COMPARISON OF LATE WOODLAND CULTURES: DELAWARE, POTOMAC, AND SUSQUEHANNA RIVER VALLEYS, MIDDLE...

COMPARISON OF LATE WOODLAND CULTURES: DELAWARE, POTOMAC, AND SUSQUEHANNARIVER VALLEYS, MIDDLE ATLANTIC REGIONAuthor(s): Michael StewartSource: Archaeology of Eastern North America, Vol. 21 (Fall 1993), pp. 163-178Published by: Eastern States Archeological FederationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40914371 .

Accessed: 17/06/2014 21:15

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Eastern States Archeological Federation is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toArchaeology of Eastern North America.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.212 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 21:15:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=esaf

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40914371?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


COMPARISON OF LATE WOODLAND CULTURES: DELAWARE, POTOMAC, AND SUSQUEHANNA RIVER VALLEYS,

MIDDLE ATLANTIC REGION

Michael Stewart

A variety of archaeological cultures, each familiar with maize and other cultigens, are identified for the Late Woodland period (A.D. 900-1600) in the three major drainage systems of the Middle Atlantic Region. Community patterns vary within and across drainages both synchronically anddiachronically, and include everythingfrom dispersed hamlets to large stockaded villages. The importance of agriculture, environment, and the social contexts of the cultures are examined.

INTRODUCTION

As the latest and one of the most archaeologically visible segments of regional prehistory, the Late Woodland period (A.D. 900/1000 to European contact) has been the focus of much attention. A variety of archaeological cultures, each familiar with maize and other cultigens, have been documented in the Middle Atlantic Region. This paper examines the Late Woodland prehistory of three of the major drainage basins in the region, that of the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Potomac rivers. The influence of environmental diversity and the role of agriculture on cultural diversity and cultural evolution is addressed. The trends and patterning represented in the prehistory of the three drainage basins is typical of the broader region. This paper builds on an earlier synthesis of regional Late Woodland cultures compiled by Custer (1986a). The role that cultigens play in subsistence strategies varies dramatically, both within and between drainages, at single points in time and throughout the Late Woodland period as a whole. Community patterns vary correspondingly, and range from small dispersed hamlets to large stockaded villages. Environmental limitations and variability are only minor factors contributing to cultural diversity throughout most of the period, while the nature of regional interactions between native peoples seems to be a more significant influence in shaping prehistoric cultures.

ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND

The Middle Atlantic Region is roughly bounded to the north by what becomes known as Iroquoia during historic times and southern New England, the Ohio Valley to the west, and the Southeast to the south. Each of the river basins under study crosscuts a series of distinctive physiographic provinces, and encompasses portions of the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia (Figures 1 and 2). Northern portions of the Shenandoah River Valley are included in considerations of cultural developments in the Potomac Basin. The physiographic provinces encompassed by the drainage basins include the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Blue Ridge/Reading Prong, Ridge and Valley, and Appalachian Plateau. The Potomac River empties into Chesapeake Bay, a body of water created as

Archaeology of Eastern North America 21:163-178 (1993)



164 Archaeology of Eastern North America

a result of Holocene sea level rise which drowned portions of the main stem of the Susquehanna River and adjacent landscapes.

Of the three drainage basins, the Susquehanna Basin is the largest, followed by the Potomac and Dela- ware basins (Figure 3). Each of the three river basins contain extensive tracts of alluvial and stream terrace landscapes that would have been suitable for prehistoric farming or gardening.

' A review of published soil surveys indicates that there is little overall difference in the agricultural potential of floodplain soils between the three drainages.

The productivity and quality of floral and faunal communities in the Piedmont, Ridge and Valley, and Plateau physiographic provinces are generally comparable for all of the drainages. Similar statements can also be made for the lithic resources found in the physiographic zones encompassed by each drainagebasin. Materials useful in prehistoric chipped stone technologies are spo- radically found in the Piedmont,

more consistently concentrated in the Blue Ridge/Reading Prong and Ridge and Valley provinces, and again somewhat scattered in the Plateau province.

The Delaware and Potomac drainage basins include extensive tidal (fresh, brackish, and saltwater) and non-tidal coastal environments. The Susquehanna Basin could be included in this category considering its relationship with Chesapeake Bay. These coastal zones are typical of the most biologically productive environments in the entire region. Runs of anadromous fish are able to penetrate well into the interior of the Delaware and Susquehanna drainages, beyond the Coastal Plain, owing to the low falls on each at the juncture with the Piedmont province. The falls on the Potomac are more substantial and provide a major barrier to migrating fish populations. Lithic resources in the Coastal Plain are generally limited to cobbles associated with stream deposits.

Today, and throughout historic times, climate throughout the region supports the cultivation of domestic crops. However, in some western and northern sections of the region, the average number of frost free days (± 120) approaches the minimum required for a corn/maize crop to reach maturity (see for example Hay et al 1987:5; Wall 1981:10). It is possible for minor aberrations in climate to place a harvest in these areas in jeopardy.

Relatively modern/historic climate and vegetation are generally in-place throughout the region sometime between 1000 B.C. and 800 B.C.. Changes in the environment after this time are viewed as alterations of historic/modern patterns, rather than as long term shifts which characterized the environmental

Figure 1. Core and periphery of the Middle Atlantic region.



