V D Thompson
Biographic Data
| ID | 15550 |
|---|---|
| NAME | V D Thompson |
| GIVEN NAMES | V D |
| FAMILY NAME | Thompson |
| SIGNATURE | THOMPSON V D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Georgia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1688-8932 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 60 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 308 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 60 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Foregrounding town histories beyond the Soto event in Ichisi (9BI2, Lamar) and the Ocmulgee River Basin, Georgia
We report on our excavation and radiocarbon dating program at the Lamar Mound and Village in the Ocmulgee River Basin of central Georgia. Based on its ceramic assemblage, Lamar has long thought to have been occupied intensively during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and it is one of the regions that the De Soto entrada came through in 1540 as it made its way through what is now Georgia. Excavations in the 1930s revealed several houses and …
An Integrated Approach to Understanding the Occupational Trajectory of Mercadal in Southern Aragon, Spain
This article presents an integrated historical ecological investigation of the abandoned Medieval village of Mercadal in southern Aragon, Spain. Combining non-invasive archaeogeophysical survey (magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar), targeted excavation, shovel testing, radiocarbon dating, and analytical cartography, we examine spatial organization, geomorphic context, and occupational chronology of the site. Bayesian modeling indicates a bi…
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 …
Collaborative Archaeology, Public Parks, and the Importance of Chronology at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, located in Macon, Georgia, is one of the most iconic cultural sites in the Southeast and is a Traditional Cultural Place (TCP) of the Muscogee Nation and other federally recognized Tribal Nations. Early work (1933–1941) revealed a network of earthen monuments and other features. Prior to our work, there were only two radiocarbon dates from the primary Native American occupation of Ocmulgee. Both were run …
Chronology building in the Ancestral Florida Keys
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…
Provenance of pottery from the Florida Keys: A geochemical pilot study
Stable Isotope Analysis and Chronology Building at the Hokfv-Mocvse Cultural Site, the Earliest Evidence for South Atlantic Shell-Ring Villages
Circular shell rings along the South Atlantic coast of the United States are vestiges of the earliest sedentary villages in North America, dating to 4500-3000 BP. However, little is known about when Indigenous communities began constructing these shell-ring villages. This article presents data from the Hokfv-Mocvse Shell Ring on Ossabaw Island, Georgia. Although shell rings are often associated with the earliest ceramics in North America, no cera…
Sequential villages and settling down on the southeast U.S. coast
The adoption of more sedentary residential practices is a long process in which groups shift in size, permanence, makeup, and even location in response to the social, demographic, ecological, and subsistence pressures associated with settling down. Coastal peoples living in the Southeast U.S. are among the first to adopt more sedentary lifeways in North America as evidenced by their creation of dozens of large circular or arcing shell middens dur…
The Timing of Sea-Level Rise Impacts to Cultural Heritage Sites along the Georgia Coast, USA, through Fine-Grain Ecological Modeling
Large datasets, combined with modeling techniques, provide a quantitative way to estimate when known archaeological sites will be impacted by climatological changes. With over 4,000 archaeological sites recorded on the coast of Georgia, USA, the state provides an ideal opportunity to compare methods. Here, we compare the popular passive “bathtub” modeling with the dynamic Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) combined with the Marshes Equilib…
Placing radiocarbon dating at the center of collective archaeological practice
Radiocarbon analysis is a common tool used to obtain the absolute ages of materials from archaeological contexts. This method underlies the basis of most archaeological chronologies across the globe, allowing us to better understand the temporality of past events. However, in the American Southeast, research by a small number of academic archaeologists who are interested in specific kinds of sites, time periods, and research questions drive radio…
The NAGPRA Nexus, Institutional Integrity, and the Evolving Role of Archaeological Laboratories
In November 1995, the Laboratory of Archaeology at the University of Georgia submitted inventories and summaries of Indigenous ancestors and funerary objects in its holdings to comply with the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). However, after this submission, the Laboratory attempts at consultation with federally recognized descendant Tribal communities who have cultural ties in the state of Georgia we…
Cross-mended ceramic sherds as a proxy for depositional processes at two Late Archaic shell rings in coastal Georgia
Characterizing the depositional and temporal nature of sediments lends insight into the construction of monuments and midden accumulation. Identifying discrete deposits at Late Archaic shell rings can be challenging due to the seemingly homogenous nature of shell deposits. Data from cross-mended artifacts can help identify surfaces and determine whether deposits are contemporaneous. We present cross-mend results from the St. Catherines Shell Ring…
Bluff Field (9CH160) ceramics and radiocarbon dating and their implications for chronology building on Ossabaw Island and the Georgia coast
We present the results of the 2022 excavations at the Bluff Field site (9CH160), wherein we consider the juxtaposition of Bayesian radiocarbon modeling against the current ceramic chronologies derived for the Georgia coast. New evidence from AMS radiocarbon dating and statistical modeling pushes both the timing and span of Wilmington series ceramics beyond the ranges afforded by current models. Short-lived carbonized hickory nuts from within exca…
