Prospecting for Gardens

What is it about?

Finding places where prehistoric peoples got their food is difficult with traditional methods. Using geochemical and geophysical methods we may be able to locate places where the environment is subtly modified. A case study illustrates the potential of such an approach in central Indiana.

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Why is it important?

Focusing on artifact-rich sites means we are missing crucial parts of the full cultural and subsistence systems of past groups. Further the archaeological record is dominated by small sites of unknown function. Only when we study these oft-ignored aspects of the archaeological record will be able to reconstruct the full suite of past human behaviors.