Paleoethnobotany on the Northern Plains: The Tuscany Archaeological Site (EgPn-377) Calgary

An extensive sediment sampling project was part of the overall excavation strategy for the Tuscany Site Archaeological Project (EgPn-377), location of the University of Calgary field school from 1995-1997. A series of paleosols in the lower stratigraphy yielded charred botanical remains and other materials like insects and terrestrial mollusks. The charred botanical remains were the focus of this study, enabling a paleoenvironmental reconstruction analysis and a paleoethnobotanical interpretation for people living in the landscape at ~7800 years ago. This study provides a very rare glimpse and summary of some of the in situ paleo-vegetation cover found in a dry-land site on the high plains of North America during the early Holocene.