Prehistoric Plant Use at Beaver Creek Rock Shelter, Southwestern Montana, U.S.A.

• Main Authors: Dexter, Darla, Martin, Kathleen, Travis, Lauri
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Botany Department, University of Hawaii at Manoa 2014
• Subjects: Beaver Creek
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/34006

The 2011 Carroll College Archaeological Field School conducted an exploratory excavation within the Beaver Creek Rock Shelter in southwestern Montana, U.S.A. The excavation exposed four cultural occupation layers dat-ing to over 2,500 years ago. Pollen retrieved from the pa-leoenvironmental record included a wide variety of plants. Seven plant families were found in three of the occupa-tion layers and in only one natural layer. This research reviewed the traditional Native American ethnobotanical uses of those seven plant families. They were used pri-marily for medicinal purposes. Although archaeologists have traditionally viewed botanical remains as evidence of prehistoric subsistence, this research demonstrates ar-chaeologists’ need to use caution in assuming plant re-mains in the archaeological record are predominately tied to subsistence.