Thomas J Pluckhahn
Biographic Data
| ID | 112880 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas J Pluckhahn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas J |
| FAMILY NAME | Pluckhahn |
| SIGNATURE | PLUCKHAHN T J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7810-5361 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 351 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 51 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Maize at the margins of Mississippian: Macrobotanical and radiocarbon evidence for precolonial corn at the Safety Harbor site (8PI2), Florida
We report the recovery of maize (Zea mays) from precolonial contexts at the Safety Harbor site (8PI2), in Tampa Bay, Florida—the type site for the late prehistoric ceramic series, period, and material culture complex of the same name. The discovery contributes to recent and relatively dramatic shifts in our understanding of temporal and spatial limits of Indigenous corn cultivation in the eastern United States. It is also significant for our unde…
Investigating shellfish harvesting and provisioning in Florida’s largest open-water estuary, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA (ca. AD 200–1000)
Landscape modifications produce a myriad of long-lasting ecological and cultural legacies. In some cases, such practices may necessitate the need for proprietorship systems and cooperation among actors and institutions, particularly if these modifications lead to more favorable habitats. In Tampa Bay, Indigenous shell-terraforming generated conditions more suitable for tidal wetland habitats that descendants would have benefited from. We suggest …
With or Without You: Human and Manatee Encounters in Precolonial Florida
Archaeological zoontologies have tended to focus on animals with whom people of the past were regularly entangled, either in their everyday lives as companion and work animals or at least seasonally as favoured prey. In contrast, I focus on an archaeological case study representing a more ‘eventful’ form of human–animal relations: encounters between Indigenous peoples and manatees ( Trichechus manatus latirostis ) in precolonial Florida, USA. I r…
Multidimensional Experiences of Oystering: Investigating Selectivity and Management in Contemporary and Precolonial Oyster Assemblages From Tampa Bay, Florida, USA
Oysters are ecologically and culturally significant to communities worldwide. Their presence in precolonial shell middens attests to their longstanding importance to coastal societies, a relationship that is exemplified along Florida's Central Gulf Coast. However, archaeological investigations into oyster harvesting in the region have been mainly economic-centered. Our study enlists the concept of oyster merroir—the connection between the charact…
Radiocarbon age offsets in post-bomb terrestrial snails from the Florida Peninsula, USA
Terrestrial gastropods can incorporate carbon from multiple sources, including 14 C-depleted carbonate from limestone, known as the “Limestone Problem” (Goodfriend and Stipp 1983). This affects the reliability of 14 C dating on terrestrial snails, and varies by species, habitat, and physiography, necessitating local validation studies. This study assessed whether two land snail taxa common in carbonate terrains of Florida (USA) accurately reflect…
From Edible to Iconic, and from Queer to Charismatic: The Social and Historical Construction of the Florida Manatee as a Charismatic Species
Archaeo-Tempestites and Coastal Taphonomy of Shell-Bearing Sites: Native American Sites in Florida as a Case Study
The Effacement and Persistence of Tocobaga, a Native Florida Town
Firefly synchronicity and platform mound building by indigenous peoples of the Florida Peninsula, USA
Although archaeologists often highlight the capacity of our field to identify broad-scale patterning in human societies, critiques of social evolution led many to focus on shorter-term, local histories. Drawing from a recent review of alternative models, we employ firefly synchronicity – the rhythmic coordination of flashing observed in some species of bioluminescent fireflies – as a model for understanding patterning in the timing of platform mo…
Geoarchaeology and Coastal Morphodynamics of Harbor Key (8MA15): Indigenous Persistence at a Partially Inundated Native Shell Mound Complex in Tampa Bay, Florida
Applying a coastal-geoarchaeological approach, we synthesize stratigraphic, sedimentological, mollusk-zooarchaeological, and radiometric datasets from recent excavations and sediment coring at Harbor Key (8MA15)-a shell-terraformed Native mound complex within Tampa Bay, on the central peninsular Gulf Coast of Florida. We significantly revise the chronological understanding of the site and place it among the relatively few early civic-ceremonial c…
Understanding multi-sited early village communities of the American Southeast through categorical identities and relational connections
