The Archaeology of Houses and Households in the Native Southeast

The Archaeology of Houses and Households in the Native Southeast

Author: Benjamin A. Steere

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2017-04-11

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0817319492

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"This book explores changes in houses and households in the southeastern United States from the Woodland to the Historic Indian Period (ca. 200 B.C. to A.D. 1800). Most studies of domestic architecture in the Southeast have been conducted at the single-site scale. As a result, broader spatial and temporal patterns of variation in houses and households are not well understood. To address this problem, Steere constructed a database that catalogues the architectural features of 1,258 structures from 65 sites in the Southern Appalachian region and surrounding areas. Significant trends identified by this comparative study include changes in the size and spacing of houses, changes in architectural investment, and a secular trend toward the increasing segmentation of houses. Using a theoretical framework developed from household archaeology and anthropology, Steere argues that certain aspects of this architectural variation can be explained by changes in household economics and household composition, symbolic behavior, status differentiation, and settlement patterning. More generally, he proposes that large-scale patterns of diachronic and synchronic variation in domestic architecture are best explained by changes in social organization"--Provided by publisher.


Between Contacts and Colonies

Between Contacts and Colonies

Author: Cameron B. Wesson

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2002-10-23

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 081731167X

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This collection of essays brings together diverse approaches to the analysis of Native American culture in the protohistoric period For most Native American peoples of the Southeast, almost two centuries passed between first contact with European explorers in the 16th century and colonization by whites in the 18th century—a temporal span commonly referred to as the Protohistoric period. A recent flurry of interest in this period by archaeologists armed with an improved understanding of the complexity of culture contact situations and important new theoretical paradigms has illuminated a formerly dark time frame. This volume pulls together the current work of archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to demonstrate a diversity of approaches to studying protohistory. Contributors address different aspects of political economy, cultural warfare, architecture, sedentism, subsistence, foods, prestige goods, disease, and trade. From examination of early documents by René Laudonnière and William Bartram to a study of burial goods distribution patterns; and from an analysis of Caddoan research in Arkansas and Louisiana to an interesting comparison of Apalachee and Powhatan elites, this volume ranges broadly in subject matter. What emerges is a tantalizingly clear view of the protohistoric period in North America.


Nature's Return

Nature's Return

Author: Mark Kinzer

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

Published: 2017-06-15

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1611177677

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From exploitation to preservation, the complex history of one of the Southeast's most important natural areas and South Carolina's only national park Located at the confluence of the Congaree and Wateree Rivers in central South Carolina, Congaree National Park protects the nation's largest intact expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest. Modern visitors to the park enjoy a pristine landscape that seems ancient and untouched by human hands, but in truth its history is far different. In Nature's Return, Mark Kinzer examines the successive waves of inhabitants, visitors, and landowners of this region by synthesizing information from property and census records, studies of forest succession, tree-ring analyses, slave narratives, and historical news accounts. Established in 1976, Congaree National Park contains within its boundaries nearly twenty-seven thousand acres of protected uplands, floodplains, and swamps. Once exploited by humans for farming, cattle grazing, plantation agriculture, and logging, the park area is now used gently for recreation and conservation. Although the impact of farming, grazing, and logging in the park was far less extensive than in other river swamps across the Southeast, it is still evident to those who know where to look. Cultivated in corn and cotton during the nineteenth century, the land became the site of extensive logging operations soon after the Civil War, a practice that continued intermittently into the late twentieth century. From burning canebrakes to clearing fields and logging trees, inhabitants of the lower Congaree valley have modified the floodplain environment both to ensure their survival and, over time, to generate wealth. In this they behaved no differently than people living along other major rivers in the South Atlantic Coastal Plain. Today Congaree National Park is a forest of vast flats and winding sloughs where champion trees dot the landscape. Indeed its history of human use and conservation make it a valuable laboratory for the study not only of flora and fauna but also of anthropology and modern history. As the impact of human disturbance fades, the Congaree's stature as one of the most important natural areas in the eastern United States only continues to grow.


King

King

Author: David Hally

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2008-09-21

Total Pages: 616

ISBN-13: 0817354603

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At the time of Spanish contact in AD 1540, the Mississippian inhabitants in north-western Georgia and adjacent portions of Alabama and Tennessee were organized into a number of chiefdoms distributed along the Coosa and Tennessee rivers and their major tributaries. This book is about one such town, known to archaeologists as the King site.


Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun

Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun

Author: Charles Hudson

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 590

ISBN-13: 0820320625

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Between 1539 and 1542 Hernando de Soto led a small army on a desperate journey of exploration across the Southeast. His path has been one of history's most intriguing mysteries. In this book, Hudson offers a solution to the question, "Where did de Soto go?" 97 photos. 10 maps.


Kolomoki

Kolomoki

Author: Thomas J. Pluckhahn

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2003-09-18

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0817350179

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The first comprehensive and systematic investigation of a Woodland period ceremonial center. Kolomoki, one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the southeastern United States, includes at least nine large earthen mounds in the lower Chattahoochee River valley of southwest Georgia. The largest, Mound A, rises approximately 20 meters above the terrace that borders it. From its flat-topped summit, a visitor can survey the string of smaller mounds that form an arc to the south and west. Archaeological research had previously placed Kolomoki within the Mississippian period (ca. a.d. 1000- ...


The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast

The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast

Author: David G. Anderson

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1996-09-30

Total Pages: 546

ISBN-13: 0817308350

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The southeastern United States has one of the richest records of early human settlement of any area of North America. This book provides the first state-by-state summary of Paleoindian and Early Archaic research from the region, together with an appraisal of models developed to interpret the data. It summarizes what we know of the peoples who lived in the Southeast more than 8,000 years ago—when giant ice sheets covered the northern part of the continent, and such mammals as elephants, saber-toothed tigers, and ground sloths roamed the landscape. Extensively illustrated, this benchmark collection of essays on the state of Paleoindian and Early Archaic research in the Southeast will guide future studies on the subject of the region's first inhabitants for years to come. Divided in three parts, the volume includes: Part I: Modeling Paleoindian and Early Archaic Lifeways in the Southeast Environmental and Chronological Considerations, David G. Anderson, Lisa D. O'Steen, and Kenneth E. Sassaman Modeling Paleoindian and Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeast: A Historical Perspective, David G. Anderson and Kenneth E. Sassaman Models of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Settlement in the Lower Southeast, David G. Anderson Early Archaic Settlement in the South Carolina Coastal Plain, Kenneth E. Sassaman Raw Material Availability and Early Archaic Settlement in the Southeast, I. Randolph Daniel Jr. Paleoindian and Early Archaic Settlement along the Oconee Drainage, Lisa D. O'Steen Haw River Revisited: Implications for Modeling Terminal Late Glacial and Early Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems in the Southeast, John S. Cable Early Archiac Settlement and Technology: Lessons from Tellico, Larry R. Kimball Paleoindians Near the Edge: A Virginia Perspective, Michael F. Johnson Part II: The Regional Record The Need for a Regional Perspective, Kenneth E. Sassaman and David G. Anderson Paleoindian and Early Archaic Research in the South Carolina Area, David G. Anderson and Kenneth E. Sassaman The Taylor Site: An Early Occupation in Central South Carolina, James L. Michie Paleoindian and Early Archaic Research in Tennessee, John B. Boster and Mark R. Norton A Synopsis of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Research in Alabama, Eugene M. Futato Statified Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Deposits at Dust Cave, Northwestern Alabama, Boyce N. Driskell Bone and Ivory Tools from Submerged Paleoindian Sites in Florida, James S. Dunbar and S. David Webb Paleoindian and Early Archaic Data from Mississippi, Samuel O. McGahey Early and Middle Paleoindian Sites in the Northeastern Arkansas Region, J. Christopher Gillam Part III: Commentary A Framework for the Paleoindian/Early Archaic Transition, Joel Gunn Modeling Communities and Other Thankless Tasks, Dena F. Dincauze An Arkansas View, Dan F. Morse Comments, Henry T. Wright


Cahokia

Cahokia

Author: Timothy R. Pauketat

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2010-07-27

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0143117475

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The fascinating story of a lost city and an unprecedented American civilization located in modern day Illinois near St. Louis While Mayan and Aztec civilizations are widely known and documented, relatively few people are familiar with the largest prehistoric Native American city north of Mexico-a site that expert Timothy Pauketat brings vividly to life in this groundbreaking book. Almost a thousand years ago, a city flourished along the Mississippi River near what is now St. Louis. Built around a sprawling central plaza and known as Cahokia, the site has drawn the attention of generations of archaeologists, whose work produced evidence of complex celestial timepieces, feasts big enough to feed thousands, and disturbing signs of human sacrifice. Drawing on these fascinating finds, Cahokia presents a lively and astonishing narrative of prehistoric America.