The Woodland Southeast

by David G. Anderson (Editor), Tristram R. Kidder (Contribution by), Patty Jo Watson (Contribution by), Janet Rafferty (Contribution by), Joseph M. Herbert (Contribution by)

Overview

This collection presents, for the first time, a much-needed synthesis of the major research themes and findings that characterize the Woodland Period in the southeastern United States.

The Woodland Period (ca. 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1000) has been the subject of a great deal of archaeological research over the past 25 years. Researchers have learned that in this approximately 2000-year era the peoples of the Southeast experienced increasing sedentism, population growth, and organizational complexity. At the beginning of the period, people are assumed to have been living in small groups, loosely bound by collective burial rituals. But by the first millennium A.D., some parts of the region had densely packed civic ceremonial centers ruled by hereditary elites. Maize was now the primary food crop. Perhaps most importantly, the ancient animal-focused and hunting-based religion and cosmology were being replaced by solar and warfare iconography, consistent with societies dependent on agriculture, and whose elites were increasingly in competition with one another. This volume synthesizes the research on what happened during this era and how these changes came about while analyzing the period's archaeological record.

In gathering the latest research available on the Woodland Period, the editors have included contributions from the full range of specialists working in the field, highlighted major themes, and directed readers to the proper primary sources. Of interest to archaeologists and anthropologists, both professional and amateur, this will be a valuable reference work essential to understanding the Woodland Period in the Southeast.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817313173
Publisher:	University of Alabama Press
Publication date:	09/15/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	696
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

David G. Anderson is an archaeologist with the National Park Service's Southeast Archeological Center in Tallahassee, Florida, and coeditor of The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast.Robert C. Mainfort Jr. is an archaeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey in Fayetteville.

Table of Contents

Contents Figures Tables Preface 1. An Introduction to Woodland Archaeology in the Southeast 2. Woodland Period Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley 3. Plum Bayou Culture of the Arkansas–White River Basin 4. Woodland Period Archaeology of the Lower Mississippi Valley 5. Fourche Maline: A Woodland Period Culture of the Trans-Mississippi South 6. The Woodland Period in the Northern Ozarks of Missouri 7. Woodland Period Archaeology in the American Bottom 8. Deconstructing the Woodland Sequence from the Heartland: A Review of Recent Research Directions in the Upper Ohio Valley 9. Woodland Cultures of the Elk and Duck River Valleys, Tennessee: Continuity and Change 10. Woodland Period Settlement Patterning in the Northern Gulf Coastal Plain of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee 11. Woodland Cultural and Chronological Trends on the Southern Gulf Coastal Plain: Recent Research in the Pine Hills of Southeastern Mississippi 12. The Woodland Period in the Appalachian Summit of Western North Carolina and the Ridge and Valley Province of Eastern Tennessee 13. The Woodland in the Middle Atlantic: Ranking and Dynamic Political Stability 14. A Woodland Period Prehistory of Coastal North Carolina 15. Aspects of Deptford and Swift Creek of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains 16. Weeden Island Cultures 17. The Woodland Archaeology of South Florida 18. Woodland Ceramic Beginnings 19. Culture-Historical Units and the Woodland Southeast: A Case Study from Southeastern Missouri 20. Shellfish Use during the Woodland Period in the Middle South 21. Woodland Faunal Exploitation in the Midsouth 22. The Development and Dispersal of Agricultural Systems in the Woodland Period Southeast 23. Woodland Cave Archaeology in Eastern North America George M. Crothers, Charles H. Faulkner, Jan F. Simek, 24. Domesticating Self and Society in the Woodland Southeast 25. Epilogue: Future Directions for Woodland Archaeology in the Southeast References Cited Contributors Index

Editorial Reviews

"1000 B.C.-A.D. 1000, the proverbial vacuum that Native and Southeastern archaeologists abhor? Well, no more! This volume provides wide ranging, up-to-date, and authoritative coverage of an important period in southeastern prehistory that, until now, has not received the emphasis it deserves."
—James Stoltman, University of Wisconsin


"This volume takes a big step in putting into print the latest and best research on the archaeology of the Woodland period in the Southeast. . . . There is something in this edited volume for anyone interested in the lives and times of native peoples during a critical period in the prehistory of the southeastern United States."
—Southeastern Archaeology

From the Publisher