| The Gast Farm site (13LA12) in southeastern Iowa contains a Middle Woodland Havana component and an early Late Woodland Weaver component, both of which are underlain by an Early Woodland Black Sand component. The ceramic assemblages from the Middle and Late Woodland components were analyzed to clarify the social and subsistence changes that occurred during the Middle to Late Woodland transition.; The Havana sample of 25,445 pottery fragments weighing 83,912 g included 4,121 sherds larger than 4 cm2, which weighed 53,274 g. A Weaver subsample of 19,918 fragments weighing 50,000 g included 3,462 sherds larger than 4 cm2, which weighed 28,674 g. Estimates of the minimum number of vessels are 320 for the Havana sample and 255 for the Weaver sample. K-means clustering of sherd latitudinal and longitudinal curvatures suggest the presence of at least four vessel size-shape categories. Mean vessel size increased slightly between the Havana and Weaver occupations; the proportions of the different size-shape classes changed more. The pottery from each component exhibited a small but significant change through time in vessel wall thickness: an increase in the Havana occupation, and a decrease in the Weaver occupation.; A total of 165 food residue samples were analyzed. Food residue data show a greater frequency of fish than of large herbivore in the Havana assemblage, and more equable frequencies of fish and large herbivore in the Weaver assemblage. In conjunction with the faunal analysis, these data suggest that deer may have been preferentially roasted during the Havana occupation as compared to the Weaver occupation. The absence of plant residues in the Havana assemblage is attributed to preservation bias. The high frequency of apparent beaver residues in the Weaver assemblage is attributed to the lack of available residue data for turtles. |
