Early and Middle Woodland Landscapes of the Southeast

1. Introduction: Emerging Approaches to the Landscapes of the Early and Middle Woodland Southeast

1 Introduction Emerging Approaches to the Landscapes of the Early and Middle Woodland Southeast Alice P. Wr ight A nd edWAr d r . henry On a pleasantly balmy morning in November 2009, several dozen archaeologists crowded into a small conference room in Mobile, Alabama, to hear David Anderson and Kenneth Sassaman comment on the current state of archaeological research in the American Southeast. Their paper, now expanded into a book (Anderson and Sassaman 2012), covered considerable topical, chronological, and theoretical ground. In a mere 20 minutes, they discussed how new techniques for archaeological prospection, dating, data management , and environmental reconstruction were changing our views of the southeastern past, from the Paleo-Indian period through European contact, and they outlined several directions for future study of these issues. Notably absent from their presentation, however, were the Early and Middle Woodland periods, dating, respectively, to circa 1000–200 BC and 200 BC–AD 600–800.1 For researchers interested in the Woodland period, this omission by two giants of southeastern archaeology was, to say the least, disconcerting . Surely, future research in the region could not ignore nearly two millennia of cultural development, which encompass critical social, political , and economic changes associated with the adoption of horticulture and semipermanent settlement and with a florescence of ceremonial activity and subcontinental interaction networks? Surely, the methodological developments and theoretical perspectives discussed in the context of Archaic and Mississippian research could be applied with equal success to the intervening periods? Surely, we could not be the only people interested in this stuff? In an effort to answer these questions, we mustered a sizable contingent of Woodland period specialists at 2010’s Southeastern Archaeological Conference in a symposium entitled “Ritual and Domestic Landscapes of Early and Middle Woodland Peoples in the Southeast.” This more manageably titled volume is the outcome of our session. The chapters herein demonstrate the 2 Alice P.Wright and Edward R. Henry vibrancy of research across the Early and Middle Woodland Southeast (figure 1.1) and argue strongly for their continued investigation and inclusion in discussions of recent developments in southeastern archaeology (Anderson and Sassaman 2009). As the titles of both the symposium and the volume indicate, this assembly of Early and Middle Woodland research finds collective footing in the concept of landscape archaeology. Although this approach to prehistory is not lacking in southeastern archaeological research, this umbrella term has never been explored, unabridged, in one publication. In the remainder of this introduction, we explore the theoretical foundations of landscapes in archaeological research, examine the methodological challenges and opportunities inherent in investigating past landscapes, and propose how landscape-based perspectives can shed light on the Early and Middle Woodland periods in particular. Our goal—and that of our contributors— is twofold. We aim not only to present cutting-edge interpretations of diverse Early and Middle Woodland data sets, which were last synthesized more than a decade ago (Anderson and Mainfort 2002a), but also to develop a flexible theoretical framework with the potential to illuminate the Figure 1.1. Location of Early and Middle Woodland sites and subregions examined in this volume. Map prepared by Edward Henry. Emerging Approaches to the Landscapes of the Early and MiddleWoodland Southeast 3 dynamic and multiscalar historical processes exhibited in the archaeological record of the Greater Southeast. Theoretical Background: A Diversity of Landscapes Encompassing high mountains and rolling hills, wide floodplains and meandering river valleys, dense forests and sandy coastlines, the American Southeast has provided a stage and a means of human habitation, sociopolitical and economic interaction, and ceremonial performance for more than 10,000 years.Duringthistime,nativepeoplesengagedwithandmodifiedthephysical landscape in a variety of ways. They built houses, villages, and towns; erected earthworks and burial facilities; established overland trails and traveled along riversandstreams;andvisitedandmarkedspecialnaturalplaces.ArchaeologicalstudiesintheSoutheasthavetended ,atleastforthepastseveraldecades,to examinetherecordsoftheseandotheractivitiesinrelativeisolation—inother words, with a topical emphasis on subsistence strategies, exchange patterns, mortuary ritual, and so forth. At least partially attributable to increasing demandsfortechnicalexpertiseandcontextualspecializationinparticulartimes andplaces,thisbodyofresearchprovidesthebuildingblocksfornewinterpretations of the southeastern past that simultaneously consider the many different ways in which native communities experienced their natural and cultural surroundings. To that end, this volume presents new research on the social landscapes of the Early and Middle Woodland Southeast, drawing on diverse concepts of landscape archaeology developed over the past three decades. As others have noted (Anschuetz et al. 2001; Knapp and Ashmore 1999), there are, in fact, many different archaeologies of landscape. The field is unified by a common purpose: to detangle...