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Acknowledgments During my years of research on Alabama River sites, i have accrued huge debts to so many people in so many places. first and foremost, i have to thank my graduate advisor Jim Knight for many years of guidance and support . i also offer my sincere thanks to the many University of Alabama faculty members who guided my research over the years, especially John blitz, ian brown, bill Dressler, Keith Jacobi, the late Doug Jones, and Kathy oths. i could never have done this research without the help of Craig sheldon and ned Jenkins. someday i hope to know as much about central Alabama archaeology as either of them. Without Craig’s support, i never would have secured funding to do the first season of excavations at matthew’s Landing, which got the whole ball rolling. Craig was essential in allowing me access to his own and Chase’s collections and field notes at the Auburn University– montgomery laboratory. in addition to Craig, i would like to thank a number of people for helping me with access to collections: mary bade and eugene futato at the University of Alabama office of Archaeological Research, Ksenjia borojevic at the University of Alabama at birmingham, nicholas holmes Jr. of mobile, Greg Waselkov at the University of south Alabama, Linda Derry at old Cahawba, and Patricia nietfeld and Tom evans at the national museum of the American indian. i would also like to thank Jim and Claire stallworth for helping to support my trip to Washington, DC, and blake stabler for providing lodging. fieldwork at the matthew’s Landing site was funded by a grant from the Alabama historical Commission. Thanks to herb and marian furman for allowing me access to the site and bo Phillipi for giving us a place to stay. A number of people assisted in the excavations, braving humidity, mud, and feral hogs all in exchange for free ham sandwiches from the Pig, including Duke beasley, John blitz, Loren bredeson, Ashley Dumas, Ramie Gougeon, Kelli hamm, Alice ivas, brady Jackson, Cameron Lacquement, xii / Acknowledgments Tom Lewis, matthew mirarchi, Jennifer myer, Charles Redwine, bob scott, mike steiber, Duane strelow, and Karen Wyatt. mandy edwards, matthew mirarchi, and susan olin served as laboratory assistants for the project, and their work weighing daub and sorting pottery is greatly appreciated. i would be remiss if i didn’t thank my fellow students from the University of Alabama, with whom i spent many hours discussing archaeology and, when we needed a break, driving aimlessly across the black belt, especially Ashley Dumas, steven meredith, matt mirarchi, and Tom Lewis. in the past six years my colleagues at the University of oklahoma have discussed ideas as we traveled to far-flung corners of the state and helped me finally complete this project, most notably scott hammerstedt, Patrick Livingood, Jessica burgett, and sheila savage. special thanks to bob brooks, director of the oklahoma Archeological survey, for supporting and encouraging the completion of this work. shawn Lambert, a truly talented artist, drew the Charlotte Thompson plate for the cover. Lastly, i have to express my great appreciation to my family. i think it is difficult to express how fortunate i am to have parents who supported this career path, no matter how insane it probably seemed, even when they wondered if their oldest child would ever decide to grow up and get a real job. ...

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