Early villages are often assumed to be economically and politically autonomous and equivalent to an archaeological socio-spatial unit that represents a maximum scale of cohesive residential communities. But the boundaries of some communities extended far beyond such sites of early population aggregation. In the coastal plain of the American Southeast, early village communities of the Middle and Late Woodland period (ca. 100 to 1000 CE) were locat…
Hidden in Plain Sight: Digital Documentation of Cockroach Key (8HI2), a First Millennium Native American Mound Complex on the Western Coast of Florida, USA
We present digital documentation of the Cockroach Key archaeological site in Tampa Bay on the western coast of Florida, USA. The site consists of a mound and midden complex constructed by Native Americans between around 100 and 900 CE. Although well known to antiquarians of the 1800s and archaeologists of the early 1900s, the site has slowly become “hidden in plain sight” to both archaeologists (owing to the lack of contemporary investigations) a…
Let Us All Enjoy the Fish”: Alternative Pathways and Contingent Histories of Collective Action and Governance Among Maritime Societies of the Western Peninsular Coast of Florida, USA, 100–1600 CE
Ethnographers have ably documented the great extent and diversity of social institutions that contemporary fishers and shellfishers employ to collectively manage common property resources. However, the collective action regimes developed among ancient maritime societies remain understudied by archaeologists. We summarize research into the development and form of collective action among the maritime societies of the western peninsular coast of Flo…
A First Millennium A.D. Vegetation History from the Crystal River Site (8CI1), Florida
While seldom integrated within coastal archaeological research in Southeastern North America, vegetation histories derived from palynological data offer valuable records of ancient landscape transformations driven by climatic flux, sea-level oscillations, and anthropogenic modifications. In this paper, we develop a paleo-historical-ecological reconstruction from preliminary analyses on fossil pollen assemblages preserved within marsh, hammock, an…
Invisible Things Forgotten: A Multi-Proxy Study of Wetland Plant Use at a Precolumbian Village on the Gulf Coast of Florida
Herbaceous wetland plant resources have been widely cultivated and utilized by Indigenous peoples throughout North America since at least the early Holocene. Archaeologists and ethnographers, along with traditional knowledge holders, have documented and reconstructed deep histories of interaction between human communities and coastal plants that provide dietary carbohydrates, medicinal compounds, and craft-fiber. On the Florida peninsula, as else…
The History and Future of Migrationist Explanations in the Archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands with a Synthetic Model of Woodland Period Migrations on the Gulf Coast
Intensification revisited: Assessing resource specialization at Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41), Florida
Archaeologists typically associate resource intensification with population expansion, environmental change, and political strategizing. Many Late Woodland and Mississippian societies of the Southeast eschewed dietary diversity in favor of harvesting fewer types of resources that could meet the subsistence demands of incipient aggregation. Foods such as maize and shellfish can provide humans with predictable caloric yields and are amenable to con…
A very different kettle of fish”: Whole vessels from the Main Burial Complex at Crystal River (8CI1)
The “allure of the exotic” dominates both the substance and practice of the archaeology of the Hopewell phenomenon in eastern North America. Ceramics have often been considered less important to Hopewellian exchange, perhaps because they are typically considered local products. I review whole vessels recovered by C. B. Moore from the Crystal River site (8CI1) and curated at the National Museum of the American Indian. Although limited to macroscop…
Celebrating the legacy of Mark Williams from the Oconee Valley to far beyond
This issue brings together former students of Mark Williams to celebrate his legacy to the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Southeast in honor of his retirement from the University of Georgia. Although best known for his work in his native Oconee Valley of Georgia, Mark has had a wide-ranging career, as briefly summarized in this introductory article. His field schools and classes, true to his often-repeated adage “archaeology is fun or it is …
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 k…
Plummets, public ceremonies, and interaction networks during the Woodland period in Florida
Woodland-period mound building as historical tradition: Dating the mounds and monuments at Crystal River (8CI1)
Social Networks and Networked Scholars: An Open-Access Database of Paddle Designs from Pottery of the Woodland Period in the American Southeast