The Effacement and Persistence of Tocobaga, a Native Florida Town
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…
Considering Urbanism at Mound Key (Caalus), the capital of the Calusa in the 16th Century, Southwest Florida, USA
The role of radiocarbon dating in advancing Indigenous-led archaeological research agendas
Archaeology is an inherently colonial discipline. The field has its roots in Western knowledge systems, social and racial hierarchies, colonisation, and the dispossession of Indigenous pasts from contemporary descendant and traditionally affiliated communities (Gosden, 2012 ; McNiven and Russell, 2005 ; Trigger, 1984 ). Calls for and efforts towards decolonising the production of archaeological knowledge have been reverberating in the discipline …
Keystone Institutions of Democratic Governance Across Indigenous North America
Defining and examining democracy in non-Western contexts is a conceptual challenge. This is largely because scholars of contemporary political systems outside of anthropology can envision no alternative pathways other than Western expressions of democracy. Such thinking inhibits our understanding of past, and indeed future, democratic systems. In this paper, we argue that there is no such thing as a “democracy, ” but rather there are institutions…
Legacy radiocarbon dates and the archaeological chronology of the Western Pyrenees
The Western Pyrenees as a geographic region spanning portions of France and Spain is explored through the analysis of publicly available legacy radiocarbon dates from archaeological contexts. Eight hundred and eighty-three radiocarbon dates were identified. After completing a chronometric hygiene, a total of 416 radiocarbon dates were then available for use in our Bayesian analysis and simulations. Dates were calibrated using OxCal 4.2.7 and the …
The Changing Profile of Tenure-Track Faculty in Archaeology
The goal for many PhD students in archaeology is tenure-track employment. Students primarily receive their training by tenure-track or tenured professors, and they are often tacitly expected—or explicitly encouraged—to follow in the footsteps of their advisor. However, the career trajectories that current and recent PhD students follow may hold little resemblance to the ones experienced by their advisors. To understand these different paths and t…
The Early Materialization of Democratic Institutions among the Ancestral Muskogean of the American Southeast
Democratic cooperation is a particularly complex type of arrangement that requires attendant institutions to ensure that the problems inherent in collective action do not subvert the public good. It is perhaps due to this complexity that historians, political scientists, and others generally associate the birth of democracy with the emergence of so-called states and center it geographically in the 'West,' where it then diffused to the rest of the…
A New Radiocarbon Database for the Lower 48 States
From 2014 to 2020, we compiled radiocarbon ages from the lower 48 states, creating a database of more than 100,000 archaeological, geological, and paleontological ages that will be freely available to researchers through the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Here, we discuss the process used to compile ages, general characteristics of the database, and lessons learned from this exercise in 'big data' compilation
Episodic complexity and the emergence of a coastal kingdom: Climate, cooperation, and coercion in Southwest Florida
A preliminary consideration of craft production and settlement expansion on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, USA
This report presents findings from recent systematic surveys and excavations at the site of Finley’s Pond (9CH204) to evaluate craft production (e.g., shell beads) and settlement expansion on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, within the context of larger social, political, and economic changes that occurred along the Georgia coast over the last millennia. Shovel tests and excavation units were conducted at Finley’s Pond as part of the University of Georgi…
Determining the habitats of mollusk collection at the Sapelo Island shell ring complex, Georgia, USA using oxygen isotope sclerochronology
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 …
Contemplating the history and future of radiocarbon dating in the American Southeast
We consider the history, present, and future of radiocarbon dating in the American Southeast. We point out some of the past and present flaws related to archaeological research and dating. Our approach to this review is rooted in the perspective that each radiocarbon date collectively adds to our knowledge of the region and not just a particular site. Based on our observations, we suggest some “good” practices with respect to certain aspects of r…
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…
Marginalization of the Margins: The Importance of Smaller Islands in Human Prehistory
Across the world's seas and oceans, archaeological research focused on islands has generally privileged those that are larger in size. Explanations for this phenomenon range from the (mis)perception by scholars that prehistoric peoples were more attracted to the presumed greater number and diversity of resources typically available on larger islands, to the ephemeral aspect of archaeological evidence on smaller land areas. These are coupled with …
The Case for Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Analysis in Historical Archaeology
Episodic complexity and the emergence of a coastal kingdom: Climate, cooperation, and coercion in Southwest Florida
What I Believe: Reflections on Historical and Political Ecology as Research Frameworks in Southeastern Archaeology
Research themes centering on human-environment interaction have a long history in the writings of Southeastern archaeologists. However, many of the past theoretical frameworks that center on the environment do not articulate well with concepts such as agency and history as mechanisms for understanding the past. Two exceptions to this are research agendas that incorporate concepts derived from both historical and political ecology. In this paper, …
