title: Engineered feature used to enhance gardening at a 3800-year-old site on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
abstract: Humans use a variety of deliberate means to modify biologically rich environs in pursuit of resource stability and predictability. Empirical evidence suggests that ancient hunter-gatherer populations engineered ecological niches to enhance the productivity and availability of economically significant resources. An archaeological excavation of a 3800-year-old wetland garden in British Columbia, Canada, provides the first direct evidence of an engineered feature designed to facilitate wild plant food production among mid-to-late Holocene era complex fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Northwest Coast. This finding provides an example of environmental, economic, and sociopolitical coevolutionary relationships that are triggered when humans manipulate niche environs.
authors.affiliation: Katzie Development Limited Partnership, 10946 Katzie Road, Pitt Meadows, British Columbia V3Y 2G6, Canada.; School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.affiliation: Ursus Heritage Consulting Ltd., 11500 Coldstream Creek Road, Coldstream, British Columbia V1B 1E3, Canada.; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.affiliation: Katzie Development Limited Partnership, 10946 Katzie Road, Pitt Meadows, British Columbia V3Y 2G6, Canada.
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Katzie Development Limited Partnership, 10946 Katzie Road, Pitt Meadows, British Columbia V3Y 2G6, Canada.
authors.forename: Alejandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.affiliation: Katzie Development Limited Partnership, 10946 Katzie Road, Pitt Meadows, British Columbia V3Y 2G6, Canada.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1581-5179
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Homan
authors.affiliation: Katzie Development Limited Partnership, 10946 Katzie Road, Pitt Meadows, British Columbia V3Y 2G6, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huddlestan
authors.affiliation: Katzie Development Limited Partnership, 10946 Katzie Road, Pitt Meadows, British Columbia V3Y 2G6, Canada.
authors.forename: Roma
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leon
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D005502:Food; D051639:Gardening / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D015205:Northwestern United States
keywords: Hunter-Gatherers; Northwest Coast archaeology; pre-contact wild plant cultivation; wet-site archaeology