We describe the development of an open-access database for Swift Creek Complicated Stamped ceramics, a type of pottery common to Georgia, eastern Alabama, and northern Florida in the Middle and Late Woodland periods between ca. cal A.D. 100 and 800. The characteristic stamped designs on Swift Creek pottery, created by impressing a carved paddle into a clay vessel before firing, provide unique signatures that enable archaeologists to identify padd…
Exploring Oyster ( Crassostrea virginica ) Habitat Collection via Oxygen Isotope Geochemistry and its Implications for Ritual and Mound Construction at Crystal River and Roberts Island, Florida
Research at Crystal River and Roberts Island Shell Mound Complex, on the western coast of Florida, USA, offers a quantitative assessment of the temporality of shell deposit construction, Native subsistence practices, and mobility patterns through stable oxygen isotope data from eastern oyster (C. virginica). The δ18Owater values of oysters vary synchronously with salinity, assuming relatively constant δ18Owater/salinity gradients since the time o…
Terra incognita: Terrestrial LiDAR documentation of Mound A at Kolomoki (9ER1)
The manifest representation of space and place is essential to good archaeology. Our ability to document and relate these concepts, projected into the past and reflected in the present, has increased tremendously with the expansion and availability of technology. We present recent efforts to further document a well-known place in the cultural landscape: the Kolomoki site in southwestern Georgia, occupied primarily during the Middle and Late Woodl…
Transportation corridors and political evolution in highland Mesoamerica: Settlement analyses incorporating GIS for northern Tlaxcala, Mexico
Light on the Path: The Anthropology and History of the Southeastern Indians
The temporality of shell-bearing landscapes at Crystal River, Florida
Household Archaeology in the Southeastern United States: History, Trends, and Challenges
Situating Remote Sensing in Anthropological Archaeology
Productive applications of geophysics to anthropological questions in American archaeology necessarily involve specific research questions or agendas. While only some anthropological questions can be addressed by shallow geophysics, these techniques provide an opportunity to address some important questions that are fundamental to archaeology. One such agenda is the investigation of ‘persistent places’, which is rooted in anthropological inquiry …
Toward a New View of History and Process at Crystal River (8ci1)
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 …
History, Complex Hunter-gatherers, and the Mounds and Monuments of Crystal River, Florida, USA: A Geophysical Perspective
Crystal River (8CI1) is one of Florida's 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 remot…
The History and Future of Migrationist Explanations in the Archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands with a Synthetic Model of Woodland Period Migrations on the Gulf Coast
Exploring Oyster ( Crassostrea virginica ) Habitat Collection via Oxygen Isotope Geochemistry and its Implications for Ritual and Mound Construction at Crystal River and Roberts Island, Florida
Research at Crystal River and Roberts Island Shell Mound Complex, on the western coast of Florida, USA, offers a quantitative assessment of the temporality of shell deposit construction, Native subsistence practices, and mobility patterns through stable oxygen isotope data from eastern oyster (C. virginica). The δ18Owater values of oysters vary synchronously with salinity, assuming relatively constant δ18Owater/salinity gradients since the time o…
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
Variation in Radiocarbon Age Determinations from the Crystal River Archaeological Site, Florida
Archaeologists interested in radiocarbon dating shell midden sites express concern regarding the accuracy of shell dates and how such determinations should be interpreted. This article discusses the problem of dating shells from sites in the southeastern United States. New results are presented comparing shell, bone, and soil-charcoal age determinations from the Crystal River site, located along the west-central Gulf Coast of Florida. Crystal Riv…
Challenging the Evidence for Prehistoric Wetland Maize Agriculture at Fort Center, Florida
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 m…
Integrating LiDAR data and conventional mapping of the Fort Center site in south-central Florida: A comparative approach
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…
Evidence of Small-Scale Feasting from the Woodland Period Site of Kolomoki, Georgia
Feasting has emerged within the past 15years as a topic ofgreat interest in archaeology. By far the greatest share of this attention has been devoted to large-scale public feasting, often interpreted as an avenue for political maneuvering and the negotiation of power between competing factions. Smaller-scale feasting has not been studied as closely, but it is generally assumed to be related to rituals that emphasize solidarity within households a…
