Victor D. Thompson

Adaptive Cycles of Coastal Hunter-Gatherers

Along the southeastern Atlantic coast of Georgia, hunter-gatherer groups substantially altered the landscape for more than three millennia (ca. 4,200-1,000 B.P.) leaving behind a distinct material record in the form of shell rings, middens, and burial mounds. During this time, these groups experienced major changes in sea level and resource distribution. Specifically, we take a resilience theory approach to address these changes and discuss the utility of this theory for archaeology in general. We suggest that despite major destabilizing forces in the form of sea-level lowering and its concomitant effects on resource distribution, cultural systems rebounded to a structural pattern similar to the one expressed prior to environmental disruption. We propose, in part, the ability for people to return to similar patterns was the result of the high visibility of previous behaviors inscribed on the landscape in the form of shell middens and rings from the period preceding environmental disruption. Finally, despite a return to similar cultural formulations, hunter-gatherers experienced some fundamental changes resulting in modifications to existing behaviors (e.g., ringed villages) as well as the addition of new ones in the form of burial-mound construction.

History, Complex Hunter-gatherers, and the Mounds and Monuments of Crystal River, Florida, USA: A Geophysical Perspective

ABSTRACT Crystal River (8CI1) is one of Floridas most famous archaeological sites. Yet, after over a century of investigations, its place in the history of Florida and the southeastern United States is not well understood. Crystal River is an important example, in terms of world archaeology, of a monumental landscape constructed by complex hunter-gatherer-fishers along the coast of the southeastern United States. Here, we present the results of our remote sensing program at the site. This research includes topographic mapping, a resistance survey, and ground-penetrating radar transects over various architectural components at the site. These data lend insight into the scale and rapidity of landscape modification at the site, as well as information on the location of previous archaeological excavations and modern disturbances. Further, the data illustrate the potential of shallow geophysical survey to the investigations of shell architecture.

The Mississippian production of space through earthen pyramids and public buildings on the Georgia coast, USA

Abstract Any attempt at understanding social action must consider space. This paper questions the assumption that changes in architecture, specifically monumental architecture and public buildings, correspond directly to changes in political organization. Lefebvres conceptual framework is used herein to gain insight into the variations in the use and construction of space, as they are reflective of different political and ideological agendas. As a case study, this paper examines the use of space and architecture at the Irene site (9CH1), a Mississippian site on the Georgia coast. Previous interpretations of the site suggest that changes in space and architecture relate to a shift towards a more egalitarian social organization. In contrast to these ideas, the argument is offered that such changes actually reflect the changing forum and expression of power by political actors rather than a wholesale shift in socio-political complexity.

TOWARD A NEW VIEW OF HISTORY AND PROCESS AT CRYSTAL RIVER (8CI1)

Abstract The Crystal River site (8CI1), located on Florida’s westcentral Gulf Coast, has long been counted among the most impressive yet inscrutable archaeological sites in the eastern United States. Excavations by C. B. Moore in the early twentieth century produced a number of artifacts with apparent Hopewellian affiliations, thus indicating an occupation during the Middle Woodland period. However, other features of the site—particularly the presence of flat-topped mounds and negative-painted pottery—suggested a later (Mississippian) date. This apparent conflict cast a cloud of confusion over the site, exacerbated by the later discovery of three purported limestone stelae. We present new insights into Crystal River based partly on new field work, including detailed topographic mapping, geophysical survey, and limited small-diameter coring. These field investigations, when combined with radiocarbon dates and the data gleaned from previous investigations, allow us to make new inferences regarding the chronology of settlement and mound construction at Crystal River. Specifically, we posit, based on these data, a greater degree of planning, structure, and complexity to the site from its founding, possibly as early as cal. 300 B.C. Further, these early practices impact the overarching historical trajectory of the site, guiding subsequent practices over a long time span, likely as late as cal A.D. 600.

