL7R 2E3
Robert Wojtowicz
Affiliation:
Archaeological Services Inc., 200-2321 Fairview Street, Burlington, Ontario, CanadaL7R 2E3
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
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Abstract

A cache of charred, domesticated chenopod (Chenopodium berlandieri subsp. jonesianum) seeds is reported from the Early Woodland (930–915 cal BC) Tutela Heights site (AgHb-446) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. This is the northernmost report of the crop, approximately 800 km northeast of Kentucky where the previous northernmost occurrences contemporary with Tutela Heights are reported. The Tutela Heights chenopod dates to about 1,500 years before the earliest maize is reported in Ontario and is the earliest Eastern Agricultural Complex crop in Canada. The chenopod may represent a crop that was not grown locally. In this scenario, the crop was strictly an exchange item that was circulating in an interregional exchange system that extended south to the US Midwest region and east to the Maritime provinces. Another possibility, although less likely given our current understanding of Early Woodland plant use in Ontario, is that chenopod was introduced to Southern Ontario in this exchange network and subsequently became a crop in a low-level food producing economy during the Ontario Early Woodland. However, no ecological indicators of cultivation have been found at Tutela Heights, and continuity of domesticated chenopod utilization from the Early Woodland period in the province has not yet been documented.

Une cache de graines de chénopode carbonisées domestiquées (Chenopodium berlandieri subsp. jonesianum) est rapportée pour le site du Sylvicole inférieur (930–915 cal av. J.-C.) de Tutela Heights (AgHb-446) à Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Il s'agit de l'attestation la plus nordique de cette culture, à environs 800 km au nord-est de Salts Cave, Kentucky, qui constituait jusque-là sa limite nord à l’époque de Tutela Heights. Le chénopode de Tutela Heights est environ 1500 ans antérieur au maïs le plus ancien rapporté en Ontario et constitue le plus ancien cultigène associé au Complexe Agricole de l'Est au Canada. Ces grains de chénopode pourraient représenter un cultigène qui n’était pas cultivé localement. Selon ce scenario, le cultigène était strictement un objet d’échange circulant dans un système d’échange inter-régional qui s’étendait, au Sud, du Mid-Ouest américain jusqu'aux provinces Maritimes canadiennes à l'Est. Une autre possibilité, quoique moins probable considérant notre compréhension actuelle de l'usage des plantes en Ontario durant le Sylvicole inférieur, est que le chénopode ait été introduit dans le Sud de l'Ontario via ce réseau d’échange et soit ultérieurement devenu un cultigène dans l’économie de production de nourriture de faible intensité pendant le Sylvicole inférieur ontarien. Toutefois, aucun indicateur écologique de culture n'a été découvert à Tutela Heights et la continuité de l'utilisation du chénopode domestiqué du Sylvicole inférieur dans la province pas n'a pas encore été documentée.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 143 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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