Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-02T22:53:53.235Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cooperative harvesting of aquatic resources and the beginning of pottery production in north-eastern North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2015

Karine Taché  and
Oliver E. Craig
Karine Taché
Affiliation:
BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK Department of Anthropology, Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY 11367, USA
Oliver E. Craig
Affiliation:
BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What benefits were derived from the invention of pottery, and why did ceramics remain marginal for so long? The increasing use of pottery has been seen as a response to large-scale harvesting in a model that favours economic advantage through increased efficiency. This paper challenges that view; combining carbon and nitrogen isotope and lipid analysis, the authors argue that pottery was used selectively for storing or processing valued exchange commodities such as fish oil. Its use can be seen as part of broader developments in hunter-gatherer society, featuring seasonal gatherings, collective feasting and a new articulation of social relations.

Keywords

North Americahunter-gathererspottery productionaquatic resourcescarbon isotopesnitrogen isotopeslipid analysisVinette 1 potterysocial gatherings
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 343 , February 2015 , pp. 177 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd., 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, R.E. 1982. The Neolithic–Bronze Age cultures of Asia and the Norton phase of Alaskan prehistory. Arctic Anthropology 19 (2): 11–38.Google Scholar
Belcher, W.R. 1989. Prehistoric fish exploitation in east Penobscot Bay, Maine: the Knox site and sea-level rise. Archaeology of Eastern North America 17: 175–91.Google Scholar
Bouchard, R. 2002. L’Exploration du Saguenay par J. L. Normandin en 1732. Sillery: Septentrion.Google Scholar
Bunker, V. 2006–2007. Time and place: the archaeology of the Eddy site. The New Hampshire Archaeologist 46–47 (1): 1–111.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1936. Man makes himself. London: Watts.Google Scholar
Correa-Ascencio, M. & Evershed, R.P.. 2014. High throughput screening of organic residues in archaeological potsherds using direct acidified methanol extraction. Analytical Methods 6: 1330–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c3ay41678j CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, O.E., Forster, M., Andersen, S.H., Koch, E., Crombé, P., Milner, N.J., Stern, B., Bailey, G.N. & Heron, C.P.. 2007. Molecular and isotopic demonstration of the processing of aquatic products in northern European prehistoric pottery. Archaeometry 49: 135–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.2007.00292.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, O.E., Steeleb, V.J., Fischer, A., Hartz, S., Andersen, S.H., Donohoe, P., Glykou, A., Saul, H., Jones, D.M., Koch, E. & Heron, C.P.. 2011. Ancient lipids reveal continuity in culinary practices across the transition to agriculture in northern Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108: 17910–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1107202108 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craig, O.E., Allen, R.B., Thompson, A., Stevens, R.E., Steele, V.J. & Heron, C.P.. 2012. Distinguishing wild ruminant lipids by gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 26: 2359–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rcm.6349 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craig, O.E., Saul, H., Lucquin, A., Nishida, Y., Taché, K., Clarkes, L., Thompson, A., Altoft, D.T., Uchiyama, J., Ajimoto, M., Gibbs, K., Isaksson, S., Heron, C.P. & Jordan, P.. 2013. Earliest evidence for pottery use. Nature 496: 351–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12109 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crown, P. & Wills, H.. 1995. The origins of Southwestern ceramic containers: women’s time allocation and economic intensification. Journal of Anthropological Research 51: 173–86.Google Scholar
Dudd, S.N., Evershed, R.P. & Gibson, A.M.. 1999. Evidence for varying patterns of exploitation of animal products in different prehistoric pottery traditions based on lipids preserved in surface and absorbed residues. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 1473–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1998.0434 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Copley, M.S., Dickson, L. & Hansel, F.A.. 2008. Experimental evidence for the processing of marine animal products and other commodities containing polyunsaturated fatty acids in pottery vessels. Archaeometry 50: 101–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.2007.00368.x Google Scholar
Farnsworth, K.B. & Emerson, T.E. (ed.). 1986. Early Woodland archaeology. Kampsville (IL): Center for American Archaeology Press.Google Scholar
Goodyear, A.C. 1988. On the study of technological change. Current Anthropology 29: 320–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/203641 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granger, J.E. 1978. Meadowood phase settlement pattern in the Niagara frontier region of western New York state. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology.Google Scholar