Integrating LiDAR data and conventional mapping of the Fort Center site in south-central Florida: A comparative approach

Abstract Publicly available LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data provide a potential windfall for archaeologists, permitting the creation of detailed topographic site maps with little more than an internet-connected computer and appropriate software. The quality of these LiDAR data for site mapping is variable, however, and may need to be supplemented with data obtained from conventional mapping techniques. We share insights from recent mapping of the Fort Center site (8GL13) in southern Florida. Specifically, we suggest a method—based on trial and error—for integrating LiDAR and total station survey data. We compare the results of our work with previous efforts at mapping the site based solely on conventional archaeological survey methods, as well as with results based on LiDAR data alone. We conclude that our combination of LiDAR data, corrected by conventional survey data, produces the most accurate map.

From Shell Midden to Midden-Mound: The Geoarchaeology of Mound Key, an Anthropogenic Island in Southwest Florida, USA.

Mound Key was once the capital of the Calusa Kingdom, a large Pre-Hispanic polity that controlled much of southern Florida. Mound Key, like other archaeological sites along the southwest Gulf Coast, is a large expanse of shell and other anthropogenic sediments. The challenges that these sites pose are largely due to the size and areal extent of the deposits, some of which begin up to a meter below and exceed nine meters above modern sea levels. Additionally, the complex depositional sequences at these sites present difficulties in determining their chronology. Here, we examine the development of Mound Key as an anthropogenic island through systematic coring of the deposits, excavations, and intensive radiocarbon dating. The resulting data, which include the reversals of radiocarbon dates from cores and dates from mound-top features, lend insight into the temporality of site formation. We use these insights to discuss the nature and scale of human activities that worked to form this large island in the context of its dynamic, environmental setting. We present the case that deposits within Mound Key’s central area accumulated through complex processes that represent a diversity of human action including midden accumulation and the redeposition of older sediments as mound fill.

Animism and Green River persistent places: A dwelling perspective of the Shell Mound Archaic

A nuanced understanding of the western Kentucky Green River Archaic requires reconciling the region’s rich archaeological record with the growing literature pertaining to how hunter-gatherers perceive their worlds. A dwelling perspective of the Green River Archaic involves interpreting the region’s large middens as components of animated lifeworlds saturated with meaning and composed of numerous constantly maintained relationships among people and between people and various other beings. This article explores how Green River Archaic hunter-gatherers constructed the middens through daily practices and periodic emotionally charged mortuary rites, thereby giving them meaning as persistent places and contributing to an ever-evolving, historically constituted landscape.

Early Hunter-Gatherer Pottery along the Atlantic Coast of the Southeastern United States: A Ceramic Compositional Study

ABSTRACT Excavations at the Sapelo Island Shell Ring complex in Georgia produced a voluminous assemblage of St. Simons pottery and a small amount of pottery that appears to be of the Thoms Creek type. Known mainly from South Carolina, Thoms Creek ceramics have not been found this far south along the Georgia Coast (Williams and Thompson 1999:125–126). In this study, we investigate whether the ceramics found at Sapelo are more closely related to South Carolina wares or the local St. Simons type. To address this question, we used petrographic point counting and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) characterization techniques on a sample of sherds from both South Carolina and Georgia sites. This pilot study addresses the viability of these techniques for the sourcing of Late Archaic (4200–3000 BP) ceramics and the nature of hunter-gatherer cultural interaction on the southeastern coast of the United States.

Challenging the Evidence for Prehistoric Wetland Maize Agriculture at Fort Center, Florida

Abstract The early evidence (2400 ± 105 B.P.) for wetland maize agriculture at the archaeological site of Fort Center, a large earth-work site in South Florida, USA, is frequently cited in discussions of the emergence of agriculture in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. The evidence for maize, however, rests on controversial pollen data; some researchers accept it, others remain skeptical of its identification or chronological placement. We present microbotanical data (pollen and phytoliths), macrobotanical data, and radiocarbon dates from recent excavations from this site. We argue that maize agriculture did not occur until the historic period at this site and that the identification of maize in earlier deposits is likely a result of contamination.

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

Abstract Antiquarians 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.