Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom

Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom PDF Author: Vernon James Knight
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817354212
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Brings together nine Moundville specialists who trace the site’s evolution and eventual decline Built on a flat terrace overlooking the Black Warrior River in Alabama, the Moundville ceremonial center was at its height a densely occupied town of approximately 1,000 residents, with at least 29 earthen mounds surrounding a central plaza. Today Moundville is not only one of the largest and best-preserved Mississippian sites in the United States but also one of the most intensively studied. This volume brings together nine Moundville specialists who trace the site’s evolution and eventual decline.

Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom

Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom PDF Author: Vernon James Knight
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817354212
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Brings together nine Moundville specialists who trace the site’s evolution and eventual decline Built on a flat terrace overlooking the Black Warrior River in Alabama, the Moundville ceremonial center was at its height a densely occupied town of approximately 1,000 residents, with at least 29 earthen mounds surrounding a central plaza. Today Moundville is not only one of the largest and best-preserved Mississippian sites in the United States but also one of the most intensively studied. This volume brings together nine Moundville specialists who trace the site’s evolution and eventual decline.

Rethinking Moundville and Its Hinterland

Rethinking Moundville and Its Hinterland PDF Author: Vincas P. Steponaitis
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813065348
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Moundville, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is one of the largest pre-Columbian mound sites in North America. Comprising twenty-nine earthen mounds that were once platforms for chiefly residences and public buildings, Moundville was a major political and religious center for the people living in its region and for the wider Mississippian world. A much-needed synthesis of the rapidly expanding archaeological work that has taken place in the region over the past two decades, this volume presents the results of multifaceted research and new excavations. Using models deeply rooted in local ethnohistory, it ties Moundville and its people more closely than before to the ethnography of native southerners and emphasizes the role of social memory, iconography, and ritual practices both at the mound center and in the rural hinterland, providing an up-to-date and refreshingly nuanced interpretation of Mississippian culture. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

Mound Excavations at Moundville

Mound Excavations at Moundville PDF Author: Vernon James Knight
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817316876
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
This work is a state-of-the-art, data-rich study of excavations undertaken at the Moundville site in west central Alabama, one of the largest and most complex of the mound sites of pre-contact North America.

Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions

Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions PDF Author: Timothy R. Pauketat
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759108288
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This book sweeps away the last vestiges of social-evolutionary explanations of 'chiefdoms' by rethinking the history of Pre-Columbian Southeast peoples and comparing them to ancient peoples in the Southwest, Mexico, Mesoamerica, and Mesopotamia.

From Chicaza to Chickasaw

From Chicaza to Chickasaw PDF Author: Robbie Ethridge
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 080789933X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
In this sweeping regional history, anthropologist Robbie Ethridge traces the metamorphosis of the Native South from first contact in 1540 to the dawn of the eighteenth century, when indigenous people no longer lived in a purely Indian world but rather on the edge of an expanding European empire. Using a framework that Ethridge calls the "Mississippian shatter zone" to explicate these tumultuous times, From Chicaza to Chickasaw examines the European invasion, the collapse of the precontact Mississippian world, and the restructuring of discrete chiefdoms into coalescent Native societies in a colonial world. The story of one group--the Chickasaws--is closely followed through this period.

The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology PDF Author: Timothy R. Pauketat
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195380118
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 694

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology reviews the continent's first and last foragers, farmers, and great pre-Columbian civic and ceremonial centers, from Chaco Canyon to Moundville and beyond.

Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South

Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South PDF Author: Robin Beck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107022134
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Offers a new framework for understanding the transformation of the Native American South during the first centuries of the colonial era.