Late Woodland Cultures 165

-^<' ' * yw Á/i

I C^r SfJy&^Â R '}f Atlantic Ocean i rL sJ //* va r^^b

R

f/& &/ y^^Sj

¿S ^ f 0 100

/ / MILES |âBBHHBBHH|^BH^^HaiHHB^|^||^^|BHHaaH^â^|a||aâaaa|HHaBaH|aaaHH^Ha||^^|HBH|aH|HHa|Ba^H^H|||^^

Figure 2. Physiographic provinces in the Middle Atlantic region (from Hunt 1967).

episodes of earlier times (e.g., Carbone 1976:107). A time of increased dryness has been postulated between approximately A.D. 1000 and 1200 (e.g., Brush 1986; Carbone 1976), and cool moist to cool dry conditions for the time between A.D. 1300 and 1600 (Vento and Rollins 1989), which would include what has been referred to as the "little ice age" (Carbone 1982). More detailed summaries of paleoenviron- mental changes for the drainage basins are found in Carbone (1976) and the work of Custer (1984, 1989), Dent (1979), Stewart (1980, 1990a), Stewart and Cavallo (1983a, b); Vento and Rollins 1989; Vento et al (1990), and Wall (1981).

During the Late Woodland period, the extent of floodplain landscapes in each of the drainage basins is thought to have resembled their present configurations. Region-wide studies of floodplain stratigraphy (Vento and Rollins 1989; Vento et al 1990) have documented a series of Late Woodland paleosols, generally corresponding with the current positions of levees along the main stem and major tributaries of the Delaware and Susquehanna basins. Similar conditions can be noted for the Potomac, although




Figure 3. Extent of the Susquehanna, Potomac, and Delaware River basins, Middle Atlantic region.

relevant information is scattered through a variety of published and unpublished reports. Stratigraphie studies have also suggested that floodplain stability was greatest from approximately A.D. 900/1000 until 1200/1300 (Vento and Rollins 1989; Vento et al 1990). Flooding appears to be more frequent in the latter portions of the Late Woodland period.

CHRONOLOGY OF MAINE AND OTHER CULTIGENS

The earliest appearance of maize and other cultigens is at Meadowcroft Rocksheiter, located in the Upper Ohio Valley just beyond the margins of what has been defined as the Middle Atlantic Region (Adovasio and Johnson 1981). A variety of maize types appear in Middle Woodland deposits at the site, beginning at 2325 B.P.+75 years (375 B.C.). Cucurbits occur in even earlier excavation levels (Early




Woodland), circa 900/800 B.C. (Adovasio and Johnson 1981:72). Adovasio and Johnson (1981:74, 78) reason that if these remains are occurring so early at Meadowcroft, interpreted as a "backcountry

" location,

their use by peoples in surrounding areas must have been considerable at an equally early time. Eight-rowed Northern Flint, the predominant variety seen throughout the Middle Atlantic Region

(10 row variety also seen), is found in the nearby Ohio Valley by A.D. 800 (Watson 1988). Ohio Valley sections of western Pennsylvania contain sites producing the remains of maize between A.D. 800/900 and 1200 (for example see Lantz 1989). Eight-rowed Northern Flint does not appear at Meadowcroft Rock- shelter until after A.D. 1200. In central New York, and of relevance to the Delaware and Susquehanna drainages, maize is found on Owasco sites circa A.D. 1000 and later (Ritchie #nd Funk 1973; Winter 1971). Its tentative presence in coastal New York is assigned a much later date (Ceci 1990).

As detailed below, maize is seen throughout much of the Middle Atlantic Region circa A.D. 900/1000. This appearance correlates with the establishment of sedentary settlements in major floodplains. Radiocar- bon dates cannot be used as the basis for confidently arguing that the use of maize is earlier in one portion of the region than another. Although direct physical evidence is not overwhelming, the use of cultigens appears to be even more intensive/extensive by A.D. 1200/1300.

In the Delaware drainage basin, the earliest date for maize, A.D. 940, comes from mid-sections of the Valley, at the Trenton Barracks Site in Trenton, New Jersey (William Liebknecht, 1991 personal communication). In the Upper or northern sections of the Delaware Valley, Cucurbita sp. is the earliest dated cultigen at A.D. 1060+60 years (Fischler and French 1991:160). Settlement shifts circa A.D. 800/900, involving the location of sedentary settlements in broad expanses of arable floodplain, also imply the existence and importance of cultigens in the broader region (for example see Stewart 1990b; Stewart and Cavallo 1983a; Stewart et al 1986). The occurrence of maize and beans, however, is most consistently associated with dates post-dating A.D. 1200 (Fischler and French 1991:161; Stewart 1990b; Stewart et al 1986; Williams et al 1982). Maize, or any other cultigens, are extremely rare in the Lower Delaware Valley and the Delmarva Peninsula in general (Figure 4; Custer 1989:327-328).

