Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Midwest Foodways: Ceramic and Zooarchaeological Information from the Moore-Youse House and Huddleston Farmstead

Settled by families from the South and the Northeast, during the 1800s Indiana was a cultural crossroads. Ceramic and faunal data recovered from excavations conducted at the Moore-Youse house and Huddleston farmstead in east central Indiana provide a relevant archaeological example of midwestern foodways during the nineteenth century. Vertebrate faunal material from the two sites reveals early use of wild resources followed by greater reliance on beef and pork after the 1850s. Stratigraphic analysis results of zooarchaeological information are also presented to illustrate diachronic trends in faunal use at the two residences.