Maize Cultivation in Coastal New York: The Archaeological, Agronomical, and Documentary Evidence

Abstract

The traditional model for New York's coastal Algonquians assumes the development of sedentary life based on successful cultivation of maize beginning sometime in the Woodland period. Analyses of the archaeological, agronomical, and documentary evidence for maize, however, strongly suggests that productivity of this important cultigen was poor, limited, and of late most probably post-contact beginnings. It is therefore proposed that year-round village life first developed as a response to historic economic activities, such as wampum manufacture and European trade, rather than on a reliance on maize.