Storage: structures, containers and wrappings

Dr Penny Cunningham, University of Exeter, June 2014

Image: four acorn storage structures, California, US (Kidder 2004) http://www.primitiveways.com/acorn%20granary.html

Image: pit features located in a cobble beach, Labrador, Canada (Stopp 2002:

320 )

Image: Innu shaped meat cache, Canada (Stopp

2002: 314))

Image: pit store, New Zealandhttp://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BesAgri-t1-body-d4-d20.html

Ethnohistorical data:

‘The grain being dried, they put it into baskets woven of rushes or wild hemp, and bury it in the earth, where they let it lie’(Isaack de Rasieres1628:107-108).

Pits were also lined with matt or bark

Stored: acorns and corn

Image: reconstruction drawing of pottery vessels containing nuts being stored in the ground at the Puncheon Run site, Delaware, USA

Jomon Period, Japan, 14,000-400 BC

Image: storage pits from Kuribayashi, Japan, c. 3000-400 BC (Habu 2004: 65)

Images: storage pits from four Jomon sites showing different storage methods

(Habu 2004: 66)

European Iron Age cereal grain storage pits

Image: Classification of Iron Age pit profiles (after Bersu 1940, in Marshall 2011: 148)

Three images of grain storage experiments by Peter Reynolds at Butser Ancient Farm, UK

15 years of experiments

(Marshall 2011)

Results: Experiments 2 & 3 produced the best results

(Experiment 1: a straw lined sealed pit and a pit with no lining but sealed)

Experiment 2 Experiment 3

Image: Experiment 3 storage methodology(Marshall 2011: 164)

Image: Experiment 2 storage methodology (Marshall 2011: 162)

Hazelnut and acorn pit storage methods

Pit storage method 3

California: different materials used to construct a variety of acorn storage

facilities

Image: suggested construction of a elevated silo Sierra Miwok style (Kidder 2004) http://www.primitiveways.com/acorn%20granary.html

Image: an inverted basket, Yokut style (Kidder, 2004)http://www.primitiveways.com/acorn%20granary.html Image: an acorn or seed storage

granary http://www.thepollockpinesepic.com/title/early-inhabitants/

Image: acorn storage http://www.curdhome.co.uk/2008/09/

Image: granary used to store dried acorns, a Tongva staple food. http://www.runajambi.net/tongva/introduction.htm

• Below ground – pits or silos• Above ground – granaries, baskets, pottery vessels, bags hanging or

on shelves• On the ground – Pottery vessels, ‘bins’, baskets

• Using a variety of materials and methods depending on what materials are available, the environment, length of storage, and type of resources to be stored

• Most methods would leave little trace in the archaeological record

References:Cunningham, P. (2005) Assumptive holes and how to fill them. EuroREA 2: 55-66

Cunningham, P. (2011) Cache or carry: food storage in prehistoric Europe. In D. C.E. Millson (ed) Experimentation and interpretation: the use of experimental archaeology in the study of the past. pp 7-28. Oxford: Oxbow Book.

Habu, J. (2004) Ancient Jomon of Japan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Kidder, N. (2002) Acorn Granaries of California. The Bulletin of Primitive Technology 2004: 28. http://www.primitiveways.com/acorn%20granary.html

Marshall, A. (2011) Experimental Archaeology: 1. Early Bronze Age cremation pyres. 2. Iron Age grain storage. Oxford: BAR British Series 530.

Reynolds, P.J. (1974) Experimental Iron Age storage pits: an interim report. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 40: 118-31.

Stopp, M.P. (2002) Ethnohistories analogies for storage as an adaptive strategy in northeastern subarctic prehistory. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 21: 301-328.