Political Structure and Change in the Prehistoric Southeastern United States

Political Structure and Change in the Prehistoric Southeastern United States PDF Author: John F. Scarry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813014333
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
"We now realize that to understand the origin of the state, we must first understand the development of the chiefdom. And nowhere in the world is the study of chiefdoms being pursued as vigorously as in the Southeast. Combining tantalizing bits of ethnohistory with painstaking archaeology, the scholars of this region are adding greatly to our understanding of the chiefdom as a political form. The present volume, which is the work of outstanding specialists in the region, is a striking example of the rich fruit being yielded by this research."--Robert L. Carneiro, Curator of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History "A major step forward in the history of work on Mississippian culture. . . . This book is a must for those interested in the period--and highly recommended for archaeologists who are not southeasterners."--James A. Brown, Northwestern University "will do blurb after seeing page proofs"--Robert Carneiro, American Museum of Natural History The great societies that flourished during the late Precolumbian period--called Mississippian chiefdoms--disappeared shortly after European contact, leaving a legacy across the southeastern United States. This book presents up-to-date information about their political structures, offering new perspectives on "cycling"--the growth, collapse, and reappearance of chiefdoms. Using archaeological discoveries and historical documents, the book documents the dynamic and varied nature of chiefdoms and explains why they evolved the way they did. It illustrates the value of studies of the Mississippian societies for addressing general anthropological questions. Contents Part I. Introduction 1. Looking for and at Mississippian Political Change, by John F. Scarry 2. The Nature of Mississippian Societies, by John F. Scarry Part II. Structure and Change in Mississippian Societies 3. Development and Dissolution of a Mississippian Society in the American Bottom, Illinois, by George R. Milner 4. Markers of Social Integration: The Development of Centralized Authority in the Spiro Region, by J. Daniel Rogers 5. Control over Goods and the Political Stability of the Moundville Chiefdom, by Paul D. Welch 6. Platform-Mound Construction and the Instability of Mississippian Chiefdoms, by David J. Hally 7. Mississippian Political Dynamics in the Oconee Valley, Georgia, by Mark Williams and Gary Shapiro 8. Chiefly Cycling and Large-Scale Abandonments as Viewed from the Savannah River Basin, by David G. Anderson 9. Stability and Change in the Apalachee Chiefdom, by John F. Scarry Part III. Chiefly Politics and the Mississippian Societies 10. Fluctuations Between Simple and Complex Chiefdoms: Cycling in the Late Prehistoric Southeast, by David G. Anderson John F. Scarry is research associate and research assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the coauthor of San Pedro y San Pablo de Patale: A Seventeenth-Century Spanish Mission in Leon County, Florida, and has written numerous book chapters and articles for publications such as The Florida Anthropologist, Southeastern Archaeology, and Southeastern Archaeological Conference Bulletin.

The Chattahoochee Chiefdoms

The Chattahoochee Chiefdoms PDF Author: John H. Blitz
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817352775
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
An overview and model of complex society in the prehistoric Southeast Along the banks of the lower Chattahoochee River, the remains of ancient settlements are abundant, including archaeological sites produced by Native Americans between 900 and 350 years ago, and marked by the presence of large earthen mounds. Like similar monuments elsewhere in the Southeastern United States, the lower Chatta-hoochee River mounds have long attracted the attention of travelers, antiquarians, and archaeologists. As objects from the mounds were unearthed, occasionally illustrated and discussed in print, attention became focused on the aesthetic qualities of the artifacts, the origins of the remains, and the possible relationship to the Creek Indians. Beginning in the 20th century, new concerns emerged as the developing science of archaeology was introduced to the region. As many of the sites became threatened or destroyed by reservoir construction, trained archaeologists initiated extensive excavations of the mounds. Although classification of artifacts and sites into a chronological progression of cultures was the main objective of this effort, a second concern, sometimes more latent than manifest, was the reconstruction of a past way of life. Archaeologists hoped to achieve a better understanding of the sociopolitical organization of the peoples who built the mounds and of how those organizations changed through time. Contemporary archaeologists, while in agreement on many aspects of the ancient cultures, debate the causes, forms, and degrees of sociopolitical complexity in the ancient Southeast. Do the mounds mark the capitals of political territories? If so, what was the scale and scope of these ancient “provinces”? What manner of society constructed the mound settlements? What was the sociopolitical organization of these long-dead populations? How can archaeologists answer such queries with the mute and sometimes ordinary materials with which they work: pottery, stone tools, organic residues, and the strata of remnant settlements, buildings, and mounds?

The Mississippian Emergence

The Mississippian Emergence PDF Author: Bruce D. Smith
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817354522
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
This collection, addressing a topic of ongoing interest and debate in American archaeology, examines the evolution of ranked chiefdoms in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States during the period A.D. 700–1200. The volume brings together a broad range of professionals engaged in the fieldwork that has vitalized the theoretical debates on the development of Mississippi Valley cultures. The initial chapter provides a general discussion of various explanations for the rise of these distinctive ranked societies in the eastern United States (A.D. 750-1050) and sets the stage for the interdisciplinary analysis from multiple viewpoints that follows. The first section discusses a cluster of individual sites in the Midwest and Southeast and reveals the parallel—and occasionally divergent—paths followed by the inhabitants as they transitioned from Late Woodland into Mississippian lifeways. The chapters in the second half discuss by region the emergence of ranked agricultural societies and examine how these networks played a role in the large-scale and roughly contemporaneous socio-political development. Contributors: C. Clifford Boyd Jr. James A. Brown R. P. Stephen Davis Jr. John House John E. Kelly Richard A. Kerber Dan F. Morse Phyllis Morse Martha Ann Rolingson Gerald F. Schroedl Bruce D. Smith Paul D. Welch Howard D. Winters