Maize and Cucurbita sp. are associated with Clemson's Island and Owasco cultures of Middle and Upper sections of the Susquehanna Valley (Hay et al 1987; Lucy 1991; Stewart 1990c). The beginnings of Clemson's Island culture are dated circa A.D. 700/800 and the use of cultigens is assumed to be an integral part of this adaptation. Associations of physical remains with radiocarbon dated charcoal demon- strates the use of maize by A.D. 900/1000, along with beans and tobacco (East et al 1988). In the Lower Susquehanna Valley, the initial years of the Late Woodland period are poorly known. Maize, beans, and squash are in use by A.D. 1300 in association with Shenks Ferry occupations (Kinsey and Graybill 1971).

The use of cultigens is assumed to be in-place throughout the Potomac River basin circa A.D. 900/1000. In the upper and middle sections of the drainage, this assumption is based upon the physical presence of maize and beans in dated contexts (Curry and Kavanagh 1991; Gardner 1986). The earliest dates, A.D. 855±60 years and A.D. 730+150 years, are associated with maize at the Cresaptown and Paw Paw sites in the Upper Potomac Valley (Curry and Kavanagh 1991:6-7). In lower sections of the drainage and along the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, the use of cultigens at this time is inferred from a re-orientation of sedentary settlements to the floodplains of major streams, population increases, and an increase in the size of residential groups (Gardner 1976; Steponaitis 1986). Also arguing from the perspective of settlement shifts, Potter (1982) suggests that plant domestication is a subsistence focus of native peoples on the lower Potomac by A.D. 1300.

CULTURAL HISTORICAL BASELINE

The brief summaries of Late Woodland prehistory that follow are abstracted from a substantial number of sources. Primary references for the Delaware Valley include Becker (1985, 1986, 1988), Custer (1984,




Figure 4. Areas within the Middle Atlantic region lacking maize or other cultigens.

1989), Kinsey (1972), Kraft (1986a, 1986b), Kraft and Mounier (1982), Stewart (1990b), Stewart and Cavallo (1983a, 1983b), and Stewart et al. (1986). Synthetic treatments of various sections and components of the Late Woodland period in the Susquehanna Valley are found in Custer (1986c), Graybill (1989), Hatch 1980a; Hay et al. (1987), Kent (1984), Kinsey and Graybill (1971), Lucy (1991), Stewart (1990c), and Turnbaugh (1977). Curry and Kavanagh (1991), Gardner (1986), Graybill (1987), Kavanagh (1982), Potter (1982) Pousson (1983), Stewart (1980), and Wall (1981) provide basic coverage of the Potomac River Valley and adjacent zones. The bibliographies of these works contain extensive listings of other relevant literature.

Delaware Valley In the Upper Delaware Valley, settlement in small hamlets, consisting of a few houses clustered in

the floodplain of the river, are visible from the initial years of the Late Woodland period and designated as Pahaquara by Kraft (1986a and various). Hunting and gathering camps and stations are found in




surrounding zones and are presumed to have been created in support of the hamlets. The hamlets may have been abandoned on a seasonal basis.

This settlement pattern is evident in middle and some lower sections of the Delaware Valley by A.D. 1200/1300. The Williamson Site located near Frenchtown, New Jersey is an example of a hamlet-like settlement from the mid-range of the valley (Stewart et al. 1986). Renewed excavations by Jack Cresson and his associates at the Gruno Farm Site, located near Evesboro, New Jersey, have revealed a large house pattern and debris resembling the hamlets of the Upper Delaware Valley (Stewart 1987:112). It is likely that this settlement and subsistence pattern dates as early as A.D. 900 in these downstream areas, but the evidence is not unassailable (Stewart 1990b). On the basis of ethnohistoric data, some researchers have speculated that agriculturally-based settlements may have been larger than hamlets in sections of the valley now occupied by Philadelphia and Camden (Thurman 1973; Wallace 1947). Becker (1985, 1986, 1988), however, presents convincing evidence to the contrary, arguing that involvement with maize cultivation is a post-contact phenomena with some groups along the Delaware.

Areas surrounding Delaware Bay, and the Delmarva Peninsula in general, exhibit hamlet types of settlements. However, this settlement pattern appears to be based on traditional hunting and gathering pursuits and not agriculture (Custer 1984, 1989).

The trends noted above characterize the remainder of the Late Woodland period, or until the early 17th century, in the Delaware Valley. In the Upper Delaware Valley, the archaeological cultures post-dating A.D. 1350/1400 are referred to as Munsee, and are related to historically known native people of the area (Kraft 1986 and various). Neither planned, nucleated villages, nor any type of fortified settlements have yet to be identified within this section of the drainage basin.

Stylistically, half of the valley's mid-section can be linked with coastal areas, especially those to the north in New Jersey and eastern New York (Stewart 1985). Lower sections of the Delaware Valley have affinities with both northern and southern coastal areas. The northern half of the Middle Delaware Valley is clearly linked with the upper reaches of the drainages and south-central New York. Evidence of trade, primarily in the form of ceramics, reveals linkages from one end of the valley to the other (Stewart 1989). In general, however, there is minimal archaeological evidence for trade and exchange during the Late Woodland period in the Delaware Valley and surrounding areas.

