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Along the banks of the lower Chattahoochee River, the remains of ancient settlements are abundant. Some of these archaeological sites, produced by American Indians between 900 and 350 years ago, are noticeable by the presence of large earthen mounds. Like similar monuments elsewhere in the southeastern United States, the lower Chattahoochee River mounds have long attracted the attention of travelers, antiquarians, and archaeologists. The eighteenth-century naturalist William Bartram described in his Travels how he passed through the region and encountered “one instance of the tetragon terraces which was in the Apalachucla old town, on the west banks of that river; here were yet remaining conspicuous monuments, as vast four square terraces, chunk yards, etc. almost equalling [sic] those eminent ones at the Oakmulge ¤elds” (Bartram 1958:331–332, emphasis added). Over the next 150 years, objects from the mounds were unearthed, occasionally illustrated, and discussed in print (Brandon 1909; Moore 1907). Attention was focused on the aesthetic qualities of the artifacts, speculation about the origins of the remains, and possible relationships to the Creek Indians. Beginning in the twentieth century, new concerns emerged as the developing science of archaeology was introduced to the region. Trained archaeologists from the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia, the Columbus Museum (Georgia), and the Smithsonian Institution initiated extensive excavations of the mounds as many of the sites were threatened or destroyed by reservoir construction. Although classi¤cation of artifacts and sites into a chronological progression of cultures was the thrust of this effort , a second concern, sometimes more latent than manifest, was the reconstruction of a past way of life. Archaeologists hoped to achieve a better un1 Political and Social Integration in Rank Societies A Mississippian Case Study derstanding of the sociopolitical organization of the peoples who built the mounds, and how those organizations changed through time. Contemporary archaeologists, while in agreement on many aspects of the ancient cultures, debate the causes, forms, and degrees of sociopolitical complexity in the ancient Southeast. Written accounts from the time of early contact with Europeans in the sixteenth century provide one source of information (Clayton et al. 1993). Spanish conquistadors encountered native southeastern peoples with powerful leaders who lived on ®at-topped earthen mounds in forti¤ed communities. Narrators portrayed these societies in terms derived from their own feudal order: as warring provinces of lords and vassals giving and taking tribute over extensive territories. By Bartram’s day, the Lower Creeks of the Chattahoochee region, like other native southeastern peoples, no longer constructed mounds, nor did their societies conform to the earlier Spanish accounts (Smith 1987). Some archaeologists argue for a high degree of centralized authority in the late precolumbian societies, not unlike the Spanish descriptions, whereby communities were integrated into political organizations that encompassed whole regions (DePratter 1991; Hudson et al. 1985). Others depict these societies with social structures and political forms no more complex or centralized than the historic Creeks when Bartram sojourned among them (Muller 1997). Do the mounds mark the capitals of political territories? If so, what was the scale and scope of these ancient “provinces”? What manner of society constructed the mound settlements? What was the sociopolitical organization of these long-dead populations? How can archaeologists answer such queries with the mute and sometimes ordinary materials with which they work: pottery, stone tools, organic residues, and the strata of remnant settlements , buildings, and mounds? Prehistoric Politics This book presents the results of our efforts to ¤nd answers to these questions . In this study we address the development of complex society in the ancient American Southeast by generating models of sociopolitical organization that can be evaluated through archaeology. It is a case study based on archaeological excavations. Our research is designed to measure and assess the form and scale of political and social integration in the lower Chattahoochee River valley of Alabama and Georgia (Figure 1.1). Our use of the term integration refers to the cultural practices that linked people together into communities that interacted on a regular and sustained basis. Aided by settlement distributions and pottery style analysis, we document the locations , sizes, and occupation histories of mound centers, a form of archaeological site that functioned as a civic-ceremonial capital of an ancient political territory. 2 / political and social integration in rank societies The precolumbian peoples who built the mound centers, known as Mississippian , lived in societies with ranked kin groups and strong leaders. The term Mississippian refers to an American Indian cultural development beginning just over 1...

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