Ancient Indigenous Cuisines: Archaeological Explorations of the Midcontinent is now published by the University of Alabama Press, as part of their book series Archaeology of Food. This collection of original essays is the first to cover recent trends in foodways archaeology in the Midwest using the concept of cuisine: the selection of food ingredients and methods of food preparation, cooking, and serving/consumption in relation to their social, cultural, and environmental contexts. This work spans the Early Archaic (9000 BC) to Late Precontact (up to around AD 1500) in ecological zones of present-day Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. Chapters trace development from hunter-gathering to horticultural practices to the more robust farming/ fishing/hunting model centered on maize, squash, and other domesticates.
My chapter, titled Earth Oven Cuisine via Fire-Cracked Rock Cooking in the Midcontinent, provides an example of an earth oven facility containing fire-cracked rock (FCR) and discusses its archaeological signatures, as well as the results of my FCR use-alteration analysis. As remnants of ancient cuisine, the analyses of use-alteration and fracture patterns of FCR associated with earth-oven features provide important insights into earth-oven usage in cooking and food preparation. A case study of earth-oven function is drawn from a Late Archaic period feature dated to approximately 3000 BP at Site 914 (FS09-10-03-914/20AR387) on Grand Island, Michigan.
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Contents
Introduction: Cuisine in the Ancient Midcontinent by Susan M. Kooiman, Jodie A. O’Gorman, and Autumn M. Painter
Chapter 1 Earth Oven Cuisine via Fire-Cracked Rock Cooking in the Midcontinent by Fernanda Neubauer
Chapter 2 Indigenous Cuisine in the Northern Great Lakes by Susan M. Kooiman and Rebecca K. Albert
Chapter 3 Woodland Tradition Cuisines in Southeastern Wisconsin by Jennifer R. Haas
Chapter 4 Plates, Cuisine, and Community at the Morton Site by Jeffrey M. Painter and Jodie A. O’Gorman
Chapter 5 Ceremonial Feasting and Culinary Practices in the Central Illinois River Valley: A Zooarchaeological Perspective by Terrance J. Martin
Chapter 6 Exploring Identity through Cuisine and Ritual at the Morton Village Site, West-Central Illinois by Kelsey Nordine
Chapter 7 Bison Hoes and Bird Tails: Reconsidering the Introduction of Maize Farming into Manitoba by Mary E. Malainey
Chapter 8 Nixtamalization and Cahokian Cuisine by Alleen Betzenhauser
Chapter 9 The Archaeobotany of the East St. Louis Precinct of Greater Cahokia by Kimberly Schaefer, Mary Simon, and Mary M. King
Conclusion: Why Cuisine? by Jodie A. O’Gorman and Susan M. Kooiman