David J. Hally

Identificatin of Vessel Function: a Case Study from Northwest Georgia

Archaeologists now possess the knowledge and techniques necessary to identify pottery-vessel function with a reasonable degree of specificity. This article is intended to demonstrate that capability. The pottery vessel assemblage characteristic of the sixteenth-century Barnett phase in northwest Georgia consists of 13 physically and morphologically distinct vessel types. The mechanical performance characteristics of these vessel types are identified and employed in formulating hypotheses concerning the way vessel types were used. Historic Southeastern Indian food habits are reconstructed from ethnohistorical and ethnographic evidence and employed to refine the vessel-use hypotheses.

Use Alteration of Pottery Vessel Surfaces: An Important Source of Evidence for the Identification of Vessel Function:

Eighty-one whole and partial vessels recovered from domestic structures and burial contexts at two Barnett phase sites in northwestern Georgia have been analyzed for evidence of surface alteration resulting from use. Three types of use alteration found on these vessels—sooting, oxidation discoloration and interior surface pitting—are described, and the processes by which they were produced are identified. The associations that exist between types of surface alteration and the morphological vessel types characteristic of the Barnett phase vessel assemblage are described and interpreted. Because these types of surface alteration are the result of actual vessel usage, they are a source of reliable evidence for identifying the function of individual vessels and of morphological vessel types.

Coosa: a Chiefdom in the Sixteenth-Century Southeastern United States

Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers regarded Coosa as one of the most important chiefdoms in the southeastern United States. Using both documentary and archaeological evidence, we have located the main town of Coosa and several tributary towns, as well as some of the frontiers of the chiefdom. The locations of these towns and frontiers are supported by the archaeological recovery of sixteenth-century European artifacts in the postulated area of the chiefdom.

Plant Preservation and the Content of Paleobotanical Samples: a Case Study

Paleobotanical samples recovered from the floors of three domestic structures at an early historic (A.D. 1550-1700) site in northwestern Georgia are here compared. Several factors-excavation procedures, duration of structure occupancy, functional nature of structures, nature and timing of structure abandonment-which probably contributed to inter-sample variability are discussed. Consideration of the frequency of individual plant species in the samples and of the ethnohistorical evidence for aboriginal plant processing leads to the conclusion that most variability can be attributed to whether or not structures burned and when during the year burning occurred. The analysis demonstrates that the manner in which plant parts become carbonized has a major impact on the accuracy with which paleobotanical remains reflect actual plant utilization.

Reply to Boyd and Schroedl

C. Clifford Boyd, Jr. and Gerald F. Schroedlfindfault with our use of both historical and archaeological evidence in our reconstruction of the paramount chiefdom of Coosa. Herein we answer their criticisms by discussing our overall research strategy and by clarifying our use of historical documents, the Spanish league, and archaeological information. We also point out some of the more obvious errors and misinterpretations in the work of the U.S. De Soto Expedition Commission.