Evidence for Stepped Pyramids of Shell in the Woodland Period of Eastern North America

2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Pluckhahn ◽  
Victor D. Thompson ◽  
W. Jack Rink
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Construction Material ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Mississippian Period

AbstractAntiquarians of the nineteenth century referred to the largest monumental constructions in eastern North America as pyramids, but this usage faded among archaeologists by the mid-twentieth century. Pauketat (2007) has reintroduced the term pyramid to describe the larger, Mississippian-period (A.D. 1050 to 1550) mounds of the interior of the continent, recognizing recent studies that demonstrate the complexity of their construction. Such recognition is lacking for earlier mounds and for those constructed of shell. We describe the recent identification of stepped pyramids of shell from the Roberts Island Complex, located on the central Gulf Coast of Florida and dating to the terminal Late Woodland period, A.D. 800 to 1050, thus recognizing the sophistication of monument construction in an earlier time frame, using a different construction material, and taking an alternative form.

New Centers Emerge (Phase 4)

2018 ◽  
pp. 168-193
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Pluckhahn ◽  
Victor D. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Final Phase ◽  
Corporate Groups ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Isotopic Studies ◽  
Spatial Layouts ◽  
Crystal River ◽  
Small Platform

Phase 4, the final phase of occupation at Crystal River and Roberts Island, started sometime between around AD 780 and 870 and ended between 900 and 980, spanning the transition between the Late Woodland period and Mississippian period, and the beginning of the Medieval Warm period. Occupation at the former site waned during this interval, while Roberts Island emerged as a major ceremonial center that included three small platform mounds tightly clustered around a small plaza. The pattern is reminiscent of earlier spatial layouts at Crystal River, but other features--such as linear ridges of shell and a water court--suggest greater influence from the Caloosahatchee tradition to the south. Isotopic studies of oyster shells from Roberts Island display less variability in habitat relative to those from earlier contexts, perhaps consistent with ownership of particular resource locations. Possibly, larger corporate groups (such as matrilineages) began working cooperatively to target specific resource locales that they owned and managed for themselves, to the exclusion of other such groups.

New Evidence in the Upper Mississippi Valley for Premississippian Cultural Interaction with the American Bottom

2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B. Stoltman ◽  
Danielle M. Benden ◽  
Robert F. Boszhardt
Keyword(s):  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
American Bottom ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
New Evidence

The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites in the Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) prompted a petrographic analysis of thin sections of 21 vessels from these sites. The goal was to evaluate their possible derivation from the American Bottom, the nearest locality where such pottery commonly occurs. Among the 12 UMV vessels tempered with shell (nine red slipped), ten were determined, based on comparisons to thin sections of stylistically similar pottery from the American Bottom, to have essentially identical physical compositions. Additionally, four vessels suspected of being limestone-tempered were determined to have been tempered with a type of sandstone that out-crops only farther south in Illinois and Iowa. Of the three UMV sites, only the Fisher Mounds Site Complex (FMSC) produced the presumed exotic pottery in undisturbed, dated contexts. The petrographic evidence is consistent with the C-14 age and lithic assemblage at FMSC in suggesting an actual influx of people from the American Bottom into the UMV. The time of this influx, the Edelhardt phase of the Emergent Mississippian/Terminal Late Woodland period, ca. cal A.D. 1000-1050, is earlier than previously believed, i.e., precedes the main Mississippian period in the American Bottom.

Late Woodland Period Settlement Patterns in the Piedmont Uplands of Pennsylvania: The Evidence from 36CH161

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-285
Author(s):  
Paul A. Raber
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Chester County ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
A Site ◽  
Local Materials ◽  
Early Late

Investigations at 36Ch161, a site in the Piedmont Uplands of Chester County, Pennsylvania, have revealed a series of early Late Woodland Period camps associated with the Minguannan Complex. The use of local quartz seems to have been a primary focus of settlement at the site. Quartz, which formed an overwhelming majority of the assemblage, was used in ways that contrast strongly with that of non-local materials like jasper, a minority component of the assemblage obtained from quarries in the Hardyston Formation. The selection of raw materials suggests restrictions on access to certain materials perhaps imposed by territorial constraints. The combined evidence of artifact assemblage and cultural features indicates that 36Ch161 was inhabited seasonally by small, mobile groups of non-horticulturalists, a reconstruction consistent with that of Custer and others regarding the economy of the Minguannan Complex and related cultures of the Piedmont Uplands.

Birds of Summer Solstice: World-Renewal Rituality on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Goodwin ◽  
Kenneth E. Sassaman ◽  
Meggan E. Blessing ◽  
David W. Steadman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Fish Bone ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Summer Solstice ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Northern Gulf Coast

Prevalent as bird imagery is in the ritual traditions of eastern North America, the bony remains of birds are relatively sparse in archaeological deposits and when present are typically viewed as subsistence remains. A first-millennium ad civic-ceremonial centre on the northern Gulf Coast of Florida contains large pits with bird bones amid abundant fish bone and other taxa. The avian remains are dominated by elements of juvenile white ibises, birds that were taken from offshore rookeries at the time of summer solstices. The pits into which they were deposited were emplaced on a relict dune with solstice orientations. The timing and siting of solstice feasts at this particular centre invites discussion of world-renewal rituality and the significance of birds in not only the timing of these events but also possibly as agents of balance and rejuvenation.

