The latest periods of prehistory in the Middle Atlantic witnessed a marked and widespread increase in the use of rockshelters. Archaeologists have noted the phenomenon but failed to provide a convincing explanation. I examine several possible reasons why Late Woodland/Late Prehistoric peoples may have spent more time at rockshelters, propose a link with the deteriorating climate of the Little Ice Age and consequent subsistence risk, and present a case study from the Mykut Rockshelter, 36Hu143, in central Pennsylvania.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdovasioJ. M.PedlerR.FrymanA. G.QuinnD. C.DirkmaatD. R.1998The Archaic West of the Allegheny Mountains: A View from the Cross Creek Drainage, Washington County, Pennsylvania, in The Archaic Period in Pennsylvania: Hunter-gatherers of the Early and Middle Holocene, RaberPaul A.MillerPatricia E.NeusiusSarah M. (editors), Recent Research in Pennsylvania Archaeology, Number 1, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, pp. 1–28
2.
AdovasioJ. M.PedlerR.FrymanA. G.QuinnD. R.2003The Appearance of Cultigens and the Early and Middle Woodland Periods in Southwestern Pennsylvania, in Foragers and Farmers of the Early and Middle Woodland Periods in Pennsylvania, RaberPaul A.CowinVerna L. (editors), Recent Research in Pennsylvania Archaeology Number 3, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, pp. 67–84
3.
BarberMichael B.2005Prehistoric Rockshelter Use on Virginia's Appalachian Plateaus: Settlement Patterns, Archaeology of Eastern North America, 33: 31–49
4.
BastianTyler1971Archaeology of Maryland Caves and Rock Shelters, in Maryland Caves, FranzR.SliferD. (editors), Maryland Geological Survey Educational Series, No. 3, pp. 103–113
5.
BinfordLewis R.1980Willow Smoke and Dogs' Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation, American Antiquity, 45(1): 4–20
6.
BlantonDennis B.2000Drought as a Factor in the Jamestown Colony, 1607-1612, Historical Archaeology, 34(4): 74–81
7.
BradleyRaymond S.JonesPhilip D.1993‘Little Ice Age’ Summer Temperature Variations: Their Nature and Relevance to Recent Global Warming Trends, The Holocene, 3(4):367–376.
8.
BrysonReid A.MurrayThomas J.1977Climates of Hunger, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison
9.
CashdanElizabeth1990aIntroduction, in Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies, CashdanE. (editor), Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 1–16
10.
CashdanElizabeth (editor) 1990bRisk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado
11.
CohenMark N.1977The Food Crisis in Prehistory: Overpopulation and the Origins of Agriculture, Yale University Press, New Haven
12.
CusterJay F.1996Prehistoric Cultures of Eastern Pennsylvania, Anthropological Series, No. 7, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg
13.
deGarineI.HarrisonG. A. (editors) 1988Coping with Uncertainty in Food Supply, Clarendon Press, Oxford
14.
DeslogesJ. R.RyderJ. M.1990Neoglacial History of the Coast Mountains near Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 27: 281–290
15.
FaganBrian1999The Little Ice Age, in Floods, Famines and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations (Chap. 10), Basic Books, New York
16.
FaganBrian2000The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850, Basic Books, New York
17.
FunkRobert E.1976Recent Contributions to Hudson Valley Prehistory, New York State Museum Memoir 22, The University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, Albany
18.
GajewskiK.1988Late Holocene Climatic Changes in Eastern North America Estimated from Pollen Data, Quaternary Research, 29: 255–262
19.
GolandCarol1991The Ecological Context of Hunter-Gatherer Storage: Environmental Predictability and Environmental Risk, in Foragers in Context, MiracleP. T.FisherL. E.BrownJ. (editors), Michigan Discussions in Anthropology, No. 10, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, pp. 107–125
20.
GolandCarol1993Agricultural Risk Management through Diversity: Field Scattering in Cuyo Cuyo, Peru, Culture and Agriculture, 45-46: 8–13
21.
GroveJean M.2004Little Ice Ages: Ancient and Modern (2 Vols.), Routledge, London
22.