Susquehanna Valley The cultural trajectory of the Late Woodland period is clearest in the upper and middle sections of

the drainage basin. The sequence begins with the Clemson's Island culture (circa A.D. 700/800 to A.D. 1200/1300), typical of the middle and large portions of the upper sections of the drainage, and early-middle Owasco (circa A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1200), common on northern reaches of the drainage in Pennsylvania and north into New York. Each archaeological culture is involved with the use of domesticates. Clemson's Island communities are organized in hamlets and unfortified villages (but see Garrahan 1990 for contrasting opinion). The relationship between hamlets and villages in a contemporaneous settlement pattern is unknown. Burial mounds are associated with select Clemson's Island settlements and it has been suggested that these sites are focal points linking a number of communities. Owasco villages are unfortified, but give the impression of being larger than their Clemson's Island counterparts (Ritchie and Funk 1973).

Stylistically and culturally, the area can be linked with Appalachian Highland zones to the north (portions of the Susquehanna and Delaware drainages) and south (Potomac drainage basin). Figure 5 depicts this relationship. However, there is little archaeological evidence of trade to go along with what is perceived to be a moderate to high degree of cultural interaction through this area (Stewart 1989, 1990c).

The Lower Susquehanna Valley appears to be lacking a resident population during early segments of the Late Woodland period, or prior to about A.D. 1300 (Graybill 1989; but see Custer 1986c, 1987). At this time, the lower valley is more closely tied to cultural developments in the northern Chesapeake




Figure 5. Late Woodland interaction sphere (Initial years), Appalachian Highlands.

Bay, Piedmont, and northern Delmarva Peninsula than with the middle and upper reaches of the Susque- hanna River Basin.

Sometime between A.D. 1200 and 1300, settlements in the middle and upper portions of the Susque- hanna Valley become increasingly more nucleated and ultimately fortified. Mound construction and related burials cease. While some of these changes may be linked with late Clemson's Island culture, they are more consistently linked with Stewart Phase Shenks Ferry and McFate/Quiggle manifestations, which Graybill (1989:53) has grouped as the West Branch tradition. In the North Branch Valley of the Susque- hanna Basin, cultures of the time are referred to as the Wyoming Valley Complex (Smith 1973). In the Lower Susquehanna Valley, a Shenks Ferry tradition distinctive from that of the West Branch is recognized, and involves planned and eventually fortified villages. There is a shift to more frequent interactions with

groups in areas upriver, rather than the southern and eastern connections obvious during earlier times. Fortified villages appear to have temporal priority in the middle and upper sections of the valley.



Late Woodland Cultures 1 7 1

Nucleated and stockaded villages are the rule throughout the valley into the 16th century. Rather extensive interactions between cultures of the Susquehanna Valley and others throughout the region are implied by similarities in ceramic styles and community plans. However, visible evidence of trade remains problemati- cal.

It is during the 16th century that the Susquehannocks, an historically known group, migrated down the Susquehanna Valley from southern New York, disrupting existing populations, and settling on a relatively permanent basis in the lower valley (Kent 1984). Their settlements are nucleated and fortified. The role of the Susquehannocks in regional trade is well known and their influence extended across the three drainage basins under consideration here.

Potomac Valley In upper and middle sections of the drainage basin, small unfortified villages and/or hamlets character-

ize community patterns prior to A.D. 1300/1400, as is the case in the northern Shenandoah Valley. In the Shenandoah Valley, there is evidence of a temporal progression from hamlets to villages from the onset of the Late Woodland period to approximately A.D. 1300. In Ridge and Valley sections of the Potomac drainage, burial in accretional mounds and rock cairns are outstanding traits of Late Woodland cultures. Burials in rock cairns also characterizes some Late Woodland cultures on the Appalachian Plateau at this time. Mound or cairn burials are lacking in the Piedmont of the basin's mid-range. These patterns generally mimic developments in middle and upper sections of the Susquehanna Valley.

Influences on Potomac Valley cultures are clearly from cultures to the west and north. There are also stylistic affinities between cultures of the Monongahela drainage basin and those in the upper and/or Plateau sections of the Potomac Basin. Groups situated in the Ridge and Valley sections of the Potomac Basin are part of a generalized interaction sphere extending from south-central New York into North Carolina.

In coastal sections of the Potomac Valley, villages appear to be lacking for the time prior to A.D. 1300. The environmental setting of sites and the implication that cultigens are being used to some degree, minimally suggests the presence of hamlet types of settlements.

By A.D. 1300/1400 mound or cairn burials have ceased and villages are now stockaded in the Upper Potomac and northern Shenandoah Valley. Outlying hamlets may be related to the villages. The use of mounds also stops in the basin's mid-range, or where the valley encompasses portions of the Ridge and Valley. There is evidence that at least some of the villages in this area were stockaded after A.D. 1300/1400. In the Coastal Plain, large sites/villages are established, and it is assumed that agriculture is a part of the subsistence technology. This area is associated with petty chiefdoms during early historic times (Potter 1982).

DISCUSSION

The transition to Late Woodland lifestyles has been discussed in a variety of publications (Custer 1984, 1986b, 1989, 1990; Curry and Kavanagh 1991; Gardner 1986; Johnson 1991; Potter 1982; Steponaitis 1986; Stewart 1990b). For some areas within the region, notably the middle and upper segments of the Susquehanna and Potomac drainages, evidence of late Middle Woodland occupations is sketchy at best. It is obvious from the nature of cultural developments that are seen by A.D. 800/900, i.e., hamlet-based agricultural communities and stylistic similarities in ceramics throughout large sections of Appalachia, that there must have been resident Middle Woodland populations in these areas.

