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History, Monumentality, and Interaction in the Appalachian Summit Middle Woodland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alice P. Wright
Alice P. Wright*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, ASU Box 32016, Boone, NC 28608-2016 (wrightap2@appstate.edu)
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Abstract

The Middle Woodland period in eastern North America witnessed a florescence of monumental architecture and material exchange linked to widespread networks of ritual interaction. Although these networks encompassed large geographic areas and persisted for several centuries, extant archaeological models have tended to characterize Middle Woodland interaction as an historically unitary process. Using new data from the Garden Creek site in North Carolina, I argue that these frameworks obscure important historical shifts in Middle Woodland interaction. Recent collections-based research, geophysical survey, targeted excavation, and 14C dating (including Bayesian modeling) of this site reveal two coeval diachronic changes: a shift from geometric earthwork construction to platform mound construction; and a shift from the production of special artifacts {mica, crystal quartz) to the consumption of exotic artifacts in association with platform mound ceremonialism. These data hint at important changes in interregional relationships between the Appalachian Summit, the Hopewellian Midwest, and the greater Southeast during the Middle Woodland period, and provide a springboard for considering how processes of culture contact contributed to precolumbian cultural change.

Resumen

Resumen

Durante el periodo Middle Woodland, la region este de América del norte experimentó una florescencia de arquitectura monumental e intercambio que fueron conectados a redes extensivos de interacción ritual. Aunque estas redes cruzaron regiones geográficas grandes y persistieron por varios siglos, modelos arqueológicos existentes han caracterizado interacciones Middle Woodland como un proceso histórico y unitario. Usando información nueva coleccionada del sitio de Garden Creek en North Carolina, argumento que estos modelos ocultan cambios importantes e históricos en las interacciones de la época Middle Woodland. Investigaciones recientes que utilizan colecciones, técnicas [prospección] geofísicas, excavación, y datos radio-carbónicos del sitio de Garden Creek revelan dos cambios contemporáneos y diacrónicos: el cambio de la construcción de montículos [de tierra] geométricos a la construcción de montículos plataformas; y un cambio de la producción de artefactos preciosos (mica, cuarzo) al consumo de artefactos exóticos relacionados con ceremonialismo de montículos plataformas. Esta información indica que existieron cambios importantes en las relaciones interregionales entre el Sumo Appalachian, el medio-oeste Hopewellian, y la mayoría del sureste durante la época Middle Woodland, y ofrezcan una punto de partida para la consideración de procesos de contacto entre culturas y su contribución a cambios en tiempos precolombinos.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 277 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2014

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