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5 A Formal Model for Predicting Agriculture among the Fremont K. Renee Barlow 87 People living in the Fremont region (eastern Great Basin and northern Colorado Plateau) cultivated maize for more than 700 years, from AD 600 to 1300. In many respects, Fremont material culture is similar to other Southwestern archaeological traditions. However, the people who produced Fremont assemblages continued to rely on hunting and the collection of wild plants throughout the Formative period, with archaeological evidence supporting rather extreme interassemblage diversity in the importance of agricultural crops relative to local, indigenous food sources. In this chapter, the archaeological record of the Fremont is briefly reviewed, and a formal model is presented that predicts when foragers should have invested time in agricultural activities versus hunting or collecting wild foods. The model predicts that foragers will farm when the expected marginal energetic return for a particular farming activity (kcal/hr) is greater than the immediate return rate for foraging (kcal/hr), not as a function of potential or average harvest yields (kcal/ha) per se. The implications of this model for expecting spatial and temporal diversity in agricultural investments among Fremont foragers and farmers are discussed. Found primarily in Utah north of the Colorado River, Fremont archaeological sites include pithouse villages and rancherías, adobewalled granaries and pueblos, masonry structures, and distinctive regional styles of pottery, rock art, ground stone, and projectile points. Figure 5.1 shows the approximate locations of several dozen excavated sites which have played important roles in interpretations of Fremont lifeways. Most assemblages date to between AD 600 and 1400 (Aikens 1966; Jennings 1978; Madsen 1989; Marwitt 1986; Massimino and Metcalfe 1999; Talbot and Wilde 1989). The people who produced these assemblages cultivated maize and were contemporary with Basketmaker and Puebloan farming cultures in the Virgin, Kayenta, and Mesa Verde regions to the south, and hunter-gatherers in the Great Basin and on the Columbia Plateau. Although synchronous with hundreds of Basketmaker agricultural hamlets and villages in neighboring Puebloan areas (e.g., Blackburn and Williamson 1997; Decker and Teizen 1989; Lipe 1993; Matson 1994; Matson and Chisolm 1991), sites (500 BC to AD 300) in the Fremont region consist primarily of Late Archaic camps with the addition of maize and the bow and arrow in only a handful of assemblages. Table 5.1 outlines changes in assemblages during the agricultural transition in the Fremont region. Early sites with maize include Cowboy Cave (Figure 5.1), the Alvey site, Steinaker, the Elsinore burial, Clydes Cavern, and several sites in the Fremont River drainage (Geib 1993; Geib and Bungart 1989; Talbot and Richens 1996; Wilde et al. 1986; Wintch and Springer 2001; Winter and Wylie 1974). It appears that during this time some Archaic foragers in the Fremont region began incorporating maize horticulture into seasonal hunting and plant collection strategies. Between AD 300 and 600, the archaeological record still consists mainly of Archaic camps, but with the addition of several dozen open, aceramic hunter-gatherer/horticultural habitation sites. These assemblages commonly include Archaic dart points, arrow points, Archaic ground stone, exterior hearths, bellshaped storage pits, the remains of indigenous plant foods, and often maize. Some also contain shallow, dish-shaped habitation floors that may be the remains of wickiups or shallow pit structures (e.g., Geib 1993; Gruebel 1996; Schroedl 1992; Talbot and Wilde 1989; Tipps 1992). One 88 predicting agriculture among the fremont TABLE 5.1 time period archaeological assemblages in the fremont region Mainly Archaic camp assemblages, a handful with the addition of maize and arrow points. Also some open Archaic habitation sites with shallow pithouse or wickiuplike structures, but these are without maize. Most sites are still Archaic camps, but maize is often present. Also several dozen habitation sites with Archaic points, Archaic ground stone, exterior hearths, bell-shaped storage pits, slab-lined cists, and/or shallow habitation structures. Sites with habitation structures often contain the remains of indigenous plant foods, typically are aceramic, and some yield maize. The earliest ceramics are securely dated to this period. Still some Archaic camp assemblages, but a shift from several dozen sites with maize and ceramics to the predominance and near ubiquity of maize and ceramics on sites around or shortly after AD 800. Pithouses are still fairly rare. Hundreds of camps and habitations yield diagnostic Fremont ceramics, maize, ground stone and arrow points. Many habitation assemblages also include stone balls, ceramic figurines and pipes. Pithouse hamlets and villages are common, small pueblos are rare, wickiups are rare, and...

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