A Center Emerges

2018 ◽  
pp. 71-100
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Pluckhahn ◽  
Victor D. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Small Islands ◽  
Small Family ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Complex Construction ◽  
Crystal River ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
The Village

Current radiocarbon evidence suggests that monument construction at Crystal River began sometime around 1000 BC, based on dating of human remains excavated from the circular embankment of the Main Burial Complex. Construction of the two burial mounds began a few centuries later, but likewise predates the earliest occupation of the village. Thus, the site began as a vacant ceremonial center, probably a place where small family groups dispersed on small islands in the surrounding landscape came together at certain times of the year. This pattern is typical for burial mound sites on the Gulf Coast, but Crystal River exhibits a unique degree of elaboration of architecture and burial treatments that suggest it had already emerged as a regional center. Likewise, the presence of large quantities of exotic Hopewell culture artifacts in a few burials suggest that certain people were already differentiated from others, perhaps owing to their roles as ritual specialists.

From Regional Center to Mound-Residential Compound (Phase 3)

2018 ◽  
pp. 155-167
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Pluckhahn ◽  
Victor D. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Phase 3 ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Crystal River ◽  
Area North ◽  
The Village

Recent archaeological work suggests that people began moving away from Crystal River in Phase 3, which probably began between around AD 500 and 600 and lasted until sometime between AD 650 and 750, during the Late Woodland Period. Nevertheless, the site seems to have continued to serve as a ceremonial center. The village contracted to the area north of Mound A, which was expanded during this interval; perhaps the continuing presence represents a caretaker population or a compound occupied by a leader and his or her family. Some of the former residents of Crystal River may have moved the short distance downstream to Roberts Island, where settlement was initiated in this interval. Shifts in settlement such as this abandonment and collapse are typical of the Gulf Coast at this time, and may be at least in part a response to a more variable climate and lowered sea level associated with the interval known as the Vandal Minimum.

From Early Village to Regional Center (Phase 2)

2018 ◽  
pp. 117-154
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Pluckhahn ◽  
Victor D. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Warm Period ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Crystal River ◽  
Southern Florida ◽  
The Village ◽  
Weeden Island ◽  
Small Platform

The village at Crystal River expanded greatly in size and permanence in Phase 2, which began sometime between around AD 200 and 300 and ended by around AD 500. This growth may have owed partially to a rise in sea level associated with the warmer temperatures of the Roman Warm Period, which might have made life on the seaward islands more difficult. The exchange of Hopewell exotics faded in this interval, but the societies of the Gulf Coast appear to have witnessed a fluorescence, as indicated by the widespread exchange of Swift Creek pottery and Weeden Island pottery. Crystal River was peripheral to these pottery traditions, but it may have been an important nexus between these and the Glades tradition of southern Florida, specifically with regard to the exchange of craft goods manufactured from marine shell. The gulf coast fluorescence is also indicated by a heightened pace of the construction of mounds. At Crystal River, three small platform mounds were initiated in this interval, clearly differentiating it from its peers in the region.

Notice of an Urn and other Sepulchral remains, &c., discovered in the Windy-Goul, on Arthur's Seat, in cutting the New Road from Edinburgh to the Village of Duddingstone

1859 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 420-422
Author(s):  
George Logan
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Underground Cavities ◽  
The Village

While digging a new road from Edinburgh to Duddingston through an area named Windy Gowl, several underground cavities were unearthed. One contained an urn and a further seven were found containing human remains. A small hatchet and some copper coins were also discovered nearby. The author notes that no weaponry was found near these graves and speculates that they may have been related to an area of execution nearby known as 'Hangman's Knowe'.

Remains of Clidastes Cope, 1868, an unexpected mosasaur in the upper Campanian of NW Germany

2005 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.W. Caldwell ◽  
C.G. Diedrich
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Vertebral Column ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Anterior Part ◽  
Western Interior Seaway ◽  
Southern Sweden ◽  
Nw Germany ◽  
The Village ◽  
Upper Campanian

AbstractThe mosasaurine Clidastes sp. is recognised from cranial and post-cranial remains collected at four localities in NW Germany. Cranial material was found in pelagic turbiditic marls which crop out near the village of Beckum, while post-cranial skeletal elements were collected from sandy limestones exposed near the villages of Schöppingen, Coesfeld and Billerbeck. In stratigraphic order, the units producing these specimens of Clidastes are the Coesfeld, Baumberge and Beckum formations of late Campanian (Late Cretaceous) age. The cranial material comprises the anterior part of a skull and a single isolated tooth, while post-cranial bones comprise a few isolated vertebrae and a partial skeleton including forelimb bones and an articulated vertebral column. Clidastes is known to date from the western North Sea Basin (England), southern Sweden, as well as from North America (Western Interior Seaway and Gulf Coast).