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…
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…
Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Landscape Use in West-Central Kentucky
Recent fieldwork near Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Green River in western Kentucky, clarifies our understanding of Archaic Period (10,000–3000 b.p.) occupation and land-use. A survey of 611 ha of land identified 40 previously unknown sites in four environmental zones. These data were used in conjunction with museum collections and the state site file to show that the Archaic population of the area varied in size over time, the use of differe…
Where is the Southeastern Native American economy
Economics – the socially instituted ways of managing how people value, make, exchange, and consume goods – is a major part of human culture. Yet there is comparatively little study of the economies of the pre-sixteenth-century Southeast, in spite of revealing written comments by the earliest European observers and the fact that cross-culturally in societies of comparable scale, multiple, complicated economic institutions always play a central rol…
Exploring the season of mound building through oxygen isotope geochemistry at the Garden Patch site, Gulf Coast Florida, USA
The American Southeast saw the development of large ceremonial village centers, the coalescence of households, and monumental architecture integrated into village layout during the Middle Woodland period (ca. AD 1–600). These shifts toward more sedentary lifeways occurred independently of, and prior to, the domestication of plants across the Southeast. This paper examines the seasonality of monumental construction at the Garden Patch site located…
Using Oxygen Isotope Sclerochronology to Evaluate the Role of Small Islands Among the Guale (AD 1325 to 1700) of the Georgia Coast, USA
In this article, we present the results of sequential oxygen isotope analysis performed on hard clam, Mercenaria spp. (n = 5) and eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica (n = 13) valves excavated from Pumpkin Hammock (9MC350). These data are used to evaluate Guale models of settlement and subsistence along the Georgia coast during the late pre-Contact and early Colonial eras (ca. AD 1325 to 1700). Season of collection data indicate shells were coll…
A New Radiocarbon Database for the Lower 48 States
From 2014 to 2020, we compiled radiocarbon ages from the lower 48 states, creating a database of more than 100,000 archaeological, geological, and paleontological ages that will be freely available to researchers through the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Here, we discuss the process used to compile ages, general characteristics of the database, and lessons learned from this exercise in 'big data' compilation
Early Hunter-Gatherer Pottery along the Atlantic Coast of the Southeastern United States: A Ceramic Compositional Study
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 Thom's Creek type. Known mainly from South Carolina, Thom's 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 Car…
Integrating shallow geophysical survey: Archaeological investigations at Totógal in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México
The Early Materialization of Democratic Institutions among the Ancestral Muskogean of the American Southeast
Democratic cooperation is a particularly complex type of arrangement that requires attendant institutions to ensure that the problems inherent in collective action do not subvert the public good. It is perhaps due to this complexity that historians, political scientists, and others generally associate the birth of democracy with the emergence of so-called states and center it geographically in the 'West,' where it then diffused to the rest of the…
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…
Beyond Time Team: Archaeological Investigations at Coconut Walk, Nevis, West Indies, 1st July–4th August 2010
Introduction In July and August 2010 Kaye, Fitzpatrick and Kappers directed a team comprising four staff members from England, The Netherlands and the U.S. together with 22 students from various American universities to conduct archaeological investigations at the coastal site of Coconut Walk in Nevis, West Indies. Our goal this year was to expand on the 1998 excavations conducted by UK television’s Time Team (in conjunction with Southampton Univ…
Considering Urbanism at Mound Key (Caalus), the capital of the Calusa in the 16th Century, Southwest Florida, USA
The Changing Profile of Tenure-Track Faculty in Archaeology
The goal for many PhD students in archaeology is tenure-track employment. Students primarily receive their training by tenure-track or tenured professors, and they are often tacitly expected—or explicitly encouraged—to follow in the footsteps of their advisor. However, the career trajectories that current and recent PhD students follow may hold little resemblance to the ones experienced by their advisors. To understand these different paths and t…
Discovering San Antón de Carlos: The Sixteenth-Century Spanish Buildings and Fortifications of Mound Key, Capital of the Calusa
The effects of shellfish harvesting by aboriginal inhabitants of Southwest Florida (USA) on productivity of the eastern oyster: Implications for estuarine management and restoration
Keystone Institutions of Democratic Governance Across Indigenous North America
Defining and examining democracy in non-Western contexts is a conceptual challenge. This is largely because scholars of contemporary political systems outside of anthropology can envision no alternative pathways other than Western expressions of democracy. Such thinking inhibits our understanding of past, and indeed future, democratic systems. In this paper, we argue that there is no such thing as a “democracy, ” but rather there are institutions…
Integrating shallow geophysical survey: Archaeological investigations at Totógal in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México
Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Landscape Use in West-Central Kentucky
