Dr Penny Cunningham, University of Exeter, June 2014

1. Storage: structures, containers and wrappings
Dr Penny Cunningham, University of Exeter, June 2014
Image: four acorn storage structures, California, US
(Kidder 2004) http://www.primitiveways.com/acorn
%20granary.html

2. Image: pit features located in a cobble
beach, Labrador, Canada (Stopp 2002:
320 )
Image: Innu shaped meat cache, Canada (Stopp
2002: 314))
Image: pit store, New Zealand
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BesAgri-
t1-body-d4-d20.html

3. Ethnohistorical data:
‘The grain being dried, they put it
into baskets woven of rushes or
wild hemp, and bury it in the earth,
where they let it lie’
(Isaack de Rasieres1628:107-108).
Pits were also lined with matt or
bark
Stored: acorns and corn
Image: reconstruction drawing of
pottery vessels containing nuts
being stored in the ground at the
Puncheon Run site, Delaware, USA

4. Jomon Period, Japan,
14,000-400 BC
Image: storage pits from Kuribayashi,
Japan, c. 3000-400 BC (Habu 2004: 65)
Images: storage pits from
four Jomon sites showing
different storage methods
(Habu 2004: 66)

5. European Iron Age cereal grain storage pits
Image: Classification of Iron Age pit profiles (after Bersu 1940, in Marshall
2011: 148)

6. Three images of grain storage experiments by
Peter Reynolds at Butser Ancient Farm, UK
15 years of experiments

7. (Marshall 2011)
Results: Experiments 2
& 3 produced the best
results
(Experiment 1: a straw
lined sealed pit and a
pit with no lining but
sealed)
Experiment 2 Experiment 3
Image: Experiment
3 storage
methodology
(Marshall 2011:
164)
Image: Experiment
2 storage
methodology
(Marshall 2011:
162)

8. Hazelnut and acorn pit
storage methods

9. Pit storage method 3

10. California: different materials used to
construct a variety of acorn storage
facilities
Image: suggested construction of a elevated
silo Sierra Miwok style (Kidder 2004)
http://www.primitiveways.com/acorn
%20granary.html
Image: an inverted basket,
Yokut style (Kidder, 2004)
http://www.primitiveways.com/a
corn%20granary.html
Image: an acorn or seed storage
granary
http://www.thepollockpinesepic.com/title
/early-inhabitants/
Image: acorn storage
http://www.curdhome.co.uk/2008/09/
Image: granary used to store
dried acorns, a Tongva staple
food.
http://www.runajambi.net/tongva/i
ntroduction.htm

11. • Below ground – pits or silos
• Above ground – granaries, baskets, pottery vessels, bags
hanging or on shelves
• On the ground – Pottery vessels, ‘bins’, baskets
• Using a variety of materials and methods depending on what
materials are available, the environment, length of storage,
and type of resources to be stored
• Most methods would leave little trace in the archaeological
record

12. References:
Cunningham, P. (2005) Assumptive holes and how to fill them. EuroREA 2: 55-66
Cunningham, P. (2011) Cache or carry: food storage in prehistoric Europe. In D. C.E. Millson (ed)
Experimentation and interpretation: the use of experimental archaeology in the study of the past.
pp 7-28. Oxford: Oxbow Book.
Habu, J. (2004) Ancient Jomon of Japan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Kidder, N. (2002) Acorn Granaries of California. The Bulletin of Primitive Technology 2004: 28.
http://www.primitiveways.com/acorn%20granary.html
Marshall, A. (2011) Experimental Archaeology: 1. Early Bronze Age cremation pyres. 2. Iron Age
grain storage. Oxford: BAR British Series 530.
Reynolds, P.J. (1974) Experimental Iron Age storage pits: an interim report. Proceedings of the
Prehistoric Society 40: 118-31.
Stopp, M.P. (2002) Ethnohistories analogies for storage as an adaptive strategy in northeastern
subarctic prehistory. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 21: 301-328.