Archaeological Drawings as Re-Presentations: The Maps of Complex A, La Venta, Mexico

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan D. Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
History Of ◽  
Original Field ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
Field Report ◽  
Formal Design ◽  
Over Time

AbstractScientific drawings, including maps, are increasingly recognized as theory-laden media for conveying information. The degree to which this quality impacts archaeological interpretations is revealed in the history of the published maps of La Venta, a Formative period Mesoamerican regional center. La Venta is pivotal to understanding the Olmec culture of Mexico’s Gulf Coast, yet archaeological knowledge is based primarily on one small portion of the site, Complex A, excavated in 1955. Since destroyed, Complex A is now known especially through visual representations. A review of the Complex A maps in the original field report and subsequent publications demonstrates how these technical drawings have sometimes superseded the textual excavation data in generating and disseminating archaeological knowledge. Over time the maps have become more schematic and misleading, impeding understandings of La Venta and its role in regional cultural manifestations. Reliance on totalizing plan maps has led most archaeologists to overlook the 1955 excavators’ major interpretations of the construction history of Complex A. However, the 1955 conclusions regarding the longevity of the formal design rules of the complex, reiterated by later archaeologists precisely because they are clearly visible in plan maps, are less well supported by the stratigraphic evidence.

The Enigmatic Crystal River Site

1951 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ripley P. Bullen
Keyword(s):  
West Coast ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
The West ◽  
Florida Archaeology ◽  
The North ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Crystal River ◽  
The Many ◽  
Work Done ◽  
River Site

The Crystal River site, on the west coast of Florida about 65 miles north of Tampa, presents one of the many unsolved problems of Florida archaeology. Included in the site is a curving shell ridge, shaped like a fishhook with a temple mound where the barb of the hook would be, a large sand or sand and shell burial mound surrounded by a platform to the north, another temple mound further to the north, and a large deposit of shell to the northwest (Moore, 1903, Fig. 16). Obviously, this is a large and complicated site. Practically the only archaeological work done at Crystal River is that of Moore who, during his three visits, dug all the burial mound and part of its surrounding platform (Moore, 1903; 1907; 1918). Moore did no work in the shell midden or temple mounds and our knowledge of the site is limited to its burial complex.

Variation in Radiocarbon Age Determinations from the Crystal River Archaeological Site, Florida

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 801-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Cherkinsky ◽  
Thomas J Pluckhahn ◽  
Victor D Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Shell Midden ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Radiocarbon Age ◽  
Soil Charcoal ◽  
Crystal River ◽  
Age Determinations

Archaeologists interested in radiocarbon dating shell midden sites express concern regarding the accuracy of shell dates and how such determinations should be interpreted. This article discusses the problem of dating shells from sites in the southeastern United States. New results are presented comparing shell, bone, and soil-charcoal age determinations from the Crystal River site, located along the west-central Gulf Coast of Florida. Crystal River is a large multimound site whose occupants engaged in long-distance exchange throughout eastern North America during the Woodland period (∼1000 BC to AD 1050). In the summer of 2012, test units were excavated in several contexts at the site, including both mounds and occupation areas. Samples were collected for 14C dating, which were then processed at the University of Georgia Center for Applied Isotope Studies. This article focuses on samples from the stratified shell midden, from which it was hoped to construct a local correction for marine shell that could be used to date other contexts. The soil-charcoal and bone collagen from these samples have very similar ages (bone samples ranging from about 100 cal BC to cal AD 530 and soil-charcoal from cal AD 345 to 560); however, the shell samples collected from the same stratigraphic units are significantly older than the terrestrial dates (ranging from 1300 to 390 cal BC). The difference in calibrated ages between organic materials and the shells ranges between 560 to 1140 yr. This phenomenon cannot be explained solely by the marine reservoir effect. It appears that all the shell samples formed in mixed marine (∼50–60%) contexts, as indicated by the stable isotope ratios and the amount of atmospheric carbon remaining in the samples. The age of the shell samples cannot be used to date archaeological events as they are influenced not only by the marine reservoir effect, but also the local hardwater effect, which makes them significantly older.

scholarly journals EXCAVATIONS OF KASTYKI BARROW CEMETERY IN THE VILIYA UPPER REACHES IN 1973

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
M. A. Plavinski ◽  
M. I. Stsiapanava
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
The West ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
New Research ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Village

