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7 A Model of Fort Ancient Village Development This study has investigated the social structure and formation of the SunWatch site, a Fort Ancient village occupied during the crest of neighboring Middle Mississippian developments.The theoretical perspective incorporated multiple spatial scales, focusing on the emergence of corporate groups and village leaders within a broad geographical framework. A theoretical and methodological perspective was developed that could account for variation among architectural, mortuary, pit feature, and artifact attributes within the village. Findings were then examined against a regional data set to assess the extent of the pattern. This concluding chapter summarizes key findings, focusing on the formation and structure of corporate groups and the development of village leadership in relation to interactions between Fort Ancient and Middle Mississippians. A Brief History of SunWatch Examination of the concordance between radiocarbon dates, architectural rebuilding , diagnostic feature and artifact attributes, and pottery refits resulted in the determination of a consistent pattern of village formation consisting of three distinct stages of construction (Figure 7.1). The first stage of construction is concentrated in the northern and southern portions of the village, and the village was primarily used in the spring and summer months at this time. These areas of initial use are also apparent at other less intensively occupied Fort Ancient villages (e.g., Campbell Island [Shetrone 1926:3], Capitol View [Henderson 1992:Figure 5]). The earliest houses built in the northern part of SunWatch are located in two closely spaced pairs, while the three early houses in the southern part of the village are more evenly spaced (i.e., there are no clear house pairs). The pair of houses in the northwestern quadrant of the village may have been built slightly later than the other initial groups of houses. The first of two center poles and the large house in the western part of the village were also in use at this time (although this house may have been smaller at this time [Cook 2005:361–364]). The inner stockade encloses these houses. Seasonality data suggest that the second and third uses of the village were more Figure 7.1. Map of SunWatch village social structure and development. 150 / Chapter 7 year-round. The second stage of construction is concentrated in the western and northern parts of the village. The third stage of construction includes the addition of the Middle Mississippian–style wall trench house and the red cedar house, which were integral in the development of villagewide leadership and ritual in the village. The outer stockade enclosed all houses within the site. Corporate Group Development Expectations of corporate groups as bounded sets of mortuary areas are met. The predominant form for burial groups is an arc-row pattern. Adults are generally buried closer to the village center and are more frequently covered with limestone slabs. I attribute these findings in part to Middle Mississippian influences . Two to four household activity areas are directly associated with individual corporate groups (i.e., cemeteries were shared by multiple households) (see Figure 7.1). Growth of corporate groups is supported by concordance between burial row frequencies, architectural rebuilding, and temporally distinct artifact and feature indicators in household activity areas. When more than two households are associated with a corporate group, the oldest features are positioned in a central location from which subsequent households formed. In two cases, corporate groups were initiated by two closely spaced households, adhering well with findings at villages occupied for shorter time periods (e.g., Capitol View [Henderson 1992]). Pottery refits link newer houses with older ones, which are interpreted as having been built by corporate group founders. Pottery linkages between newer houses and the founding households suggest that these families cooperated closely with people living in the older structures, which is often the case in segmented social systems (Fortes 1953). Differences in the numbers of households comprising a corporate group appear to be related to early and late stages in the development cycle of extended families (Fortes 1949; Goody 1958, 1972; Tourtellot 1988). Each of the residential zones was home to an individual corporate group or closely related corporate groups. The village leader and ritual area were clearly demarcated by closer proximity to the central posthole and solstice alignments, which were used in part to legitimize his power in the village. While this area developed late in the occupational sequence, it was likely planned from the beginning of the occupation, based on the relatively early radiocarbon date from the central posthole (see Figure...

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