20Gauge
TB Fanatic
A solid argument for having agriculture long before most say it existed.
FOOD Prehistoric bake-off: Recipe for oldest bread revealed [14,000 yrs ago]
- Thread starter Melodi
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- archeology bread diet middle east wheat
A solid argument for having agriculture long before most say it existed.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
I did. Learned about it about 10 years ago when studying about canning. Ran across it by accident.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
We always joke about slowly starving to death based upon what we grow. We just can not grow enough to feed us the way we would need to be self sufficient. We are nearly there on a few things. Fruits will be 100 % in about 3-4 years. But grains, never.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
I am going to put this article here and then hope that someone of US Native background will chime in; agriculture in North America goes back a long way and Maize corn was the staple grain before the Europeans came. That is a historical fact, did all Native Americans eat corn or practice agriculture - no; but were there thriving cities that depended on Maize Corn 1,000 years ago - yes there were.
American Indians
by William G. DiNome, 2006
Additional research provided by Joffre L. Coe, Michael D. Green, Louis P. Towles, and Rich Weidman.
Part i: Introduction; Part ii: American Indians before European contact; Part iii: Indian tribes from European contact to the era of removal; Part iv: The struggle for Indian sovereignty and cultural identity; Part v: North Carolina Indians today; Part vi: References
Part ii: American Indians before European contact
Painting of early American Indian potters
"Pottery making in North Carolina." Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service.
The history of American Indians before European contact is broadly divided into three major periods: the Paleo-Indian period, the Archaic period (8000–1000 b.c.), and the Woodland period (1000 b.c.–1600 a.d.). The limited evidence available about the Paleo-Indian period suggests that the first Indians in the Southeast, as elsewhere, were nomadic, hunting and defending themselves with stone tools (knives and scrapers), clubs, and spears, which were at times tipped with wellcrafted, fluted stone points. During the Archaic period, basketry, bone tools, and finer stone tools appeared. Archaic peoples also began to develop more specialized knowledge of their local environments and the animals and plants that lived there. Though they did not generally travel far beyond these familiar environments, American Indians during this period did begin to establish trade and migration routes that brought the native peoples of the Carolinas in contact with other bands and tribes.
Scholars suggest that small-scale agriculture began to develop among American Indians in the Southeast around 1000 b.c., marking a slow transition to what is known as the Woodland period. During the early Woodland period, native peoples began to concentrate settlements near streams and rivers, where the rich soil allowed successful farming. This Woodland tradition took root among Indians in the Carolina region. Many Woodland people planted crops such as sunflowers, corn, pumpkins, squash, and beans and built permanent wooden homes. Nevertheless, Indians in the Woodland period still relied primarily on hunting, fishing, and gathering. Among the enormous variety of animal resources available, deer was a primary staple, providing food, clothing, blankets, and tools made of antler and bone. Fishing methods included the use of hooks, spears (sometimes poisoned), nets, traps, weirs, and dugout canoes. In most tribes, work was shared by men and women. Indian housing typically consisted of lodges made of bark or thatch, at times raised off the ground. Some Indians, including the Cherokee, also built earthen winter homes without windows. Homes were furnished with straw or cane mats, pottery, basketry, and wooden utensils. As family groups and larger bands formed around productive agricultural or hunting grounds, villages developed. Some villages were surrounded by protective palisades, and most included a council house for public gatherings.
Use of the bow and arrow probably evolved during the middle and late Woodland period; the oldest examples of arrow points in North Carolina have been located near the Yadkin River in the Piedmont. Tobacco pipes of stone and clay, beads, and other ornaments made of shell and clay also came into common use. Pottery began to appear, as did a clear concern for the dead, evidenced in some regions by burial or effigy mounds and earthen enclosures. In some cases, the dead were placed in round or oval pits and buried with grave goods.
The Woodland Indians of North Carolina, though scattered and in many ways diverse, shared a number of cultural traits. Tribal societies were generally organized by leaders rather than rulers, governed by consensus rather than decree, and directed by a sense of community more than by individualism. Community rituals for marking the passage of time and seasons and for personal cleanliness and purification developed along with religious beliefs about the ability of individuals to tap into the supernatural world, which was seen as full of spirits.
