New Dates and Carbon Isotope Assays of Purported Middle Woodland Maize from the Icehouse Bottom and Edwin Harness Sites. Issue 3 (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Simon, Mary L.; Hollenbach, Kandace D.; Redmond, Brian G.
• Is Part Of: American antiquity. Volume 86:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 613
• Page End: 624
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: maize -- Middle Woodland -- AMS -- carbon isotope -- Midwestern United States; maíz -- Middle Woodland -- AMS -- isótopos de carbono -- Medio Oeste de los Estados Unidos; North America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- North America -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- America -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- America -- Periodicals; North America -- History -- Periodicals; America -- History -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 970
• DOI: 10.1017/aaq.2020.117
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7316

Abstract

Abstract : Accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS) and carbon isotope analyses provide strong tandem methodologies used by archaeologists to evaluate and reevaluate the histories of maize use in the Midwest. In this article, we present newly obtained AMS dates and carbon isotope assays of alleged maize samples from the Icehouse Bottom (40MR23) and Edwin Harness sites (22RO33). Based on original studies, samples were thought to date to the Middle Woodland period (ca. 300 BC–AD 400). The results show that samples either were not maize or date to post-AD 900. As of this finding, there are no longer any securely dated Middle Woodland macrobotanical remains of maize from the Eastern Woodlands of North America.