DIET DURING THE EARLY LATE WOODLAND: STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF ABSORBED FOOD RESIDUES IN CERAMICS AT THE APPLE CREEK AND EGAN SITES

A major transition in the Pre-Columbian Midwest was the end of the Havana-Hopewell Tradition in Illinois. This tradition, based largely on an ideology that expressed itself as a thriving ceremonial practice, centered around burial mounds and earthworks during the Middle Woodland Period (100 BCE- 400 CE). As this period came to a close this ceremonial tradition began to melt away. The Apple Creek Site and the Egan Site represent places where this transition was directly experienced. One way to look at how this transition was negotiated is through dietary practices. This study uses stable isotope analysis to look at the dietary practices at these sites during the Whitehall Phase.