Professor Emeritus Dr. William Lovis of the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University found something he didn’t expect when studying maize in Michigan.
“The most unexpected outcome was the observation that there was a clear separation of living spaces used for residential, food preparation and consumption activities, and areas used for subterranean food storage and possibly crop production,” Lovis said. “Similar patterns had been noted elsewhere in Michigan, but it was only with the use of many lines of data were we able to discern this on the Bay City Moraine.”
Lovis and MSU alumna Dr. Kathryn Egan-Bruhy of Chronicle Heritage LLC have co-authored an article in The Holocene titled “Multiproxy Analysis of Indigenous Maize (Zea mays) Use, Lower Saginaw River, Great Lakes, USA.”
The research reexamined data from more than 60 years of field investigations and analytic studies conducted along the Bay City Moraine on the lower Saginaw River in Michigan. The goal was to better understand the history and adoption of maize at a subregional level.
“Maize was a significant local food crop at European contact in the 1600s and onward,” Lovis said. “The Saginaw River drainage was an area with an abundant archaeological record that allowed refined investigation into the history of maize use in the larger region.”
The study compiled existing macrobotanical data from carbonized maize, microbotanical and carbon isotope data from carbonized cooking residues on ceramic jars, direct and associated carbon-14 and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) age assays, and information on 18th-century dental health. The findings provide a refined, two-millennia perspective on the adoption and use of maize in the region.
The research also uncovered a previously unnoticed spatial differentiation between areas used for maize storage and processing—possibly including cropping—and residential locations where maize was prepared for consumption.
The study highlights how combining smaller, independent historical datasets with coarser resolution can reveal patterns that deepen understanding of indigenous maize use.
The article can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836241307306