Mary Theresa Bonhage-Freund, Ph.D.
Recent Presentations
with Leslie Branch-Raymer and Scot J. Keith. "From Indiana to Georgia: Evidence of Significant Pre-Maize Gardening in the Lower Southeast." Society for American Archaeology. Memphis, TN. 29 April 2012.
More Details:
Peoples of the Midwest and Midsouth cultivated a suite of native plants as by the Late Archaic Period. By the
Middle Woodland Period indigenous gardens were well integrated
into subsistence systems. Until recently, no evidence of substantial gardening existed for the lower
Southeast. We submit that a growing body of evidence documents significant Woodland Period pre-maize cultivation throughout an area that today encompasses Northwest Georgia and Southeastern Indiana. Moreover,
reliance on indigenous crops within a late Woodland context unexpectedly persists in the Whitewater River
valley which is geographically and temporally located within the Ohio River Valley Fort Ancient settlement-subsistence
system.
