Ethnographic, archaeological, and ecological data from north-central and northeast Asia, northwest Europe, and northeast North America are employed to develop a cultural context for an intensification model of northern wild geophyte (i.e., root) foods. Population ecology and cultural materialism provide the theoretical context for this study. Hunter-gatherer subsistence intensification is viewed as a response to population growth that forced increasing use of previously underused foods with higher cost-benefit ratios. Wild geophytes are comparatively high cost foods because they mature slowly and typically require considerable processing time. Often they are the only intensifiable plant in northern environments; lilies are the most widespread and abundant of northern geophyte foods.;Comparatively abundant data from the Pacific Northwest on the use of camas (Camassia quamash, Liliaceae), a lily with a nutritious bulb, are employed as a case study for understanding geophyte intensification. Camas intensification has two aspects: (1) increasing caloric dependence per capita when supply is high relative to demand; and (2) increasing labor investment per unit area when demand is high relative to supply. Archaeological camas processing camps characteristically include: (1) rock-filled earth ovens; (2) carbon-stained sediments and high densities of fire-cracked rocks; (3) low densities of chipped stone, with expedient tools predominant; and (4) very few, if any, pestles, hopper-mortars, grinding stones, or other traditional root processing tools.;Camas was regularly used in several localities by 7000 to 5500 B.P. Its use as a bulk-processed overwintering staple (Type 1 intensification) began about 4000 or 3500 B.P. In salmon-rich regions this intensification was at least a thousand years later. Type 2 intensification is currently documented only from Northwest Coast ethnographic contexts, where population densities were comparatively higher and camas grounds generally smaller than in interior regions. Significant labor investment in managing camas grounds involved burning, weeding, removing rocks, and delimiting family-owned patches.
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