Hansel, F.A., Copley, M.S., Madurai, L.A.S. & Evershed, R.P.. 2004. Thermally produced ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids provide evidence for the processing of marine products in archaeological pottery vessels. Tetrahedron Letters 45: 2999–3002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2004.01.111 Google Scholar
Harry, K. & Frink, L.. 2009. The Arctic cooking pot: why was it adopted? American Anthropologist 111: 330–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01136.x Google Scholar
Hart, J.P., Brumbach, H.J. & Lusteck, R.. 2007. Extending the phytolith evidence for early maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) and squash (Cucurbita sp.) in central New York. American Antiquity 72: 563–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40035861 Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1995. The emergence of prestige technology and pottery, in Barnett, W.K. & Hoopes, J.W. (ed.) The emergence of pottery: technology and innovation in prehistoric societies: 257–65. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Heckenberger, M.J., Petersen, J.B., Basa, L.A., Cowie, E.R., Spiess, A.E. & Stuckenrath, R.E.. 1990. Early Woodland period ceremonialism in the far northeast: a view from the Boucher cemetery. Archaeology of Eastern North America 18: 109–44.Google Scholar
Heidke, J. 1998. Cienega phase incipient plain ware from southeastern Arizona. Kiva 64: 311–38.Google Scholar
Jackson, H.E. 1991. The trade fair in hunter-gatherer interactions: the role of intersocietal trade in the evolution of Poverty Point culture, in Gregg, S.A. (ed.) Between bands and states: 265–86. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Jordan, P. & Zvelebil, M. (ed.). 2009. Ceramics before farming: the dispersal of pottery among prehistoric Eurasian hunter-gatherers. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Kuhnlein, H.V., Chan, A.C., Thompson, J.N. & Nakai, S.. 1982. Ooligan grease: a nutritious fat used by native people of coastal British Columbia. Journal of Ethnobiology 2 (2): 154–61.Google Scholar
Martin, S.R. 1999. Wonderful power: the story of ancient copper working in the Lake Superior basin. Detroit (MI): Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Ozker, D. 1982. An Early Woodland community at the Schultz site 20SA2 in the Saginaw Valley and the nature of the Early Woodland adaptation in the Great Lakes region. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, P.M. 1999. On the origins of pottery. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6: 1–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1022924709609 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, W.A. & MacNeish, R.S.. 1949. The pre-Iroquoian pottery of New York state. American Antiquity 15: 97–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/276387 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roosevelt, A. 1995. Early pottery in the Amazon: twenty years of scholarly obscurity, in Barnett, W.K. & Hoopes, J.W. (ed.) The emergence of pottery: technology and innovation in prehistoric societies: 115–31. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Sassaman, K.E. 1993. Early pottery in the Southeast: tradition and innovation in cooking technology. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Sassaman, K.E. 1999. Southeastern perspective on soapstone vessel technology in the Northeast, in Levine, M.A., Sassaman, K.E. & Nassaney, M.S. (ed.) The archaeological Northeast: 75–95. Westport (CT): Bergin & Garvey.Google Scholar
Saunders, R. & Hays, C.T.. 2004. Introduction: themes in early pottery research, in Saunders, R. & Hays, C.T. (ed.) Early pottery: technology, style, and interaction in the lower Southeast: 1–22. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Scarry, M.C. 2008. Crop husbandry practices in North America’s Eastern Woodlands, in Reitz, E., Scarry, M.C. & Scudder, S.J. (ed.) Case studies in environmental archaeology: 391–404. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Taché, K. 2005. Explaining Vinette 1 pottery variability: the view from the Batiscan site, Québec. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 29: 165–233.Google Scholar
Taché, K. 2011. Structure and regional diversity of the Meadowood interaction sphere. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology.Google Scholar
Taché, K. & Hart, J.P.. 2013. Chronometric hygiene of radiocarbon databases for early durable cooking vessel technologies in northeastern North America. American Antiquity 78: 359–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Versaggi, N.M. 1999. Regional diversity within the Early Woodland of the Northeast. Northeast Anthropology 57 (1): 45–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.78.2.359 Google Scholar
Wu, X., Zhang, C., Goldberg, P., Cohen, D., Pan, Y., Arpin, T. & Bar-Yosef, O.. 2012. Early pottery at 20,000 years ago in Xianrendong Cave, China. Science 336: 1696–700. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1218643 Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Taché and Craig supplementary material

Taché and Craig supplementary material 1

Download Taché and Craig supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 334.2 KB