Regional attenuation models in Central and Eastern North America using the NGA-East database

2021 ◽  
pp. 875529302110187
Author(s):  
Jeff Bayless
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Frequency Dependence ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Site Response ◽  
Epistemic Uncertainty ◽  
Amplitude Spectrum ◽  
Active Regions ◽  
Atlantic Coastal Plain ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Anelastic Attenuation

The anelastic attenuation term found in ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) represents the distance dependence of the effect of intrinsic and scattering attenuation on the wavefield as it propagates through the crust and contains the frequency-dependent quality factor, [Formula: see text], which is an inverse measure of the effective anelastic attenuation. In this work, regional estimates of [Formula: see text] in Central and Eastern North America (CENA) are developed using the NGA-East regionalization. The technique employed uses smoothed Fourier amplitude spectrum (FAS) data from well-recorded events in CENA as collected and processed by NGA-East. Regional [Formula: see text] is estimated using an assumption of average geometrical spreading applicable to the distance ranges considered. Corrections for the radiation pattern effect and for site response based on [Formula: see text] result in a small but statistically significant improvement to the residual analysis. Apparent [Formula: see text] estimates from multiple events are combined within each region to develop the regional models. Models are provided for three NGA-East regions: the Gulf Coast, Central North America, and the Appalachian Province. Consideration of the model uncertainties suggests that the latter two regions could be combined. There were not sufficient data to adequately constrain the model in the Atlantic Coastal Plain region. Tectonically stable regions are usually described by higher [Formula: see text] and weaker frequency dependence ([Formula: see text]), while active regions are typically characterized by lower [Formula: see text] and stronger frequency dependence, and the results are consistent with these expectations. Significantly different regional [Formula: see text] is found for events with data recorded in multiple regions, which supports the NGA-East regionalization. An inspection of two well-recorded events with data both in the Mississippi embayment and in southern Texas indicates that the Gulf Coast regionalization by Cramer in 2017 may be an improvement to that of NGA-East for anelastic attenuation. The [Formula: see text] models developed serve as epistemic uncertainty alternatives in CENA based on a literature review and a comparison with previously published models.

Population Aggregation and the Emergence of Circular Villages in Southwest Virginia

2018 ◽  
pp. 140-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Jefferies
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
North America ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Settlement Structure ◽  
Southern Appalachian ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Population Aggregation

Archaeological evidence from throughout much of eastern North America documents a transition from small, scattered settlements to nucleated, often circular, villages during the Late Woodland/Late Prehistoric period (ca. A.D. 1000-1600). In southwestern Virginia's Appalachian Highlands, this transition is marked by the appearance of large circular palisaded villages associated with what Howard MacCord called the Intermontane Culture. This paper investigates the origin, structure, and spatial distribution of Late Woodland circular villages across the southern Appalachian landscape and compares their emergence to similar trends in settlement structure and organization witnessed in other parts of the Appalachian Highlands and beyond.

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.

Other-Than-Human Persons, Mishipishu, and Danger in the Late Woodland Inland Waterway Landscape of Northern Michigan

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-366
Author(s):  
Meghan C. L. Howey
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Inland Lakes ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Inland Waterway ◽  
Northern Michigan

Other-than-human persons and the role they play in transforming social, economic, and ideological material realities is an area of expanding interest in archaeology. Although the Anishinaabeg were an early and vital focus of cultural anthropological studies on nonhumans given their significant relationships with other-than-human persons, known to them as manitou, emerging archaeologies advancing this topic are not largely centered on ancestral Anishinaabeg sites and artifacts. This article analyzes a set of nonvessel ceramic artifacts from Late Woodland archaeological sites in the Inland Waterway in northern Michigan, which are interpreted to be ceramic renderings of manitou. I argue that these were manitou-in-clay, vibrant relational entities that are brought into being for and through use in ceremonial perspective practices related to Mishipishu—a complexly powerful, seductive, and dangerous nonhuman being known as the head of all water spirits. I contextualize the making and breaking of Mishipishu manitou-in-clay as acts of petition by hunter-fishers who had been seduced by this manitou in dreams, as they headed out on necessary but high-risk early-spring resource harvesting in the inland lakes of the Inland Waterway. This case advances insights into how relationships with other-than-human persons were coproductive of the world in the northern Great Lakes region during the Late Woodland period.

Over the hills and far away: Middle to Late Woodland archaeology and toolstone conveyance at Hyre Mound (46RD1), West Virginia

2020 ◽  
pp. 019769312097631
Author(s):  
Richard L Rosencrance ◽  
Amy J Hirshman
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Lithic Raw Material

The archaeology of the eastern West Virginia uplands remains significantly understudied compared to other areas of the Appalachian Plateau. Bettye Broyles’ excavations at the Hyre Mound site (46RD1) in 1963 recovered a variety of artifacts within and directly adjacent to a burial mound but the excavations remain largely unpublished. We provide a report of Broyles’ excavations, new radiocarbon dates, and an analysis of the lithic raw material frequencies at the site. Material culture and ceremonial practices suggest the initial mound construction dates to the Middle Woodland period. Radiocarbon dating of cultural features confirms that people also used the locality during the Late Woodland period. Lithic raw material frequencies indicate a preference for non-local, Hillsdale chert found ∼100 km from the site throughout both time periods. The directionality of toolstone conveyance supports existing models that emphasize the quality and location of raw material sources and the orientation of the region’s physiography.

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