Populations are organized in hamlets and/or villages during the initial stages of the Late Woodland period. For most of the Middle Atlantic Region this entails the time prior to A.D. 1200/1300. In the Upper Potomac and northern Shenandoah valleys, it is the time before A.D. 1300/1400. Hamlet-like settlements are evident on the Delmarva Peninsula, and in the Lower Delaware Valley where cultigens do not appear




to play a role in subsistence strategies. Regardless of the specific subsistence system,, by the Late Woodland period all groups were operating from a sedentary base within a relatively small territory, or at least a territory demonstrably smaller than in previous times. In some coastal areas of the region, productive and predictable estuarine resources were capable of supporting sedentary populations without the need for agriculture.

In contrast, there are clear differences in the degree of social complexity exhibited by prehistoric cultures during the first half of the Late Woodland period. Mound and cairn burials in portions of the Susquehanna and Potomac drainages distinguish the cultures of these areas from the remainder of the region. Analogies for the social systems linked with the mound builders have been drawn with "big man" types of societies and tribal organizations (Gardner 1986:85; Hay et al. 1987:60-62; Stewart 1990c:99-101). There are no appreciable differences in the intensity with which agricultural products seem to be used from drainage to drainage; as yet, social complexity cannot be equated confidently with productive intensification and the organization of work. While agriculture may be spread as part of a "package" involving plant technology and certain ideologies, its acceptance by groups of varying social complexity implies that it was viewed by Native peoples as a solution to some common economic problems.

As Custer (1986a: 161) notes, since maize was not developed within the Middle Atlantic Region, its presence throughout the region at basically the same time during the Late Woodland period implies extensive outside interactions. In particular, the interaction of Middle Atlantic peoples with groups to the north in Iroquoia, and to the south and west in the Ohio Valley, is viewed as a major stimulus in the adoption of agriculture and the development of social complexity. The great similarity in material culture and adaptations throughout the Appalachian Highlands prior to A.D. 1300 is evidence of the intensity of these interactions.

Between A.D. 1300 and 1400, a number of cultural changes are evident that persist until historic times or disruptions linked to the Susquehannock migration of the 16th century. Populations are nucleating throughout much of the region, settlements are larger and more planned in nature, and the occurrence of stockaded villages in many areas implies inter-group hostilities. Nucleation appears to occur even in portions of the region where settlements are not fortified, such as coastal zones of the Potomac Valley (Potter 1982). Also, a number of authors have presented evidence for population movements and population displacement at this time (for example see Clark 1980; Gardner 1986:79-80; Graybill 1989; MacCord 1984). The effects of the Little Ice Age on climate and environment may have altered the productivity of agriculture in some western portions of the region where the growing season was short under normal conditions.

The basic assumption made by most researchers is that population growth during early segments of the Late Woodland period results in the fissioning of settlements (hamlets/villages), and the expansion of new groups into previously unoccupied areas. Through time population densities reach the point where further fissioning and expansion of populations and settlements afe not possible. Evidence of increasing population densities is seen in the location of sedentary settlements in more peripheral environments not inhabited by groups earlier in the period. But these data have not been quantified; site densities cannot be objectively compared between the drainages of the region.

Nucleation into planned villages, intensification of subsistence production, concomitant elaborations in social organization, and ultimately, inter-group conflict are the presumed results in this generalized scenario of Late Woodland cultural change (see for example Gardner 1986:71-92; Graybill 1992; Hatch 1980b: 325-326). Small population movements, possibly stimulated, in part, by shortfalls in agricultural productivity as a result of the Little Ice Age, would have been another source of potential hostility between communities, and a reason for the nucleation of groups (Custer 1986a).

The time between A.D. 1300/1400 seems to be critical throughout the Eastern Woodlands, as was dramatically summarized in a series of papers presented at the 1992 Society for American Archaeology




meetings (Hart 1992). Population pressure, environmental stress, and socio-political relations were shown to be influential in transforming Late Woodland societies over a vast area. The significant point is that not all of these factçrs were operative on all of the cultures in the Eastern Woodlands; effects of the Little Ice Age had a dramatic effect on the functioning of agricultural societies in some northern and western sections of the Eastern Woodlands, while population densities are seen as influential in other areas. Each of these changes to individual cultures, however, had a domino effect on neighboring peoples. Abandon- ment of areas where the growing season was insufficient to support maize agriculture forced some groups into new areas and into new or different contacts with other peoples. In turn, these new socio-political relationships reverberated through adjacent groups where previously environment, adaptation, and society had been functioning on a relatively stable level. In short, the cultural landscape has filled to the point where changes in one part of the Late Woodland "world system" influence other components or members of the system. Late Woodland cultural changes in the Middle Atlantic Region must be studied and understood at different scales - local, regional, and the "world" (Stewart 1992).

Defensive settlements, population nucleation, growth and/or re-organization of settlements, and population movements or displacement are noticeably lacking in the Delaware Valley (but see Custer 1987). What accounts for the cultural conservatism seen in the Delaware Valley through the Late Woodland period? Why don't we see the gradual population growth and expansion that is an outgrowth of small, agricultural communities in the Susquehanna and Potomac drainages?

