Ancient Pottery, Cuisine, and Society at the Northern Great Lakes

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This innovative archaeological study of diet and cooking technology sheds light on ancient cuisine, a hot topic in contemporary archaeology. It explores changing settlement and subsistence in the Northern Great Lakes through the lens of food-processing technology and cooking. The author examines precontact Indigenous pottery from the Cloudman site on Drummond Island, Michigan, to investigate how pottery technology, use, diet, and cooking habits evolved over time and how these changes relate to shifts in subsistence, settlement, and social patterns among Indigenous pottery-making groups. The study demonstrates that ceramic technology and cooking techniques adapted to meet new subsistence and processing needs. Interpretations of past cuisine and culinary identities are enriched by comparisons with ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of local Indigenous cooking and diet. This approach highlights the complex interplay of technology, environment, and social relationships, showcasing the potential applications of these methods to longstanding questions in the Northern Great Lakes and other archaeological contexts globally. This clearly written work will engage students and scholars of archaeology and anthropology, as well as those interested in Indigenous studies, food studies, cuisine, pottery, cooking, and food history.