Living in a cornfield: The variation and ecology of Late Prehistoric agriculture in the western Kentucky Confluence Region

Mississippian agriculture has been described as successful with periods of instability. Utilizing the productive Mississippi and Ohio floodplains, Mississippian farmers established a three-tiered settlement hierarchy that included towns, villages, hamlets, and farmsteads. Towns were undoubtedly the focus of these systems, but they also reflect, from an agricultural standpoint, the largest producers and consumers in the system. Archaeobotanical materials from four town sites in the Confluence Region of western Kentucky are analyzed and provide the relationships between plant use and the functioning of hierarchical communities. Town sites contain complex and rich depositional sequences surrounding mound and plaza precincts. Archaeological data indicates that occupations were continuous at each site from A.D. 900-1450. Stratigraphic, ceramic, radiocarbon, and archaeobotanical data form the basis for examining the occupational history at these sites, their site catchments, subsistence patterns, subsistence diversification, and variation between regions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Edging, Richard Benton

Contributors dc:contributor

• Grove, David C.

• Agriculture, Agronomy
• Anthropology, Archaeology

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1995 Edging, Richard Benton

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9543577
(UMI)AAI9543577

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/19440