Societies in Eclipse: Archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands Indians, A.D. 1400-1700

11 The Rise and Fall of Coosa, A.D. 1350–1700

11 The Rise and Fall of Coosa, A.D. 1350-1700 MARVIN T. SMITH When encountered by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1540, Coosa was one of the largest complex chiefdoms in eastern North America, controlling a vast area ofpresentday eastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia, and northeastern Alabama (Hudson, Smith, and DePratter 1984). Recent research into Coosa suggests that this polity was a relative newcomer on the scene, probably rising to power no earlier than about A.D. 1350-1400. Within 50 years following the de Soto entrada, Coosa had lost much of its power, its population, and its territory. By 1700, most of its original territory had been abandoned, and remnants of its many towns were concentrated in just a few villages. Throughout much of its history, the Coosa polity was restricted to the Coosawattee River valley in present northwestern Georgia. At its height in the mid-sixteenth century, however, the complex chiefdom of Coosa controlled much of the Ridge and Valley physiographic province from the upper Tennessee River drainage (French Broad River) in eastern Tennessee southwest to include the Coosa River drainage of northwest Georgia to east-central Alabama (Fig. 11.1). During its decline, many of the people of the present northwestern Georgia area moved down the Coosa River into present-day Alabama. This chapter focuses on the Coosa River drainage, with only passing reference to the Tennessee River drainage to the north. Both the Tennessee and Coosa drainages consisted of fertile river valleys with nearby mountains and ridges. Most major towns were located at the contact point between the Blue Ridge province to the northeast or the Piedmont province to the southeast and the Ridge and Valley province to the west. These settings were locations where streams lefr the mountains to drop fertile soil as the valleys opened up and stream gradient changed. They were also shoal areas where fishing was excellent and river crossingwas easy. Resources such as suitable stone for ground stone tool production and mast-producing hardwood stands were available in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces to the east, while rich farmlands and sources of chert were available in the Ridge and Valley province to the west (Hally and Langford 1988; Hally, Smith, and Langford 1990; Larson 1971a). Subsistence, of the sort typical of most horticultural Mississippian societies, was based on maize, beans, and squash with additional reliance on native nuts, fruits, and seeds. Fishing and hunting for deer, bear, turkey, and other, smaller game prOvided animal protein. History of Archaeological Research Archaeological research in the Coosa province has a long history. In the nineteenth century, investigators from the Smithsonian Institution investigated sites such as Etowah and many sites in eastern Tennessee (Thomas 1894). In the 1920s, Warren K Moorehead excavated at Etowah and the Carters Quarters site (now known as Little Egypt) (Moorehead 1932), and J. C. Harrington (1922) worked in 143 , o miles 100 o kilometers 150 Figure 11.1. The chiefdom of Coosa at its greatest extent (after Hudson et al. 1985: 733). The towns and villages labeled are those known arcbaeologically and from the Spanish chronicles. eastern Tennessee for the Museum of the American Indian. During the 1930s, large WPA teams examined sites in eastern Tennessee under the direction of William S. Webb, T. M. N. Lewis, and Madeline Kneberg (Lewis and Kneberg 1941, 1946; Webb 1938). At the same time, WPA work, primarily survey; was conducted in northern Georgia under the supervision of Robert Wauchope (1966). During the 1950s, Lewis Larson and A. R. Kelly excavated at the famous Etowah site (Kelly and Larson 1956; Larson 1971b, 1989), and in the 1960s, reservoir construction on the Coosa River prompted considerable salvage work under the direction of David L. Dejarnette (University of Alabama 1963, 1964, 1965; Dejarnette, Kurjack, and Keel 1973; Graham 1966). Further excavations in the 1960s and 1970s for the Carters Lake reregulation project on the Coosawattee River by A. R. Kelly and David]. Hally yielded much valuable information (Hally 1979; Kelly 1970, 1972; Kelly et al. 1965) .Workby Patrick Garrow and David Hally at the King site has provided excellent data on community plan and mortuary practices, and Hally has continued to workin the region up to the present (Hally 1988, 1993). Keith Little and Caleb Curren (1981, 1990) have salvaged a good deal of information on looted sites in northern Alabama, and the present author has worked with previously unreported collections , both...