A Test for Maize Consumption by Fauna in Late Prehistoric Eastern North America

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheena A. Ketchum ◽  
Mark R. Schurr ◽  
Rexford C. Garniewicz
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Prehistoric

Population Aggregation and the Emergence of Circular Villages in Southwest Virginia

2018 ◽  
pp. 140-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Jefferies
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
North America ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Settlement Structure ◽  
Southern Appalachian ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period ◽  
Population Aggregation

Archaeological evidence from throughout much of eastern North America documents a transition from small, scattered settlements to nucleated, often circular, villages during the Late Woodland/Late Prehistoric period (ca. A.D. 1000-1600). In southwestern Virginia's Appalachian Highlands, this transition is marked by the appearance of large circular palisaded villages associated with what Howard MacCord called the Intermontane Culture. This paper investigates the origin, structure, and spatial distribution of Late Woodland circular villages across the southern Appalachian landscape and compares their emergence to similar trends in settlement structure and organization witnessed in other parts of the Appalachian Highlands and beyond.

Conflict and Societal Change in Late Prehistoric Eastern North America

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 96-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
George R. Milner ◽  
George Chaplin ◽  
Emily Zavodny
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Late Prehistoric

Mississippian Beginnings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Analytical Tools

The emergence of the complex societies of the late prehistoric era in Eastern North America has been the subject of extensive research in recent years, resulting in a new appreciation for how these changes played out at specific sites and across the region. Concern with variation within local historical trajectories, the movements and practices of peoples, and detailed site reconstructions have replaced the broad general neoevolutionary approaches that characterized research on Mississippian origins a generation ago. Aided by a wealth of new fieldwork and analytical tools, our understanding of the Mississippian emergence and what is meant by Mississippian itself has become much clearer in recent years, as has our knowledge of events at specific sites.

Estimating Original Firing Tempieraiure in Low Fired Prehistoric Ceramics

1990 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Feathers
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Drying Shrinkage ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Prehistoric Pottery ◽  
Prehistoric Ceramics ◽  
River Valleys

AbstractThe river valley clays used for prehistoric pottery throughout much of Eastern North America require a nonplastic additive, or temper, to improve their workability and reduce drying shrinkage. During the Late Prehistoric (roughly after 900 AD) crushed shell was added as temper along most of the river valleys of the Midwest and along portions of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Alligator Mound: Geoarchaeological and Iconographical Interpretations of a Late Prehistoric Effigy Mound in Central Ohio, USA

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley T. Lepper ◽  
Tod A. Frolking
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Fort Ancient ◽  
Effigy Mound

Alligator Mound is an animal effigy mound in central Ohio, USA. Since Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis first recorded and mapped it in 1848, many have speculated regarding its age and meaning, but with remarkably little systematic archaeological investigation. Many scholars have assumed the Hopewell culture (c. 100 BC-AD 400) built the mound, based principally on its proximity to the Newark Earthworks. The Hopewell culture, however, is not known to have built other effigy mounds. Limited excavations in 1999 revealed details of mound stratigraphy and recovered charcoal embedded in mound fill near the base of the mound. This charcoal yielded radiocarbon dates that average between AD 1170 and 1270, suggesting that the Late Prehistoric Fort Ancient culture (c. AD 1000-1550) made the mound. This result coincides with dates obtained for Serpent Mound in southern Ohio and suggests that the construction of effigy mounds in eastern North America was restricted to the Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric traditions. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric analogies suggest that the so-called 'Alligator' might actually represent the Underwater Panther and have served as a shrine for invoking the aid of supernatural powers.

The Identification and Study of Indian Shell Middens in Eastern North America: 1643–1861

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew L. Christenson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
North America ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Shell Midden ◽  
Shell Middens ◽  
Work Done

Although the interest in shell middens in North America is often traced to reports of the discoveries in Danish kjoekkenmoeddings in the mid-nineteenth century, extensive shell midden studies were already occurring on the East Coast by that time. This article reviews selected examples of this early work done by geologists and naturalists, which served as a foundation for shell midden studies by archaeologists after the Civil War.

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