Storage Behavior in the Northeast: A Review of the Evidence

Abstract

The storage of foodstuffs is generally considered to be a precondition of horticulture and sedentism. Possible forms of storage facilities documented either in the ethnohistoric records for the Northeast or suggested in the archaeological literature are described and discussed. Alternative functional interpretations are also considered but, in all cases, the role for use as storage facilities is argued to be at least as convincing as the alternative functions. Possible uses of this data in more broadly based applications are also considered.