The complex of archaeological monuments near the village Kastyki of the Viliejka district of the Minsk region consists of an Old Rus’ barrow cemetery and an open settlement, which functioned from the late Neolithic period to the third quarter of the 1st millennium AD. The complex of archaeological sites under the question is located in the eastern part of the village Kastyki in the upper reaches of the Vilija, on its right bank, 2.5 km from the confluence of the Servač River into Vilija River. For the first time, studies at Kastyki were carried out by K. Tyszkiewicz in 1856, when he excavated here one partially destroyed mound, containing neither traces of burial nor burial goods. In 1973, J. Zviaruha conducted a study of the barrow cemetery in Kastyki and excavated here 7 burial mounds. This article is devoted to the publication of materials from the Kastyki barrow cemetery, which took place in 1973 under the direction of J. Zviaruha. The focus is on rethinking the results of the 1973 excavations in the light of new research conducted in 2016 and 2018. The analysis of materials from the excavation of the burial mound, carried out in 1973, suggests that the necropolis functioned during the middle of the 11th—12th centuries. It belonged to a group of residents of the Polatsk land, who made burials according to the rites of inhumation on the basis of burial mounds, with their heads directed to the west. This, in turn, suggests that the members of the Old Rus’ community, which left the necropolis in Kastyki, had a certain understanding of the Christian burial rites.

scholarly journals General Description of Hydrogen Sulfide Mineral Waters on the Left Bank of the Alazani River

2021 ◽  
pp. 127-141
Author(s):  
Marine Mardashova ◽  
◽  
Tamar Miqava ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Hydrogen Sulfide ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Sulfide Mineral ◽  
Mineral Waters ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
General Description ◽  
Mineral Springs ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Left Tributary ◽  
The Village

The study object is located in the main hydrographic unit of Shida Kakheti - on the left bank of Alazani river, along the southern slope of the Greater Caucasus and includes a strip starting from the village of Shakriani (Telavi district), ending with the regional center Lagodekhi (Lagodekhi gorge, left tributary of the Alazani river). Within this zone, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) mineral springs are prevalent. Besides, these waters are opened by exploratory - hydrogeological wells. Among these springs, "Torghva Bath" and "Lagodekhi Bath" are especially popular among the local population. The first of these is located in the upper reaches of the Story Valley, and the second - in Lagodekhi gorge, 7 km away from the settlement. The mineral springs "Muni Tsakaro" and "Mkrali Waters" are also important for their healing properties. Based on the analysis of theoretical and field materials, Kakheti hydrogen sulfide waters are characterized in detail and possibly their use for resort purposes.

scholarly journals New Finds of Cup-marked Stones near the Village of Ol’khovka, Priozersky District, Leningrad Region

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.И. Сакса ◽  
С.В. Бельский ◽  
В.Г. Мизин
Keyword(s):  
Protected Area ◽  
Leningrad Region ◽  
Karelian Isthmus ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Surrounding Landscape ◽  
The Village

В статье представлена публикация пяти новых чашечных камней, относящихся к категории почитаемых природных объектов, найденных в 2016–2017 гг. на Карельском перешейке (Приозерский район Ленинградской области). Комплекс археологических памятников, в том числе чашечных камней, у д. Ольховка представляет собой уникальное явление, поскольку это крупнейшее скопление подобных объектов на Северо-Западе России. В ходе разведок 2016–2017 гг. были обнаружены еще пять ранее неизвестных камней с чашевидными углублениями. Новые находки чашечных камней указывают на то, что территория комплекса еще до конца не изучена. Имеются серьезные предпосылки для поиска новых памятников подобного типа. Необходимо признание всей территории локализации археологических объектов в данном районе единой охраняемой зоной. Комплекс должен быть сохранен как природно-исторический ансамбль, составляющий единое целое с окружающим ландшафтом. The paper reports on five new cup-marked stones referred to the category of natural features revered by people which were found on the Karelian Isthmus (Priozersky District, Leningrad Region) in 2016–2017. The complex of sites including cup-marked stones near the village of Ol’khovka is a unique phenomenon because it is the largest concentration of such features in the North-West of Russia. In the course of archaeological reconnaissance in 2016–2017 five more previously unknown cup-marked stones were discovered. New finds of cup-marked stones demonstrate that the area of the complex has not yet been studied comprehensively. It is essential to continue searching for new sites of this type. The district where archaeological features are located should be declared a single protected area. The complex should be preserved as a natural and historical ensemble fully integrated into the surrounding landscape.

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