Madison Mercer and Dr. Michael Searcy, Department of Anthropology
The research for this project began in August 2011 and finished in April 2012. The goal was to understand how plants were anciently used for food or medicine. To determine this, archaeological data would have to be coupled with more modern ethnographic data of living peoples. This is because there is no clear way to determine how people anciently used plants and because it is possible that modern indigenous groups used plants in similar ways.
The first four months of this research, from August to December, were spent finding and identifying seeds from eighteen human coprolites (ancient fecal material) from Spotten Cave, Utah. This archaeological site, near Goshen, Utah, was chosen because the coprolites thereof come from various periods throughout time and as such could show how plant use may have changed chronologically. Also during these four months was the initial research into plant use by modern Utah indigenous groups, namely: the Shoshone, Gosiute, and Ute.
From December to April, seed analysis was completed and research continued, culminating in my Senior Thesis for my Baccalaureate degree in Archaeology. The conclusions drawn from this research are as follows:
- Coprolite analysis has both strengths and weaknesses. For example, a strength is that one can know exactly what someone ate. Yet that is in and of itself a weakness because only the diet of one individual over a short period of time is manifested in each coprolite.
- Despite these weaknesses, understanding of plant use as based on coprolite analysis at Spotten Cave shows that plant use changed over time, both in the plants used and the frequency thereof. Many cultural and environmental elements factor into this change over time, however cultural factors are harder to uncover than environmental. This is why comparing what is found archaeologically with what is known ethnographically is important.
- Through using many ethnographic records, old and new, oral histories or historical documents, an increased understanding of prehistoric plant use as it may relate culturally can be uncovered. Because of ethnographic data, light can be shed as to the how, why, when, and what of plant use. Albeit this light must be filtered, as cautioned by Julian H. Steward, it is a light all the same.
- Seed analysis of eighteen prehistoric human coprolites, coupled with ethnographic data, illustrates how those once living in Utah in the eastern Great Basin not only consumed wild botanical resources as much as—and in some cases more than—domesticated plants, but that there were specific reasons for this pattern consumption. As one of the few botanical analyses for prehistoric populations in Utah Valley, the research here is of particular importance because of its review of plants used through time, from 5580±120 BP to 50 BP. This time span has shown the changes in plant use, the frequency thereof, and that many plants were used consistently across cultural and temporal boundaries.
The results of this research were presented in the Mary Lou Fulton’s April 2012 Poster Research Symposium and academic journals are currently being browsed as possible future publications, including Utah Archaeology and Ethnobotany Research and Applications.
My experience with this project was very positive, especially since I was the one who created the question and the subsequent research plan. This I feel was beneficial because since I was the author of the project, I was more motivated to work and had a greater love of that work.
The role of my mentor was also very positive because he, Dr. Searcy, would prod when I needed prodding but allowed me to go at my own pace which led to me motivating myself to finish the project. Dr. Searcy also patiently reviewed rough drafts of my senior thesis as well as helped me organize my poster presentation through spotting errors where I had not seen them and
helping me sort through difficult passages.
If I could do something differently it would be to have started this project earlier in my academic stay here at BYU. This would have allowed me to analyze a larger seed sample as well as conduct a more intensive cross-cultural comparison of plant use, both modernly and anciently. I would also have taken more plant classes at BYU that would have helped me understand plants, their growing seasons, their parts, and how they can be used. Other places to study, had I more time, would have been when plants fruit and seed, what plants have been introduced to the area, and what plants may have gone extinct.
Overall, this project was very fulfilling as I was able to ask a question I was curious about, study it out—with faculty aid—and search for answers. In the end, the conclusions I drew were close to what I had initially hypothesized.