2018 McNair Scholars Program Summer Research Symposium
Through a “Green” Lens: A Paleoethnobotanical Survey of the Cedar Valley
Presentation Type
Paper
Abstract
The Cedar Valley is an area in northeast Iowa that includes Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Chickasaw, Grundy and Tama counties. Over the last 10,000 years, the Cedar Valley has changed tremendously, not only by population but also the landscape. These changes present a challenge for anthropologists and archaeologists to reconstruct a picture of what life may have looked like when prehistoric native tribes settled into the Cedar Valley. Over the years, prairie grasses, wetlands, and other natural features of the Iowa landscape have been altered to accommodate industrial farming. To identify medicinal species and subsistence use of plants available to prehistoric native tribes in the Cedar Valley, ethnographies, maps, plant surveys, botanical lists and archaeological reports were utilized. The information collected was organized into a database and the results analyzed. This database will serve as a tool for future research in fields of archaeology and botany.
Start Date
20-7-2018 10:00 AM
End Date
20-7-2018 12:00 PM
Faculty Advisor
Donald Gaff
Department
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology
Department
McNair Scholars Program at UNI
Copyright
©2018 Lyn Tackett
File Format
application/pdf
Embargo Date
9-19-2018
Through a “Green” Lens: A Paleoethnobotanical Survey of the Cedar Valley
The Cedar Valley is an area in northeast Iowa that includes Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Chickasaw, Grundy and Tama counties. Over the last 10,000 years, the Cedar Valley has changed tremendously, not only by population but also the landscape. These changes present a challenge for anthropologists and archaeologists to reconstruct a picture of what life may have looked like when prehistoric native tribes settled into the Cedar Valley. Over the years, prairie grasses, wetlands, and other natural features of the Iowa landscape have been altered to accommodate industrial farming. To identify medicinal species and subsistence use of plants available to prehistoric native tribes in the Cedar Valley, ethnographies, maps, plant surveys, botanical lists and archaeological reports were utilized. The information collected was organized into a database and the results analyzed. This database will serve as a tool for future research in fields of archaeology and botany.
