Date of Award
8-2010
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Historical Archaeology
First Advisor
Stephen A. Mrozowski
Second Advisor
Heather B. Trigg
Third Advisor
Stephen W. Silliman
Abstract
The Smith's Point site was a seasonally inhabited Native American encampment in Yarmouth, Massachusetts occupied from the Middle Woodland through the early Colonial periods. Excavations at the site in the early 1990s yielded the remains of a multi-component site including both an agricultural field and an adjacent living area. The macrobotanical remains from the agricultural and living area features were examined for this thesis project in order to investigate subsistence practices at the site. The findings show that Native Americans actively shaped these ecological niches for purposes such as maintaining and improving their subsistence base. These landscape management activities included field burning and maize agriculture.
Beginning with 16th and 17th century European settler's and explorer's written accounts of New England, the "New World" has often been described as a pristine wilderness in which Native Americans play a passive role. In fact, as the Smith's Point site macrobotanical data indicate, Native Americans were actively and perpetually altering their ecosystems. Therefore, I conclude that past landscapes at the site were not pristine wilderness but rather culturally constructed niches.
Recommended Citation
Ferguson, Kelly A., "A Macrobotanical Analysis of Native American Maize Agriculture at the Smith's Point Site" (2010). Graduate Masters Theses. 8.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses/8