HalsteadP.O'SheaJ. (editors) 1989Bad Year Economics: Cultural Responses to Risk and Uncertainty, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
23.
HamesRaymond1990Sharing among the Yanomamo: Part 1, The Effects of Risk, in Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies, CashdanE. (editor), Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 89–105
24.
HartJohn P.1993Monongahela Subsistence-Settlement Change: The Late Prehistoric Period in the Lower Upper Ohio River Valley, Journal of World Prehistory, 7: 71–120
25.
HayConran A.BeckermanIra C.StevensonChristopher M.1980The 1979-1980 Central Region Archaeological Survey, report submitted to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg. The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology, University Park
26.
JonesP. D.BradleyR. S.JouzelJ. (editors) 1996Climate Variations and Forcing Mechanisms of the Last 2000 Years, Springer Verlag, Berlin
27.
KennettDouglas J.WinterhalderBruce (editors) 2006Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture, University of California Press, Berkeley
28.
KinseyIIIFredW.GraybillJeffery R.1971Murry Site and its Role in Lancaster and Funk Phases of Shenks Ferry Culture, Pennsylvania Archaeologist, 41(4): 7–44
29.
LamarcheV. C.Jr.1974Paleoclimatic Inferences from Long Tree-Ring Records, Science, 183: 1043–1048
30.
LambH. H.1977Climate—Past, Present and Future, Volume 2: Climate History and Future, Methuen, London
31.
LambH. H.1995Climate, History and the Modern World, Methuen, London
32.
LarocqueS. J.SmithD. J.2003Little Ice Age Glacial Activity in the Mt. Waddington Area, British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, Canadian Journal of Earth Science, 40: 1413–1436
33.
LadurieEmmanuel le Roy1971Times of Feast, Times of Famine: A History of Climate Since the Year 1000, Doubleday, New York
34.
LuckmanB. H.1994Evidence for Climatic Conditions between ca. 900-1300 A.D. in the Southern Canadian Rockies, Climate Change, 30: 1–12
35.
LuckmanB. H.1995Calendar-dated Early Little Ice Age Glacier Advance at Robson Glacier, British Columbia, Canada, The Holocene, 5: 149–159
36.
MacDonaldDouglas H.2003Pennsylvania Archaeological Data Synthesis: The Upper Juniata River Sub-Basin 11 (Watersheds A-D), Walter Industrial Park: Mitigation of Adverse Effects; United States Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration; Greenfield Township, Blair County, Pennsylvania, report prepared for Keller Engineers, Inc., Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. GAI Consultants, Inc., Monroeville, Pennsylvania. (BHP ER No. 00-2888-013)
37.
MannMichael E.2002Little Ice Age, in Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change Volume 1: The Earth System: Physical and Chemical Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, MacCrackenM. C.PerryJ. S. (editors), John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, England, pp. 504–509
38.
McGovernThomas H.PerdikarisSophia2000The Vikings' Silent Saga: What Went Wrong with the Scandinavian Westward Expansion?Natural History Magazine, October 2000: 51–56
39.
MichelsJoseph W.1967A Culture History of the Sheep [Rock] Shelter, in Archaeological Investigations of Sheep Rock Shelter, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania (Vols. 1 and 2), MichelsJ. W.SmithI. C.III (editors), The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology, Occasional Papers, University Park, pp. 801–824
40.
MinnisPaul E.1996Notes on Economic Uncertainty and Human Behavior in the Prehistoric North American Southwest, in Evolving Complexity and Environmental Risk in the Prehistoric Southwest, TainterJ.TainterB. B. (editors), Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, pp. 57–78
41.
NicholsDeborah L.1983Risk and Agricultural Intensification during the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico, American Anthropologist, 89(3): 596–616
42.
RaberPaul A.2008The Mykut Rockshelter, 36Hu143: An Upland Hunting/Butchering Station in Central Pennsylvania, Archaeology of Eastern North America, 36: 25–62
43.
RaberPaul A.2009Archaeological Investigations at 36Fa368: Implications For the Study of Monongahela Settlement Patterns, Pennsylvania Archaeologist, 79(1): 1–29
44.
