Salvage excavations were conducted at the Macy sire (14RY38), a multi-component campsite on a terrace remnant of an unnamed second-order stream that drains into the Kansas River near Manhattan, Kansas. Five Early Ceramic (Plains Woodland) cultural components were defined using a variety of data sets. The lower four components date to A.D. 2-654, based on calibrated radiocarbon age determinations, while the upper component is a mix of Early and Middle Ceramic and Euroamerican age materials. The earliest two components represent short-term occupations focused on lithic tool production and maintenance. The later components represent more complex site activities and longer-term occupation. The extensive record of Early Ceramic occupation from this part of northeastern Kansas was largely undated prior to investigations at the Macy site. The age estimates from the site are a first step toward anchoring that occupation in calendar time and providing data needed for studying cultural dynamics and other problems in regional prehistory.

Burned rock complexes (BRC) have a broad geographic distribution. However, they are not a fully understood class of cultural feature. Dated to Early/Middle Woodland times by some Plains researchers, BRC also have been attributed to Late Archaic cultures in the Eastern Woodlands (e.g., Kentucky Shell Mound Archaic). Archaeologists have documented important Late Archaic/Middle Woodland cooking technologies other than BRC as well. These technological improvements include baked clay objects, steatite cooking slabs, and fiber- and mineral-tempered ceramics. Comparing various contextual, functional, and physical characteristics for these cooking tools results in an improved understanding of the advantages conferred by each. Such an understanding will shed light on the varying circumstances under which prehistoric groups utilized cooking technologies. The overall goal of this article is to develop models which account for the full range of variation in late prehistoric economies of the Central Plains and Eastern Woodlands.

Macrobotanical data from several southeastern New England sites are reviewed to provide a framework for examining changing social organization during the Late Woodland (ca. a.d. 800–1600). This article argues that the degree to which incipient maize horticulture entailed shifts in social complexity has not been well-defined by researchers. Minimally, introduction of maize into traditional economies gave rise to comparatively more complex relationships between resident late prehistoric groups and local environmental regimes. A gradually increasing commitment to economic systems which included maize and other seed-bearing plants led to increased levels of complexity in labor organization and land-use practices. Changing perceptions of cultural “belongingness,” prompted by competition for lands suitable for cultivation, influenced how local groups conceived and expressed intra-and intergroup sociopolitical identities. Such shifts in perceptions of sociopolitical differences in late prehistory are traceable in ideological structures reflected in mortuary patterning represented in the regional archaeological record.