Wetlands and emergent horticultural economies in the Upper Great Lakes: A new perspective from the Schultz site

The Schultz site (20SA2) is a benchmark site for understanding the Woodland adaptations of the Upper Great Lakes, although its older excavation data i s not comparable with recent Eastern Woodlands research, which consistently uses fine-grained recovery techniques. The 1991 Schultz-site research coll ected supplementary and upgraded subsistence and environmental data to addr ess questions about regional transformations from hunting and gathering to horticulture. In addition, questions regarding the role of aquatic and wetl and resources, and how environmental change affected the availability arid productivity of these alternative resources, were addressed. Results of fau nal, floral, and geoarchaeological research reveal that Woodland economies in the Saginaw region of the Upper Great Lakes were keyed to environmental changes affecting wetland availability and productivity. The Early Woodland presence of cucurbits does not appear economically important until later w hen it is combined with more reliable supplementary food sources. Although chenopod is present during the Middle Woodland and early Late Woodland, wet land plant and animal resources act as surrogates for other starchy and oil y seeded annuals common in other portions of the Midwest and in the Mid-Sou th. Maize apparently does not achieve economic significance until the Late Woodland period. A model of this combined northern and southern strategy is developed.