Paste Characterization of Weeden Island Pottery From Kolomoki and Its Implications for Specialized Production
We report the results of a petrographic analysis of pottery from Kolomoki, a Middle and Late Woodland period mound and village complex in southwestern Georgia. Thin sections of 65 sherds representing several prestige and utilitarian Weeden Island pottery types, from both domestic (midden) and ceremonial (mound) contexts, were obtained. For comparison, we also analyzed samples from a few potential clay sources. We characterize the range of variabi…
Radiocarbon and Luminescence Age Determinations on Mounds at Crystal River and Roberts Island, Florida, USA
Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) has been employed successfully to determine the ages of palaeosols from earthen mounds in the southeastern USA, providing archaeologists with a means of dating monument construction in the absence of carbonaceous materials and geologists with a setting for understanding factors that can affect the luminescence intensity (i.e., burial dose) of soils. However, OSL dating has not been adequately tested on moun…
Understanding multi-sited early village communities of the American Southeast through categorical identities and relational connections
Early villages are often assumed to be economically and politically autonomous and equivalent to an archaeological socio-spatial unit that represents a maximum scale of cohesive residential communities. But the boundaries of some communities extended far beyond such sites of early population aggregation. In the coastal plain of the American Southeast, early village communities of the Middle and Late Woodland period (ca. 100 to 1000 CE) were locat…
Sourcing Interaction Networks of the American Southeast: Neutron Activation Analysis of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped Pottery
In the lower American Southeast, regional scale social interactions burgeoned alongside the growth of nucleated villages, widespread mound-building projects, and conspicuous mortuary ceremonialism during the Middle and Late Woodland periods (ca. A.D. 100-800). A premier material for understanding the scale and significance of social interactions across the southern landscape comes from Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery, a ubiquitous class o…
Intensification revisited: Assessing resource specialization at Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI41), Florida
Archaeologists typically associate resource intensification with population expansion, environmental change, and political strategizing. Many Late Woodland and Mississippian societies of the Southeast eschewed dietary diversity in favor of harvesting fewer types of resources that could meet the subsistence demands of incipient aggregation. Foods such as maize and shellfish can provide humans with predictable caloric yields and are amenable to con…
Constructing community at civic-ceremonial centers: Pottery-making practices at Crystal River and Roberts Island
Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI36, 8CI40, 8CI41) are neighboring mound complexes on Florida’s west-central Gulf Coast, with mainly sequential occupations during the Middle and Late Woodland periods, respectively. Previous work at Crystal River produced assemblages marked by a diversity of pastes and surface treatments, suggestive of distinct communities of practice. However, these excavations were unsystematic and poorly controlled, …
Assessing village life and monument construction (cal. AD 65–1070) along the central Gulf Coast of Florida through stable isotope geochemistry
Assessing Methodologies in Archaeological Ethnography: A Case for Incorporating Ethnographic Training in Graduate Archaeology Curricula
Archaeologists have increasingly turned to ethnography as a tool for understanding the contemporary social context of material culture, archaeological practice, and ‘de-colonizing’ archaeology. Furthermore, ethnographers have turned their analysis to the practice of archaeology, providing insights into key ethical dilemmas. This work has produced significant dialogue, demonstrating the potential for research and collaboration at the interface of …
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 k…
Geoarchaeology and Coastal Morphodynamics of Harbor Key (8MA15): Indigenous Persistence at a Partially Inundated Native Shell Mound Complex in Tampa Bay, Florida
Applying a coastal-geoarchaeological approach, we synthesize stratigraphic, sedimentological, mollusk-zooarchaeological, and radiometric datasets from recent excavations and sediment coring at Harbor Key (8MA15)-a shell-terraformed Native mound complex within Tampa Bay, on the central peninsular Gulf Coast of Florida. We significantly revise the chronological understanding of the site and place it among the relatively few early civic-ceremonial c…