Sometime around the middle of the Woodland period (ca. 700 a.d.), an important American Indian cultural tradition known as the Mississippian tradition took shape along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Over time, Mississippian tribal groups began to migrate into the Southeast, including North Carolina. While Mississippian peoples had many similarities to Woodland peoples, there were also important differences. Mississippian cultures were rooted more deeply in farming than were Woodland cultures, and Mississippians developed large town sites that served as hubs for religious ceremonies and trade. These towns often included large pyramid shaped mounds topped by temples and meeting houses, and the mounds were surrounded by public grounds for games and public rituals. Individual houses, often made of wood, surrounded these public grounds, and beyond the homes were often extensive cultivated fields. Town Creek Indian Mound, located in modern-day Montgomery County, is one North Carolina example of a mound that was at the heart of a town site built by Mississippian people.
Mississippian peoples also developed more formal systems of governance, called chiefdoms, and extensive religious rituals and ceremonies related to agricultural cycles of planting and harvest. One particularly important ritual was the Green Corn Ritual. This rite celebrated the ripened corn crop in the late summer and served as a period for village members to cleanse their environment and start anew on a personal and spiritual level. Typically, the Green Corn Ritual involved the cleaning of the council house and family homes, fasting, bathing, forgiving past wrongs, and the symbolic extinguishing of old fires and the creation of new ones. The Indians’ respect for their environment, and their vision of their community as grateful recipients of nature’s bounty, was shown through the destruction of accumulated foodstuffs from the previous year.
The chiefdoms of the Mississippian tradition came to dominate American Indian culture in the Southeast as the time of European contact approached, and differences between Mississippian and Woodland Indians almost certainly sparked conflict as cultures met in North Carolina and elsewhere. But scholars believe that many Woodland people simply adapted Mississippian practices over time. Other Woodland tribes likely moved to more isolated lands and maintained their cultural practices, sometimes reclaiming their traditional territories when Mississippian tribes themselves relocated to new planting grounds. Certainly European explorers, when they began to encounter the native people of North Carolina, found groups practicing both Woodland and Mississippian ways of life.
Keep reading >> Part III: Indian tribes from European contact to the era of removal Keep reading
Image credits:
"Pottery making in North Carolina." Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service. Online at http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/hnc/outline/04-woodland/index.htm. Accessed 11/2011.
https://www.ncpedia.org/american-indians/before-europeans
American Indians
by William G. DiNome, 2006
Additional research provided by Joffre L. Coe, Michael D. Green, Louis P. Towles, and Rich Weidman.
Part i: Introduction; Part ii: American Indians before European contact; Part iii: Indian tribes from European contact to the era of removal; Part iv: The struggle for Indian sovereignty and cultural identity; Part v: North Carolina Indians today; Part vi: References
Part ii: American Indians before European contact
Painting of early American Indian potters
"Pottery making in North Carolina." Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service.
The history of American Indians before European contact is broadly divided into three major periods: the Paleo-Indian period, the Archaic period (8000–1000 b.c.), and the Woodland period (1000 b.c.–1600 a.d.). The limited evidence available about the Paleo-Indian period suggests that the first Indians in the Southeast, as elsewhere, were nomadic, hunting and defending themselves with stone tools (knives and scrapers), clubs, and spears, which were at times tipped with wellcrafted, fluted stone points. During the Archaic period, basketry, bone tools, and finer stone tools appeared. Archaic peoples also began to develop more specialized knowledge of their local environments and the animals and plants that lived there. Though they did not generally travel far beyond these familiar environments, American Indians during this period did begin to establish trade and migration routes that brought the native peoples of the Carolinas in contact with other bands and tribes.
