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Reconstructing the Paleodiet of the Caddo through Stable Isotopes

Abstract Maize agriculture is often regarded as a key component in understanding and evaluating the Mississippian culture and related cultures. It is becoming clear that the spread and intensification of maize agriculture relates to the dissemination of Mississippian cultural traits in a variety of ways, rather than through a set trajectory. In this article, we focus on the Caddo, who have been postulated to have subsisted on smaller amounts of maize than other Mississippian-like groups to their east and northeast. The use of stable isotope analysis provides a direct means of comparing the amounts of maize consumed among various Mississippian-related cultures. We synthesize the results of Caddo stable isotope studies to compare the process of maize agricultural intensification among the Caddo to other archaeological cultures that shared Mississippian traits. We find that the Caddo consumed less maize throughout the prehistoric sequence than their neighbors.