Differences in the environmental potentials between the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Potomac drainage basins are clearly not at the root of the matter. Further, Delaware Valley groups are interacting with Owasco/Iroquois to north, though apparently not in the same way that people on the Susquehanna and Potomac are (Stewart 1992). Explanations for these differences may relate to the nature of social organization at the time that agricultural communities get started. In much of the Susquehanna and Potomac basins, the society of the earliest farming cultures is already elaborated beyond that seen in the Delaware Valley, judging from the occurrence of mound burials and attendant ceremony, and the probable economic and social linkage of multiple communities in the western drainages. If we assume that the initial social complexity seen in the western drainages drives the organization of work and productive intensification, which in turn leads to population growth and expansion, this linkage might shed light on the slower rate of social and community development in the Delaware basin.

Equally significant may be the relationship between cultures of the Delaware Valley with Owasco and proto-Iroquois peoples to the north. I have argued elsewhere (Stewart 1992) that the historic role of the Delaware or Lenape Indians in the Covenant Chain (Jennings 1984:44-45) as "middlemen" between the Iroquois and Algonquian groups in eastern segments of the Middle Atlantic Region may have prehistoric roots. The Lenape and their ancestors may have been removed, because of this, from the social and political tensions that led to population nucleation and the fortification of settlements elsewhere in the region.

A better understanding of preceding Middle Woodland cultures is needed to deal with the study of the uneven levels of social development throughout the region, in order to make sense of the Late Woodland trends. Currently, the recognition of archaeological deposits dating to the time just before A.D. 900 is especially problematic for non-coastal segments of the Susquehanna and Potomac river basins.

The Middle Atlantic Region is a great archaeological laboratory in which to investigate the relationship between food production and the development of social complexity. Most of what I have been able to accomplish in this paper is to simply note correlations of a number of phenomena, and weave a few tales about where to start looking for explanations. The future of such research should prove to be interesting.




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An early version of this paper was presented at the 1992 annual meeting of the Society of American Archaeolo- gy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as part of a symposium. The symposium, Late Prehistoric Subsistence-Settlement Change in the Northern Eastern Woodlands, was organized by John Hart. Thanks are due to editor Arthur Spiess and reviewers Marshall Becker, Jay Custer, and William Gardner for their patience and attention to detail. Muriel Kirkpatrick, director of the Anthropology Laboratory at Temple University completed the graphics.

REFERENCES

Adovasio, James, M. and W.C. Johnson 1981 The Appearance of Cultigens in the Upper Ohio Valley: A View From Meadowcroft Rocksheiter.

Pennsylvania Archaeologist 51(l-2):63-80. Becker, Marshall J. 1985 The European Contact/Early Historic Period in the Lenape Realm of Pennsylvania's Piedmont and

Coastal Plain. In A Comprehensive State Plan for the Conservation of Archaeological Resources, Vol- ume II, edited by Paul A. Raber, pp.41-53. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Historic Preservation Planning Series, Number 1. Harrisburg.

1986 Cultural Diversity in the Lower Delaware River Valley, 1550-1750: An Ethnohistorical Perspective. In Late Woodland Cultures of the Middle Atlantic Region, edited by Jay f. Custer, pp. 90-101. University of Delaware Press, Newark, Delaware.

1988 A Summary of Lenape Socio-Political Organization and Settlement Pattern at the Time of European Contact: The Evidence for Collecting Bands. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 4:79-83.

Brush, Grace 1986 Geology and Paleoecology of Chesapeake Estuaries. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences

76(3): 146-160. Carbone, Victor 1976 Environment and Prehistory in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Ph.D. dissertation, Anthropology.

The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1982 Environment and Society in Archaic and Woodland Times. In Practicing Environmental Archaeology:

Methods and Interpretations, edited by Roger Moeller, pp. 39-52. American Indian Archaeological Institute, Occasional Publication No. 3. Washington, Connecticut.

Ceci, Lynn 1990 Maize Cultivation In Coastal New York: The Archaeological, Agronomical, and Documentary Evi-

dence. North American Archaeologist 11(2): 147-176. Clark, Wayne E. 1980 The Origins of the Piscataway and Related Indian Cultures. Maryland Historical Magazine 75(1): 8-22.

Curry, Dennis and Maureen Kavanagh 1991 The Middle To Late Woodland Transition in Maryland. North American Archaeologist 12(l):3-28.

Custer, Jay F. 1984 Delaware Prehistoric Archaeology: An Ecological Approach. University of Delaware Press, Newark. 1986a Late Woodland Cultural Diversity in the Middle Atlantic: An Evolutionary Perspective. In Late

Woodland Cultures of the Middle Atlantic Region, edited by Jay F. Custer, pp. 143-168. University of Delaware Press, Newark.

1986b Late Woodland Cultures of the Middle Atlantic Region. University of Delaware Press, Newark. 1986c Late Woodland Cultures of the Lower and Middle Susquehanna Valley. In Late Woodland Cultures of

the Middle Atlantic Region, edited by J. Custer, pp. 116-142. University of Delaware Press, Newark. 1987 Late Woodland Ceramics and Social Boundaries in Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Northern

Delmarva Peninsula. Archaeology of Eastern North America 15:13-27.