Scholars suggest that small-scale agriculture began to develop among American Indians in the Southeast around 1000 b.c., marking a slow transition to what is known as the Woodland period. During the early Woodland period, native peoples began to concentrate settlements near streams and rivers, where the rich soil allowed successful farming. This Woodland tradition took root among Indians in the Carolina region. Many Woodland people planted crops such as sunflowers, corn, pumpkins, squash, and beans and built permanent wooden homes. Nevertheless, Indians in the Woodland period still relied primarily on hunting, fishing, and gathering. Among the enormous variety of animal resources available, deer was a primary staple, providing food, clothing, blankets, and tools made of antler and bone. Fishing methods included the use of hooks, spears (sometimes poisoned), nets, traps, weirs, and dugout canoes. In most tribes, work was shared by men and women. Indian housing typically consisted of lodges made of bark or thatch, at times raised off the ground. Some Indians, including the Cherokee, also built earthen winter homes without windows. Homes were furnished with straw or cane mats, pottery, basketry, and wooden utensils. As family groups and larger bands formed around productive agricultural or hunting grounds, villages developed. Some villages were surrounded by protective palisades, and most included a council house for public gatherings.
Use of the bow and arrow probably evolved during the middle and late Woodland period; the oldest examples of arrow points in North Carolina have been located near the Yadkin River in the Piedmont. Tobacco pipes of stone and clay, beads, and other ornaments made of shell and clay also came into common use. Pottery began to appear, as did a clear concern for the dead, evidenced in some regions by burial or effigy mounds and earthen enclosures. In some cases, the dead were placed in round or oval pits and buried with grave goods.
The Woodland Indians of North Carolina, though scattered and in many ways diverse, shared a number of cultural traits. Tribal societies were generally organized by leaders rather than rulers, governed by consensus rather than decree, and directed by a sense of community more than by individualism. Community rituals for marking the passage of time and seasons and for personal cleanliness and purification developed along with religious beliefs about the ability of individuals to tap into the supernatural world, which was seen as full of spirits.
Sometime around the middle of the Woodland period (ca. 700 a.d.), an important American Indian cultural tradition known as the Mississippian tradition took shape along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Over time, Mississippian tribal groups began to migrate into the Southeast, including North Carolina. While Mississippian peoples had many similarities to Woodland peoples, there were also important differences. Mississippian cultures were rooted more deeply in farming than were Woodland cultures, and Mississippians developed large town sites that served as hubs for religious ceremonies and trade. These towns often included large pyramid shaped mounds topped by temples and meeting houses, and the mounds were surrounded by public grounds for games and public rituals. Individual houses, often made of wood, surrounded these public grounds, and beyond the homes were often extensive cultivated fields. Town Creek Indian Mound, located in modern-day Montgomery County, is one North Carolina example of a mound that was at the heart of a town site built by Mississippian people.
Mississippian peoples also developed more formal systems of governance, called chiefdoms, and extensive religious rituals and ceremonies related to agricultural cycles of planting and harvest. One particularly important ritual was the Green Corn Ritual. This rite celebrated the ripened corn crop in the late summer and served as a period for village members to cleanse their environment and start anew on a personal and spiritual level. Typically, the Green Corn Ritual involved the cleaning of the council house and family homes, fasting, bathing, forgiving past wrongs, and the symbolic extinguishing of old fires and the creation of new ones. The Indians’ respect for their environment, and their vision of their community as grateful recipients of nature’s bounty, was shown through the destruction of accumulated foodstuffs from the previous year.
The chiefdoms of the Mississippian tradition came to dominate American Indian culture in the Southeast as the time of European contact approached, and differences between Mississippian and Woodland Indians almost certainly sparked conflict as cultures met in North Carolina and elsewhere. But scholars believe that many Woodland people simply adapted Mississippian practices over time. Other Woodland tribes likely moved to more isolated lands and maintained their cultural practices, sometimes reclaiming their traditional territories when Mississippian tribes themselves relocated to new planting grounds. Certainly European explorers, when they began to encounter the native people of North Carolina, found groups practicing both Woodland and Mississippian ways of life.
Keep reading >> Part III: Indian tribes from European contact to the era of removal Keep reading
Image credits:
"Pottery making in North Carolina." Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service. Online at http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/hnc/outline/04-woodland/index.htm. Accessed 11/2011.
https://www.ncpedia.org/american-indians/before-europeans
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Oh and VK there are varieties of potatoes that are SOME what blight resistant but there are no varieties I know of that are totally blight resistant; not to mention we learned the hard way that tomatoes and peppers can get it too.
The old Lumper potatoes were especially badly affected by blight, but we lost some blue blight resistant ones during a very badly humid (and windy) Summer.
