An Archaeobotanical Contribution to Foodways, Wood Collecting Strategies, and Niche Construction at the Late and Terminal Archaic Site of Côte Rouge in Southern Québec

This thesis illustrates the varied contributions of archaeobotany to our understanding of precontact groups in southern Québec, using the site of Côte Rouge (CeEt-481 and CeEt-211) as a case study. This location has been known to First Nations since at least the Late Paleoindian period (11 200-9500 cal. BP), and gained popularity during the Laurentian/Late Archaic (6800-4500 cal. BP) and post-Laurentian/Terminal Archaic (4500 to 3200 cal. BP) to become a significant place that was still sporadically visited during the Woodland period (3200 cal. BP-contact). Euro-Canadian settlement added to the palimpsest of the archaeological deposits characterized by a thin soil with active bioturbation. Different strategies, including the systematic collection of large samples, the inclusion of control samples, and abundant radiocarbon dates, led to the isolation of contaminated areas and to the detection of waste disposal patterns. Because hunter-gatherers tend to abandon their hearths frequently and favor mobility over trash relocation, the analysis focused on the hearths and their close periphery. The cooking techniques recognized include pit roasting, hot rock boiling and direct cooking on rock griddles. The wood charcoal assemblages did not reveal a correlation between the types of hearths and the wood taxa found in them, suggesting wood collection practices followed the principle of least effort. The size of the hearths decreased through time, which may be a linked to a change in the social context of meal consumption or an increase of plants in the diet. Charred seeds and fruits are documented only for the Terminal Archaic, in the samples dated from 3800 to 3300 BP (4200 and 3500 cal. BP). More frequent visits to Côte Rouge may have enhanced gap phase succession and favored the establishment and maintenance of nuts, fleshy fruits, and berries, an ecological inheritance that subsequent groups benefited from. The low densities of charred nuts and the absence of processing or storage features suggest they were not amassed to be stored at the site. Acorns have not been attested in the form of charred nutshells or starch granules on pebble tools. Finally, the potential for a local pollen analysis was judged poor but the observation of a selection of stone tools under high magnification revealed the presence of a few starch grains and brown and red residues thought to be resin and/or birch bark pitch.

Department dc:contributor.department

Anthropology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Prevost, Marie-Annick

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Crawford, Gary W.

• Archaeobotany
• Archaic
• Cooking techniques
• Hunter-gatherers
• Niche construction
• Northeastern America

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/108219

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/108219