Recent fieldwork near Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Green River in western Kentucky, clarifies our understanding of Archaic Period (10,000–3000 b.p.) occupation and land-use. A survey of 611 ha of land identified 40 previously unknown sites in four environmental zones. These data were used in conjunction with museum collections and the state site file to show that the Archaic population of the area varied in size over time, the use of differe…
Lines in the Past: Connecting Gulf Coast Archaeology
Early Hunter-Gatherer Pottery along the Atlantic Coast of the Southeastern United States: A Ceramic Compositional Study
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 Thom's Creek type. Known mainly from South Carolina, Thom's 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 Car…
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 …
Beyond Time Team: Archaeological Investigations at Coconut Walk, Nevis, West Indies, 1st July–4th August 2010
Introduction In July and August 2010 Kaye, Fitzpatrick and Kappers directed a team comprising four staff members from England, The Netherlands and the U.S. together with 22 students from various American universities to conduct archaeological investigations at the coastal site of Coconut Walk in Nevis, West Indies. Our goal this year was to expand on the 1998 excavations conducted by UK television’s Time Team (in conjunction with Southampton Univ…
Monumentalization and ritual landscapes at Fort Center in the Lake Okeechobee basin of South Florida
Determining the habitats of mollusk collection at the Sapelo Island shell ring complex, Georgia, USA using oxygen isotope sclerochronology
Using Oxygen Isotope Sclerochronology to Evaluate the Role of Small Islands Among the Guale (AD 1325 to 1700) of the Georgia Coast, USA
In this article, we present the results of sequential oxygen isotope analysis performed on hard clam, Mercenaria spp. (n = 5) and eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica (n = 13) valves excavated from Pumpkin Hammock (9MC350). These data are used to evaluate Guale models of settlement and subsistence along the Georgia coast during the late pre-Contact and early Colonial eras (ca. AD 1325 to 1700). Season of collection data indicate shells were coll…
What I Believe: Reflections on Historical and Political Ecology as Research Frameworks in Southeastern Archaeology
Research themes centering on human-environment interaction have a long history in the writings of Southeastern archaeologists. However, many of the past theoretical frameworks that center on the environment do not articulate well with concepts such as agency and history as mechanisms for understanding the past. Two exceptions to this are research agendas that incorporate concepts derived from both historical and political ecology. In this paper, …
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…
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…
Discovery and appraisal of the early Christian church of Notre Dame de Baudes near Labastide-du-Temple, France
A preliminary exploration of Santa Elena's sixteenth century colonial landscape through shallow geophysics
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the founder and first governor of La Florida, established several outposts in what is now the southeastern United States. One was at the now famed city of St. Augustine (1565) and another in 1566 at the former French outpost of Charlesfort, now known as Santa Elena, marking the first Spanish occupation of the locale that would become Spain's capital in the region. In total, the colony of Santa Elena lasted for little mor…
Marginalization of the Margins: The Importance of Smaller Islands in Human Prehistory
Across the world's seas and oceans, archaeological research focused on islands has generally privileged those that are larger in size. Explanations for this phenomenon range from the (mis)perception by scholars that prehistoric peoples were more attracted to the presumed greater number and diversity of resources typically available on larger islands, to the ephemeral aspect of archaeological evidence on smaller land areas. These are coupled with …
The effects of shellfish harvesting by aboriginal inhabitants of Southwest Florida (USA) on productivity of the eastern oyster: Implications for estuarine management and restoration
Oyster paleoecology and Native American subsistence practices on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, USA
Woodland-period mound building as historical tradition: Dating the mounds and monuments at Crystal River (8CI1)
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…
Contemplating the history and future of radiocarbon dating in the American Southeast
We consider the history, present, and future of radiocarbon dating in the American Southeast. We point out some of the past and present flaws related to archaeological research and dating. Our approach to this review is rooted in the perspective that each radiocarbon date collectively adds to our knowledge of the region and not just a particular site. Based on our observations, we suggest some “good” practices with respect to certain aspects of r…
The Case for Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Analysis in Historical Archaeology
A Perspective on Paleoindian Research from the Opposite End of the Foraging Spectrum
This essay is a perspective on Paleoindian research examining the nature of this body of scholarship and how it is perceived by outside scholars. The discussion revolves around three different tropes in Paleoindian literature: (1) chronology and settlement research; (2) technology studies; (3) behavioral and ecological theory. While the studies that make up these tropes are not inherently invalid or bad, the focus on similar problems by a wide ra…
Early platform mound communalism and co-option in the American Southeast: Implications of shallow geophysics at Garden Patch Mound 2, Florida, USA
Archaeology (50 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (45 works) · Geography (40 works) · Geology (29 works) · History (25 works) · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies (20 works) · History (19 works) · Radiocarbon dating (19 works) · Ecology (18 works) · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology (15 works)