1989 Prehistoric Cultures of the Delmarva Peninsula. University of Delaware Press, Newark. 1990 The Woodland I - Woodland II Transition in the Delmarva Peninsula and Southeast Pennsylvania.

North American Archaeologist ll(3):273-287. Dent, Richard J. 1979 Ecological and Sociocul turai Reconstruction in the Upper Delaware Valley. PhD dissertation, The

American University, Washington, D.C. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fischler, Benjamin R. and Jean W. French 1991 The Middle to Late Woodland Transition in the Upper Delaware Valley: New Information From the

Smithfield Beach Site (36MR5). In The People of Minisink, edited by D. G. Orr and D. V. Campana, pp. 145-174.

East, T.C., J.M. Adovasio, W.C. Johnson and D.R. Pedler 1988 The Prehistory of the Catawissa Bridge Replacement Site (36CO9), Columbia County, Pennsylvania.

Report prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Harrisburg. Gardner, William M. 1976 Archaeological Excavations at 18PR141, 18PR142, 18PR143 Near Piscataway, Maryland. Report

prepared for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, Hyattsville, Maryland. 1982 Archaeological Investigations at Two Late Woodland Sites in the Northern Shenandoah Valley, Vir-

ginia. Proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. 1986 Lost Arrowheads and Broken Pottery: Traces of Indians in the Shenandoah Valley. Tru Tone Press,

Manassas, Virginia. Garrahan, Francis D. 1990 Airport II Site: A Clemson Island/Owasco Settlement on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River.

Pennsylvania Archaeologist 60(1): 1-31. Graybill, Jeffrey 1987 West Virginia Late Prehistoric Study Unit. Ms., Historic Preservation Unit, Charleston, West Virginia. 1989 The Shenks Ferry Complex Revisited. New Approaches to Other Pasts, edited by W.F. Kinsey and

Roger Moeller, pp. 51-60. Archaeological Services, Bethlehem, Connecticut. 1992 The Shenks Ferry Tradition: Late Woodland Settlement Change in Southeast Pennsylvania. Paper pre-

sented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hart, John (organizer and chair) 1992 Late Prehistoric Subsistence-Settlement Change in the Northern Eastern Woodlands. Symposium pre-

sented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hatch, J.W. (editor) 1980a The Fisher Farm Site: A Late Woodland Hamlet in Context. The Archaeology of Central Pennsylvania,

Volume 1. The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology Occasional Papers, No. 12. University Park.

1980b A Synthesis and Prospectus of the Program's Late Woodland Research. In The Fisher Farm Site: A Late Woodland Hamlet in Context, edited by J. Hatch, pp.320-329. The Archaeology of Central Penn- sylvania, Volume 1. The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology Occasional Pa- pers, No. 12. University Park.

Hay, Conran, James W. Hatch and J. Sutton 1987 A Management Plan for Clemson' s Island Archaeological Resources in the Commonwealth of Penn-

sylvania. Bureau for Historic Preservation of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg.

Hunt, Charles B. 1967 Physiography of the United States. W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco and London.

Jennings, Francis 1984 The Ambiguous lroquois Empire. W. W. Norton Company, New York.

Johnson, Michael F. 1991 Middle and Late Woodland Settlement Systems in the Interior Fall Zone of the Potomac Valley: Not a

Live Oyster in Sight. North American Archaeologist 12(l):29-60.




Kavanagh, M. 1982 Archaeological Resources of the Monocacy River Region. Maryland Geological Survey, Division of

Archaeology. Baltimore. Kent, Barry

1984 Susquehanna's Indians. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Anthropological Series No. 6, Harrisburg.

Kinsey, W. Fred, III 1972 Archaeology in the Upper Delaware Valley. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Anthro-

pological Series, No. 3, Harrisburg. Kinsey, Fred W., Ill and Jeffrey R. Graybill 1971 Murry Site and Its Role in Lancaster and Funk Phases of Shenks Ferry Culture. Pennsylvania Archae-

ologist 41(4):7-43. Kraft, Herbert 1986a Late Woodland Settlement Patterns in the Upper Delaware Valley. In Late Woodland Cultures of the

Middle Atlantic Region, edited by Jay F. Custer, pp. 102-1 15. University of Delaware Press, Newark. 1986b The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society,

Volume 21, Newark. Kraft, Herbert and Alan Mounier 1982 The Late Woodland Period in New Jersey. In New Jersey's Archaeological Resources From the Paleo-

Indian Period to the Present: A Review of Research Problems and Survey Priorities, edited by Olga Chesler, pp. 139-184. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Cultural and Environmental Services, Trenton.

Lantz, Stanley 1989 Late Woodland Occupations in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of

the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Edinboro. Liebknecht, William 1991 Archaeologist. Hunter Research, Inc., Trenton, New Jersey.

Lucy, Charles 1991 The Owasco Culture: An Update. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 7: 169-188.

MacCord, Howard 1984 Evidence for a Late Woodland Migration from the Piedmont to the Tidewater in the Potomac Valley.

Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference, Rehoboth, Delaware.

