Corn
Corn remains, like hickory nutshell, are well represented at all three sites. Ubiquity and percentage are both highest for the Fredricks site, based on site totals. However, corn percentage is highly variable between contexts at the Fredricks site, ranging from a low of 2.6% (Structure 1) to a high of 68.3% (Feature 9, Zone 3). The high proportion of corn in Feature 9 is largely responsible for the surprisingly high site total of 41.0%.
Whether or not to accept the Fredricks site corn percentages as directly comparable to those from the other two sites depends to a large extent upon how Feature 9 differs from other features in the composition of its plant remains assemblage. Feature 9, especially Zone 3, contains a high number of seed taxa compared to upper and lower burial fill from selected burials, fill from Features 10, 11, 12, and 13 (all shallow pits), and Structure 1 (associated with Feature 9) (Table 24). Corn percentage is also unusually high, particularly for Zone 3. In Zone 3b within Feature 9, which is defined as clusters of charred corn kernels and bark resting on the floor of the pit, corn comprises 95.8 % of plant food remains. For this reason, results from this zone were not included in site totals. Zone 3b possibly represents some specialized activity involving food processing or consumption, and, as such, it is not directly comparable with other contexts (such as midden and shallower pits) that probably represent trash deposits.
Although Feature 9 is a rich source of information, some care must be exercised in interpreting its plant remains. For comparison between sites, similar contexts should be compared in this case. Burial fill from Wall and Fredricks contains similar proportions of corn remains. Similarly, the number of kernels per gram of plant food remains is quite close based upon waterscreened material (no corn kernels were found in the Wall site burial flotation samples). Neither an increase nor a decrease in use of corn can be established between the Wall and Fredricks site occupations. It is certain that corn remained an important crop into historic times, and likely that it may have retained its former level of importance.
Although the overall percentage of corn at the Mitchum site is relatively low, the presence of two cob-filled pits at the site points to its importance there. Additionally, a study of the seed assemblage from several features at the site indicates that some of those features probably were formed during early- to mid-summer. There is a fairly strong correlation between low corn percentage and summer seasonal profiles (r=0.82, Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient, significant at the 0.05 level, two-tailed), based on selected feature data from all three sites. Thus, the unexpectedly low representation of corn at Mitchum may be a reflection of a seasonally specific strategy of harvesting grasses (primarily maygrass, a relatively reliable seasonal indicator) during the spring and summer when corn stores were low and other crops were not yet available. Corn was an important crop for Mitchum site people, but its relative importance on a year-round basis cannot yet be determined.
Beans
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is rare on archaeological sites in the East until after circa A.D. 1200 (Yarnell 1983:5). It was found at both the Wall and Fredricks sites. Its representation at these two sites is quite similar in both ubiquity and percentage. The fact that beans may have been prepared by boiling rather than parching or roasting may account for its limited occurrence at both sites. Beyond this, little can be said about the importance of beans for the Wall and Fredricks site populations.
Cucurbits
Rind fragments of cucurbits (members of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae) were found at Mitchum and Fredricks. They represent either bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria Standley) or "squash" (Cucurbita sp.). The latter taxon is also represented at the Fredricks site by three seeds of Cucurbita pepo L., probably a gourdy (as opposed to fleshy) variety, on the basis of seed size (Richard Yarnell, personal communication 1984). It is likely that the fruits were used as containers, and perhaps for food as well.
Native Grains
Several different kinds of grasses are represented at the Fredricks and Mitchum sites. Most of these could be identified only to the family level (Poaceae) or to the category "barley/fescue," which includes grains similar to little barley except for their size. However, large numbers of maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana Walter) and smaller numbers of little barley (Hordeum pusillum L.) grains were found in Feature 6 at the Mitchum site. Chenopod (Chenopodium sp.) from Wall and Fredricks and sumpweed (Iva annua var. macrocarpa Jackson) from Wall will also be discussed as grain seeds (in some cases more properly called fruits; here the term "seeds" will be used to refer to both).
A single sumpweed seed was recovered from the fill of a Wall site burial. Its dimensions (6.7 x 5.3 mm with corrections for carbonization) place it well within the range of the cultigen variety of Mississippian times (Yarnell 1978). This large-seeded variety, which was presumably the result of human-mediated selection, is known only archaeologically, and its decline as a crop is not yet well understood. Although the Wall site population may have grown sumpweed, its importance there cannot be assessed on the basis of a single specimen. It is important to note, however, that this native crop plant persisted so late in the Piedmont, and that it was dispersed so far to the east from its native range in the Mississippi drainage.
A small number of chenopod seeds was recovered from the Fredricks site, and a single specimen was found in a Wall site midden flotation sample. Like sumpweed, chenopod was an important crop plant in some parts of the East, and shows some evidence of morphological change under domestication (Fritz 1984; B. Smith 1985). However, chenopod is also a weedy taxon, and its presence in small numbers does not argue convincingly for its use here as food.
The Mitchum site shows the strongest evidence for utilization of native starchy seeds, mainly in the form of maygrass and little barley grains. Maygrass has been found archaeologically outside of its modern natural range, which is considered evidence of its role as a crop (Cowan 1978; Yarnell 1983). Since it is an annual species that fruits in the early part of the year, maygrass has been classified as a "cool-season" grass (Bohrer 1975). In west-central Illinois, little barley has also been classed as a crop plant because of its abundance in archaeological contexts (Asch and Asch 1983:687). The large numbers of maygrass grains found at Mitchum provide strong evidence of harvesting and perhaps also husbandry.
The deposits at Mitchum that contain maygrass have in general a relatively early seasonal profile based upon seed types. They also contain relatively small amounts of corn remains. Therefore, the presence of large quantities of maygrass may be evidence of a seasonal pattern of grass-collecting in the spring and early summer months, when most edible fruits as well as crops would have been in short supply. Although there is as yet no evidence for similar patterns at Wall or Fredricks, the possibility of their existence should not be ruled out until material from deposits with similar seasonal parameters can be examined.