The best choice for preppers would check your local conditions (historical as well as current); get the best and most blight resistant potatoes for your soil and consider socking in enough blight spray to last a few decades (it isn't that expensive); without modern forecasting (Ireland has "blight condition forecasts")you would have to trust your gut and experience when to spray but the humid, wet and warm weather is usually a give away.
It lives in the soil and so is simply endemic in many places but not so much in others.
The old Lumper potatoes were especially badly affected by blight, but we lost some blue blight resistant ones during a very badly humid (and windy) Summer.
The best choice for preppers would check your local conditions (historical as well as current); get the best and most blight resistant potatoes for your soil and consider socking in enough blight spray to last a few decades (it isn't that expensive); without modern forecasting (Ireland has "blight condition forecasts")you would have to trust your gut and experience when to spray but the humid, wet and warm weather is usually a give away.
It lives in the soil and so is simply endemic in many places but not so much in others.
You said plains Indians... They didn't eat corn. Pemmican didn't have it also. Did the Mississippian tribes have agriculture? Yes. Did they only know of slash and burn with zero thoughts of fertilization. Yes. Did they have a large population undoubtedly reliant on vegetable agriculture? Who knows. There is no written records. What is known is they never had animal agriculture. So they probably had the ability to harvest wild meat easily.
I await as well the native that will proclaim an agriculture method beyond slash and burn prior to European contact. It simply didn't exist. The fish and the three sisters was European.
There are fully resistant varieties. But not for you Europeans. They are for USA use only due to patient issue. Another sure way to avoid blight is to spray with fungicide. It works very well and is a common practice for Early and late blight.
Even the natives up here in the north planted beans, corn and squash (native to the Americas - Europe had never seen them before the explorers landed,).
BUT - the lakes region in the north was considered a blessed land by the natives because of the wild rice crop. A wonderful, easily harvested, abundant highly nutritious and when processed, easily stored wild crop. I have no doubt (and I'd bet anything there's archeological evidence) that wild rice was a valuable and common trade good among the tribes of N. America long before Whitey ever set foot here.
BUT - the lakes region in the north was considered a blessed land by the natives because of the wild rice crop. A wonderful, easily harvested, abundant highly nutritious and when processed, easily stored wild crop. I have no doubt (and I'd bet anything there's archeological evidence) that wild rice was a valuable and common trade good among the tribes of N. America long before Whitey ever set foot here.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
According to my Native American cookbooks, the Plains Indians (that met the Europeans later) were former farmers for the most part that moved West and in even greater numbers after they got horses in the 15th or early 16th century - the horses were European but they went wild and arrived long before the pioneers did).
They still love their corn, beans, and squash but obviously could no longer grow it when following the buffalo so they traded for these items once or twice a year.
Now I suppose all three cookbooks could be wrong, but
The Hopi and Cahokia practiced irrigation agriculture and my Native Elder friend that taught me to put a fish in the bottom of a planting if I was doing the traditional Squash, Beans and Corn combination (he said it was traditional and he is East Coast band) but somehow I don't think so.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
I forgot to mention the wild rice, my larger Native American cookbook (a huge hardback) says the story they told was that a duck brought the wild rice to man by pooping it out their rear end; my husband and I giggle about "eating wild duck poop" when we have wild rice for supper.
California natives were hunters and gatherers (my theory is anyone who tried to garden in California before modern irrigation would die out during the droughts, they traded with tribes that did grow food; but no evidence has been found for serious agriculture in California though people were doing slash and burn fires to bring in fresh game and plants).
But even they made "bread" from acorns, I have it and I can only say it is an aquired taste.
I don't know about ducks. The lakes that grow wild rice have deep mucky bottoms full of what we all call "loon sh*t" though...
Melodi
Disaster Cat
I don't know about ducks. The lakes that grow wild rice have deep mucky bottoms full of what we all call "loon sh*t" though...
It might have been geese, my kitchen is in forced reconstruction and clean out mode (my electrics were condemned in that room) so I can't look it up for sure which it was but I could easily see how they locals made that connection having seen some pretty icky lake water.
That's why us lake babies learn so early to be good swimmers. You want to always be in the deep water so your feet don't EVER have to touch bottom.