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

File Format

application/pdf

Embargo Date

9-19-2018

Electronic copy is not available through UNI ScholarWorks.

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Jul 20th, 10:00 AM Jul 20th, 12:00 PM

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.