RaberPaul A.BurnsJonathan A.CarrBrenda A.MinnichbachNicole C.VentoFrank J.2005Archaeological Testing and Data Recovery Investigations (Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Studies), Site 36Hu143, Mykut Rockshelter, S.R. 3001, Little Valley Road, Todd Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania (2 vols.), report prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 9-0, and the Federal Highway Administration. Heberling Associates, Inc., Alexandria, Pennsylvania. (BHP ER No. 94-0607-061)
45.
RamenofskyAnn F.1987Vectors of Death: The Archaeology of European Contact, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque
46.
RyderJ. M.1987Neoglacial History of the Stikine-Iskut Area, Northern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 24: 1294–1301
47.
SmithDaniel J.LaroqueColin P.1996Dendroglaciological Dating of a Little Ice Age Glacial Advance at Moving Glacier, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Géographie physique et Quaternaire, 50(1): 47–55
48.
SmithIra C.III1966Raystown Reservoir Archaeological Salvage and Survey Program, Final Report, report submitted to the National Park Service, Northeast Region, Philadelphia
49.
SmithIra C.III1967Survey Excavations in the Raystown Drainage. In Archaeological Investigations of Sheep Rock Shelter, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania (Vol. 2), MichelsJ. B.SmithI. F.III (editors), The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology, Occasional Papers, University Park, pp. 745–799
50.
SpertzelStaci E.AbramsElliot M.FreterAnncorinneSpringerGregory S.2007Facing Monday Creek Rockshelter (33HO414): A Late Woodland Hunting Location in Southeastern Ohio, Pennsylvania Archaeologist, 77(1): 53–70
51.
SpurlockLinda B.PruferOlaf H.PigottThomas R.2006Caves and Culture: 10,000 Years of Ohio History, Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio
52.
SpurlockLinda B.PruferOlaf H.2006Conclusion: Ohio Caves and Rockshelters, from Prehistory to History, in Caves and Culture: 10,000 Years of Ohio History, SpurlockLinda B.PruferOlaf H.PigottThomas R. (editors), The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, pp. 444–457
53.
StahleDavid W.ClevelandMalcolm K.BlantonDennis B.TerrellMatthew D.GayDavid A.1998The Lost Colony and Jamestown Droughts, Science, 280: 564–567
54.
StahleDavid W.CookEdwardClevelandMalcolm K.TerrellMatthew D.MekoDavid M.Grissino-MayerHenri D.WatsonEmmaLuckmanBrian H.2000Tree-ring Data Document 16th Century Megadrought over North America, EOS: Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 81(12):121, 125
55.
TainterJoseph A.TainterB.B. (editors) 1996Evolving Complexity and Environmental Risk in the Prehistoric Southwest, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts
56.
TaylorW. P.1956The Deer of North America, Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
TestartAlain1982The Significance of Food Storage among Hunter-Gatherers, Current Anthropology, 23: 523–537
59.
TestartAlain1988Food Storage among Hunter-Gatherers: More or Less Security in the Way of Life?, in Coping with Uncertainty in Food Supply, deGarineI.HarrisonG. A. (editors), Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 170–174
60.
ThompsonVictor D.TurckJohn A.2009Adaptive Cycles of Coastal Hunter-Gatherers, American Antiquity, 74(2): 255–278
61.
TippinsWilliam H.2007An Inventory of Western Pennsylvania Rockshelters, Pennsylvania Archaeologist, 77(2): 34–69
62.
WebsterGary S.1978Deer Utilization by Aboriginal Peoples Inhabiting the Sheep Rock Shelter Site, M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
63.
WilesGregory C.BarclayDavid J.CalkinParker E.1999Tree-Ring-Dated ‘Little Ice Age’ Histories of Maritime Glaciers from Western Prince William Sound, Alaska, The Holocene, 9(2): 163–173
64.
WyattAndrew2003Early and Middle Woodland Settlement Data for the Susquehanna Basin, in Foragers and Farmers of the Early and Middle Woodland Periods in Pennsylvania, RaberPaul A.CowinVerna L. (editors), Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, pp. 35–47