Let Us All Enjoy the Fish”: Alternative Pathways and Contingent Histories of Collective Action and Governance Among Maritime Societies of the Western Peninsular Coast of Florida, USA, 100–1600 CE
Ethnographers have ably documented the great extent and diversity of social institutions that contemporary fishers and shellfishers employ to collectively manage common property resources. However, the collective action regimes developed among ancient maritime societies remain understudied by archaeologists. We summarize research into the development and form of collective action among the maritime societies of the western peninsular coast of Flo…
Beads, Pendants and Buttons from Early Historic Creek Contexts at the Tarver Sites, Georgia
Recent excavations conducted on historic Creek Indian components at the Tarver (9JO6) and Little Tarver (9JO198) sites in central Georgia produced an extensive collection of European trade material, including a large sample of glass and lapidary beads, pendants and buttons. The bead collection is significant for its size, as well as the fact that virtually all of the material was recovered from undisturbed and tightly dated burial contexts attrib…
Archaeological Survey in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico
We summarize the 3,000-year period of Prehispanic settlement in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico, based on our regional surveys. We focus on episodic transitions to compare regional trajectories in the Mixteca Alta and elsewhere in Oaxaca. The regularities in settlement pattern changes over so large an area suggest a common causal chain. The project was a full-coverage survey that recorded over 1000 sites in a 10-valley macroregion. The project…
Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty
Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty PETER JORDAN ALTAMIRA PRESS, WALNUT CREEK, CA, 2003 308 PP. $80 HARDCOVER, $29.95 PAPERBACK It seems safe to assume that I am not the only archaeologist who experiences something akin to a pang of longing when I have occasion to pick up an older ethnography. Many of the ethnographers of the early and middle twentieth century devoted almost as much attention to the mate…
Evidence of Small-Scale Feasting from the Woodland Period Site of Kolomoki, Georgia
Feasting has emerged within the past 15years as a topic ofgreat interest in archaeology. By far the greatest share of this attention has been devoted to large-scale public feasting, often interpreted as an avenue for political maneuvering and the negotiation of power between competing factions. Smaller-scale feasting has not been studied as closely, but it is generally assumed to be related to rituals that emphasize solidarity within households a…
Prehistoric Cultures of North America: The Woodland and Mississippian Traditions
Prehistoric Cultures of North America: The Woodland and Mississippian Traditions. An online exhibition of the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College.THOMAS J.PLUCKHAHN
Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology
Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology. James Conolly and Mark Lake. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 326 pp
Transportation corridors and political evolution in highland Mesoamerica: Settlement analyses incorporating GIS for northern Tlaxcala, Mexico
Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut's Tomb
Journal Article Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut's Tomb Get access Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut's Tomb. By La Vere David. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. ix + 255 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95, paper.) Thomas J. Pluckhahn Thomas J. Pluckhahn University of South Florida Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Western Historical Quarterly, Volume 39,…
Light on the Path: The Anthropology and History of the Southeastern Indians
History, Complex Hunter-gatherers, and the Mounds and Monuments of Crystal River, Florida, USA: A Geophysical Perspective
Crystal River (8CI1) is one of Florida's 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 remot…
Toward a New View of History and Process at Crystal River (8ci1)
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 …
Household Archaeology in the Southeastern United States: History, Trends, and Challenges
Monumentalization and ritual landscapes at Fort Center in the Lake Okeechobee basin of South Florida
Situating Remote Sensing in Anthropological Archaeology
Productive applications of geophysics to anthropological questions in American archaeology necessarily involve specific research questions or agendas. While only some anthropological questions can be addressed by shallow geophysics, these techniques provide an opportunity to address some important questions that are fundamental to archaeology. One such agenda is the investigation of ‘persistent places’, which is rooted in anthropological inquiry …
