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ii This study examines the role of prehistoric subsistence change and its impact upon settlement systems in Eastern Kentucky. Eastern Kentucky’s rockshelters are well-known for their preservation of normally perishable organic plant remains. Archaeobotanical remains from rockshelter contexts have played a key role in the establishment of the region as an independent center of agricultural origins. By 4,000 to 3,000 years before the present (B.P.), prehistoric populations along the western edge of the Appalachian Mountains were engaged in the cultivation of weedy plants such as goosefoot, maygrass, sunflower, and squashes. The incorporation of domesticated plants into the diet has not received detailed examination in terms of its impact upon prehistoric settlement systems. This study acquired regional scale data to evaluate whether or not such an impact can be discerned. The results document that changes in the subsistence base did affect settlement configurations. Increased diet breadth throughout the Late Archaic period in upland contexts resulted in a reorientation of the settlement pattern in order to better fulfill subsistence requirements. In the case of the mor