Neill Wallis

Recovering the Forgotten Woodland Mound Excavations at Garden Patch (8DI4)

Forty-five years ago Timothy Thompson excavated at two of the six mounds at the Garden Patch site but results were never reported. We assembled data from Thompsons work and enhanced them with new test pits at Mound IV and re-excavation of a Mound V trench. Mound IV is a natural sand ridge where a village was established early, by the second century A.D. Mound V began as a naturally elevated platform for at least one burial and associated structure during the fourth century A.D. and was then covered by lenses of shell and sand. The construction sequence of Mound V resembles other mounds in the region. These results help illuminate the functions and depositional histories of mounds within Woodland multi-mound centers of the coastal plain while also demonstrating an effective approach to balancing stewardship and new excavations.

A NEW HISTORY OF COMMUNITY FORMATION AND CHANGE AT KOLOMOKI (9ER1)

We present a revised chronology for the Kolomoki site (9ER1) in Georgia, occupied primarily during the Middle and Late Woodland periods (ca. 200 BC to AD 1050). The considerable extent of the site has been noted for more than a century but came into sharper focus with the archaeological investigations by Sears (1956) and Pluckhahn (2003). The site includes at least nine mounds, a large central plaza, and a discontinuous habitation area nearly a kilometer in diameter. Previous interpretations assumed gradual and incremental changes in the community plan. We present a greatly revised chronology, based on new investigations in some of the lesser-known portions of the site and a doubling of the number of absolute dates. Bayesian modeling of these and previous dates reveals that, far from the gradualist assumption of previous work, the community at Kolomoki was dynamically transformed several times in its history, reaching its greatest spatial extent and formal complexity in two relatively short-lived phases. In these intervals, the village incorporated permanent residents and visitors into a single community in which daily face-to-face interactions were minimized even as communal identity was celebrated. Presentamos una cronología revisada para el sitio de Kolomoki (9ER1) en Georgia, que fue ocupado principalmente durante los períodos Silvícola medio y final (aproximadamente entre 200 aC y 1050 dC). El tamaño considerable del sitio ha sido notado por más de un siglo, pero se convirtió en un foco de atención con las investigaciones arqueológicas de Sears (1956) y Pluckhahn (2003). El sitio incluye por lo menos nueve montículos, una gran plaza central y un área de habitación discontinua de casi un kilómetro de diámetro. Las interpretaciones anteriores asumieron cambios graduales e incrementales en el plan comunitario. Presentamos una cronología muy revisada basada en nuevas investigaciones en algunas de las partes menos conocidas del sitio y en un aumento del doble en el número de fechas absolutas. El modelado bayesiano de fechas nuevas y anteriores revela que, lejos de la suposición gradualista de trabajos previos, la comunidad de Kolomoki se transformó dinámicamente varias veces en su historia, alcanzando su mayor extensión espacial y complejidad formal en dos fases relativamente cortas. En estos intervalos, el pueblo incorporó residentes permanentes y visitantes en una sola comunidad en la cual se minimizaron las interacciones diarias entre individuos aun cuando se celebraba la identidad comunal.