Paste Characterization of Weeden Island Pottery From Kolomoki and Its Implications for Specialized Production
We report the results of a petrographic analysis of pottery from Kolomoki, a Middle and Late Woodland period mound and village complex in southwestern Georgia. Thin sections of 65 sherds representing several prestige and utilitarian Weeden Island pottery types, from both domestic (midden) and ceremonial (mound) contexts, were obtained. For comparison, we also analyzed samples from a few potential clay sources. We characterize the range of variabi…
Integrating LiDAR data and conventional mapping of the Fort Center site in south-central Florida: A comparative approach
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…
Assessing Methodologies in Archaeological Ethnography: A Case for Incorporating Ethnographic Training in Graduate Archaeology Curricula
Archaeologists have increasingly turned to ethnography as a tool for understanding the contemporary social context of material culture, archaeological practice, and ‘de-colonizing’ archaeology. Furthermore, ethnographers have turned their analysis to the practice of archaeology, providing insights into key ethical dilemmas. This work has produced significant dialogue, demonstrating the potential for research and collaboration at the interface of …
Challenging the Evidence for Prehistoric Wetland Maize Agriculture at Fort Center, Florida
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 m…
Variation in Radiocarbon Age Determinations from the Crystal River Archaeological Site, Florida
Archaeologists interested in radiocarbon dating shell midden sites express concern regarding the accuracy of shell dates and how such determinations should be interpreted. This article discusses the problem of dating shells from sites in the southeastern United States. New results are presented comparing shell, bone, and soil-charcoal age determinations from the Crystal River site, located along the west-central Gulf Coast of Florida. Crystal Riv…
The ceramic ecology of florida: Compositional baselines for pottery provenance studies
The success of pottery provenance studies is fundamentally dependent upon spatially patterned variation in the composition of exploited clay resources. Uniformity in clay composition within a region and recognizable differences between regions of interest are essential requirements for determining provenance, but these parameters are difficult to satisfy in study areas such as the coastal plain of the southeastern USA in which chemical and minera…
Assessing village life and monument construction (cal. AD 65–1070) along the central Gulf Coast of Florida through stable isotope geochemistry
Radiocarbon and Luminescence Age Determinations on Mounds at Crystal River and Roberts Island, Florida, USA
Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) has been employed successfully to determine the ages of palaeosols from earthen mounds in the southeastern USA, providing archaeologists with a means of dating monument construction in the absence of carbonaceous materials and geologists with a setting for understanding factors that can affect the luminescence intensity (i.e., burial dose) of soils. However, OSL dating has not been adequately tested on moun…
The temporality of shell-bearing landscapes at Crystal River, Florida
Constructing community at civic-ceremonial centers: Pottery-making practices at Crystal River and Roberts Island
Crystal River (8CI1) and Roberts Island (8CI36, 8CI40, 8CI41) are neighboring mound complexes on Florida’s west-central Gulf Coast, with mainly sequential occupations during the Middle and Late Woodland periods, respectively. Previous work at Crystal River produced assemblages marked by a diversity of pastes and surface treatments, suggestive of distinct communities of practice. However, these excavations were unsystematic and poorly controlled, …
Sourcing Interaction Networks of the American Southeast: Neutron Activation Analysis of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped Pottery
In the lower American Southeast, regional scale social interactions burgeoned alongside the growth of nucleated villages, widespread mound-building projects, and conspicuous mortuary ceremonialism during the Middle and Late Woodland periods (ca. A.D. 100-800). A premier material for understanding the scale and significance of social interactions across the southern landscape comes from Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery, a ubiquitous class o…
Archaeology (44 works) · Geography (41 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (38 works) · Ecology (22 works) · Geology (20 works) · History (17 works) · Woodland (15 works) · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies (13 works) · Archaeological Research and Protection (11 works) · Radiocarbon dating (11 works)