Gradual or Step-Wise Change: The Development of Sedentary Settlement Patterns in Northeast Mississippi

1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Rafferty
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Pattern Change ◽  
Northeast Mississippi

Culture historians working on the Archaic and Woodland periods in eastern North America have adopted an essentialist view of settlement-subsistence relations, while processual archaeologists often have employed concepts emphasizing transformational relations to characterize settlement-pattern change. Selectionist theory uses detailed examination of variability in explaining change. Seven variables measured on a sequence of seriated Archaic and Woodland assemblages from sites in northeast Mississippi show sudden settlement-pattern change at the beginning of the Middle Woodland; this is interpreted as the advent of settled life in the study area. This case contradicts gradualist and essentialist settlement-subsistence scenarios. Such analyses hold promise for identifying the selective pressures at work when settlement patterns change.

Ohio Hopewell Trophy-Skull Artifacts as Evidence for Competition in Middle Woodland Societies Circa 50 B.C.. A.D. 350

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark F. Seeman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Middle Woodland Period ◽  
Ohio Hopewell ◽  
Human Skulls

During the Middle Woodland period in eastern North America, modified human skulls are interjected into a broader pattern of "trophy"-artifact manufacture. Interpretations of these human trophies have resulted in a polarity of opinion-that they are the remains of (1) revered ancestors, or (2) defeated enemies. Both previous investigations of the problem support exclusively the "revered-ancestor" interpretation. Results of the present study, which makes use of a six-site Ohio Hopewell sample and stylistic and biological analyses, do not support this position, and are seen as reflecting a competitive component in Hopewell society.

Copena Galena: Source Identification and Analysis

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Walthall ◽  
Stephen H. Stow ◽  
Marvin J. Karson
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Trace Element ◽  
Atomic Absorption ◽  
Source Identification ◽  
Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Absorption Spectrophotometry ◽  
Burial Mounds

Galena artifacts from Middle Woodland Copena burial mounds have been analyzed by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry in order to determine their trace element compositions. These results are compared to trace element characteristics of galena sources in eastern North America. Analysis to date suggests the Upper Mississippi Valley galena district as the source for these artifacts. Implications concerning Middle Woodland exchange systems are also offered.

scholarly journals Population growth as a driver of initial domestication in Eastern North America

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 160319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elic M. Weitzel ◽  
Brian F. Codding
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Wild Resources ◽  
Transition To Agriculture

The transition to agriculture is one of the most significant events in human prehistory; yet, explaining why people initially domesticated plants and animals remains a contentious research problem in archaeology. Two competing hypotheses dominate current debates. The first draws on niche construction theory to emphasize how intentional management of wild resources should lead to domestication regardless of Malthusian population–resource imbalances. The second relies on models from behavioural ecology (BE) to highlight how individuals should only exert selective pressure on wild resources during times of population–resource imbalance. We examine these hypotheses to explain the domestication event which occurred in Eastern North America approximately 5000 years ago. Using radiocarbon date density and site counts as proxies for human population, we find that populations increased significantly in the 1000 years prior to initial domestication. We therefore suggest that high populations prior to 5000 cal BP may have experienced competition for and possibly overexploitation of resources, altering the selective pressures on wild plants thereby producing domesticates. These findings support the BE hypothesis of domestication occurring in the context of population–resource imbalances. Such deficits, driven either by increased populations or decreased resource abundance, are predicted to characterize domestication events elsewhere.

Middle Woodland Ceremonialism at Pinson Mounds, Tennessee

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Mainfort
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
The West ◽  
Platform Mounds ◽  
Large Platform ◽  
West Tennessee

Located on the West Tennessee Coastal Plain, Pinson Mounds is one of the largest Middle Woodland ceremonial centers in eastern North America. The site includes at least 12 mounds, a geometric embankment, and associated temporary habitation areas within an area of approximately 160 ha. Of particular significance is the presence of five large platform mounds ranging in height from 3 to 22 m. A series of two dozen radiocarbon determinations indicate that the Pinson Mounds site was constructed and used between approximately A.D. 1-500.

scholarly journals Central Oregon obsidian from a submerged early Holocene archaeological site beneath Lake Huron

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0250840
Author(s):  
John M. O’Shea ◽  
Ashley K. Lemke ◽  
Brendan S. Nash ◽  
Elisabeth P. Sonnenburg ◽  
Jeffery R. Ferguson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Lake Huron ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
The West ◽  
Obsidian Source

Obsidian, originating from the Rocky Mountains and the West, was an exotic exchange commodity in Eastern North America that was often deposited in elaborate caches and burials associated with Middle Woodland era Hopewell and later complexes. In earlier times, obsidian is found only rarely. In this paper we report two obsidian flakes recovered from a now submerged paleolandscape beneath Lake Huron that are conclusively attributed to the Wagontire obsidian source in central Oregon; a distance of more than 4,000 km. These specimens, dating to ~ 9,000 BP, represent the earliest and most distant reported occurrence of obsidian in eastern North America.

Palaeoindian artefact distributions: evidence and implications

Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (285) ◽  
pp. 507-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Anderson ◽  
Michael K. Faught
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Sudden Onset ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Fluted Points

The distribution of projectile points over broad geographic areas yields important insights about Palaeoindian settlement pattern and history. While traditionally viewed as a Great Plains adaptation, the data show that fluted points are far more common in Eastern North America. These artefacts are not evenly spread across the landscape, furthermore, but occur in distinct concentrations. Within some of these areas distinct cultural traditions quickly emerged, something that appears tied to the sudden onset of the Younger Dryas.

The Identification and Study of Indian Shell Middens in Eastern North America: 1643–1861

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew L. Christenson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
North America ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Shell Midden ◽  
Shell Middens ◽  
Work Done

Although the interest in shell middens in North America is often traced to reports of the discoveries in Danish kjoekkenmoeddings in the mid-nineteenth century, extensive shell midden studies were already occurring on the East Coast by that time. This article reviews selected examples of this early work done by geologists and naturalists, which served as a foundation for shell midden studies by archaeologists after the Civil War.

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