Paper short abstract:

Paleoethnobotanical analyses of a Late Period Columbia Plateau site indicate that a wide range of economic plant resources were processed and consumed, indicative of a dynamic and flexible subsistence system focused on plant food diversity rather than targeting specific taxa.

Paper long abstract:

Earth ovens, hearths, and middens are common archaeological features in western North America that contain the residues of everyday activities. Ethnographic and archaeological research indicates these in-ground food preparation features were frequently reused over many months and years, leading to a palimpsest of past cooking events. Here we present a framework for interpreting these archaeological food preparation features. We illustrate the value of this framework through our paleoethnobotanical and artifactual analyses from a bulk food processing site on Kalispel usual and accustomed lands in northeastern Washington State. While this site and other food preparation sites throughout the Plateau are largely interpreted as remains of intensive geophyte processing, our findings indicate that a wide range of economic plant resources were processed at this location, indicative of a dynamic and flexible subsistence system. We suggest that residents and visitors to the site from ca. 2700-500 cal BP frequently returned to and reused earth oven features as they processed multiple plant food taxa including nodding onion (Allium cernuum), camas (Camassia quamash) goosefoot chenopod seeds (Chenopodium atrovirens), and pine nuts (Pinus spp.). These analyses broaden our understanding of ancestral Kalispel diets as well as offering new potential plant foods to tribal food autonomy efforts. We further see our approach as a potential solution to the common “palimpsest problem” and suggest this framework may be a fruitful way of investigating multiple food preparation recipes, methods, and events.