Plant Remains From a Woodland Storage Pit, Boney Spring, Missouri

An Early Woodland storage pit, dated at 1920±50 BP, was found in the peat layer surrounding the spring feeder at Boney Spring, Benton County, western Missouri, in association with a burial and other cultural material. The pit contents were unusually well preserved, apparently because of the saturated condition of the spring deposits. Materials from the pit were compared with plant remains from a control block removed from the surrounding contemporary peat layer. The pit contained masses of white oak and bur oak acorns, numerous shagbark hickory nuts, and seven species of autumnal seeds, i ncl udi ng squash (Cucurbita pepo), giant ragweed, poke berry, wild pi um, elderberry, cocklebur, and black haw which did not occur in the control block and which indicate the contents were placed in the pit during the fall.