Potter, Stephen Robert 1982 An Analysis of Chicacoan Settlement Patterns. Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, Cha-

pel Hill. Pousson, John F. 1983 Archaeological Excavations at the Moore Village Site, Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park,

Allegany County, Maryland. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Washington, D.C. Ritchie, William and Robert Funk 1973 Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in the Northeast. New York State Museum and Science Service, Memoir

20, Albany. Smith, Ira F. 1973 The Parker Site: A Manifestation of the Wyoming Valley Culture. Pennsylvania Archaeologist

43(34): 1-56. Steponaitis, Laune Cameron 1986 Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Lower Patuxent Drainage, Maryland. Ph.D. dissertation, State

University of New York, Binghamton.




Stewart, R. Michael 1980 Prehistoric Settlement /Subsistence Patterns and the Testing of Predictive Site Location Models in the

Great Valley of Maryland. The Catholic University of America, Anthropology Studies No. 48, Wash- ington, D.C.

1985 Prehistoric Ceramics of the Lower/Middle Delaware River Valley. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Denver, Colorado.

1987 Catharsis: Comments on Thurman's Coastal Plain Synthesis. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 3:111-124.

1989 Trade and Exchange in Middle Atlantic Region Prehistory. Archaeology of Eastern North America 17:47-78.

1990a Archaeology, Sedimentary Sequences, and Environmental Change in the Delaware River Basin. In Genetic Stratigraphy, Climate Change, and the Burial of Archaeological Sites Within the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Ohio River Drainage Basins, edited by Frank Vento and Harold Rollins. Report submitted to the Grants Office of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg.

1990b The Middle to Late Woodland Transition in the Lower/Middle Delaware Valley. North American Archaeologist 11(3):23 1-254.

1990c Clemson's Island Studies in Pennsylvania: A Perspective. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 60(l):79-107. 1992 Prehistoric Northern Influences in the Middle Atlantic Region. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting

of the Canadian Archaeological Association, London, Ontario. Stewart, Michael and John Cavallo 1983a Summary and Conclusions of Phase II Prehistoric Archaeological Investigations of the Abbott Farm

National Landmark. In Abbott Farm National Landmark, Phase II Cultural Resource Survey and Miti- gation Plans (2 volumes). Louis Berger and Associates, Inc., The Cultural Resource Group, East Orange, New Jersey. Report prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Trenton.

1983b Summary and Conclusions of Phase II Prehistoric Archaeological Investigations of the Abbott Farm National Landmark. In Abbott Farm National Landmark, Phase II Cultural Resource Survey and Miti- gation Plans (2 volumes). Louis Berger and Associates, Inc., The Cultural Resource Group, East Orange, New Jersey. Report prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Trenton.

Stewart, R. Michael, Chris Hummer, and Jay F. Custer 1986 Late Woodland Cultures of the Middle and Lower Delaware Valley and the Upper Delmarva Peninsula.

In Late Woodland Cultures in the Middle Atlantic Region, edited by Jay F. Custer, pp. 58-89. Universi- ty of Delaware Press, Newark.

Thurman, Melburn 1973 The Delaware Indians: A Study in Ethnohistory. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa

Barbara. Turnbaugh, W. 1977 Man, Land and Time: The Cultural Prehistory and Demographic Patterns of North-Central Pennsylva-

nia. Unigraphic Press, Evansville, Illinois. Vento, Frank and Harold Robbins 1989 Development of a Late Pleistocene-Holocene Genetic Stratigraphie Framework as It Relates to Atmo-

spheric Circulation and Climate Change in the Upper and Central Susquehanna River Drainage Basin. Bureau for Historic Preservation, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg.

Vento, Frank, Harold Rollins, Michael Stewart, Paul Raber and William Johnson 1990 Genetic Stratigraphy, Climate Change, and the Burial of Archaeological Sites Within the Susquehanna,

Delaware, and Ohio River Drainage Basins. Edited by F. Vento and H. Rollins. Ms., Bureau for His- toric Preservation, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg.

Wall, Robert D. 1981 An Archeological Study of the Western Maryland Coal Region: The Prehistoric Resources. Maryland

Geological Survey, Division of Archeology, Baltimore.




Wallace, Anthony F.C. 1947 Women, Land, and Society: Three Aspects of Aboriginal Delaware Life. Pennsylvania Archaeologist

17(1-4): 1-35. Watson, Patty Jo 1988 Prehistoric Gardening and Agriculture in the Midwest and Midsouth. In Interpretations of Culture

Change in the Eastern Woodlands During the Late Woodland Period, edited by Richard W. Yerkes, pp. 39-67. Ohio State University Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 3.

Williams, Lorraine E. , Anthony Puniello and Karen Flynn 1982 Reinvestigation of the Late Woodland Occupation in the Delaware Water Gap National recreation Area,

New Jersey. Report submitted to the Interagency Archaeological Service, Office of Cultural Programs, Mid-Atlantic Region, National Park Service.

Winter, J. 1971 A Summary of Owasco and Iroquois Maize Remains. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 41(3): 1-11.

ARCHAEOLOGY OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA

The preceding Article was subjected to formal peer review prior to publication.



Date post:	15-Jan-2017
Category:	Documents
Upload:	michael-stewart
View:	215 times
Download:	3 times

COMPARISON OF LATE WOODLAND CULTURES: DELAWARE, POTOMAC, AND SUSQUEHANNA RIVER VALLEYS, MIDDLE...

Documents