Feasting with Shellfish in the Southern Ohio Valley: Archaic Sacred Sites and Rituals

Contents

CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi 1. Thinking about Archaic Hunter-Gatherers 1 2. Archaic Shell-bearing Sites of the Southern Ohio Valley 11 3. Locations of Shell-bearing Sites 35 4. Overexploitation of Mollusks 51 5. The Demise of the Hypsithermal 69 6. Ohio River Valley Shell-bearing Sites: Villages? 85 7. Ceremonial Districts of the Southern Ohio Valley 135 8. Archaic Rituals at Shell-bearing Sites 169 9. From Archaic Villages to Ritual Camps: The Theoretical Landscape 195 Appendix: Site Data 228 References Cited 235 Index 265 ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 2.1. Sites on the Tennessee, Duck, Harpeth, and Cumberland Rivers 21 2.2. Sites on the Green, Ohio, and Wabash Rivers 24 2.3. Some West Virginia Sites on the Ohio River 28 3.1. Map of Archaic Shell-bearing Sites 35 3.2. Site Clusters on the Green River 40–41 3.3. Site Clusters on the Upper Tennessee River 44 3.4. Sites Founded Before 7,500 Years 45 4.1. Various Freshwater Mollusks 54 6.1. Bluff Creek, Alabama, 160' Profile 87 6.2. Working Inside Long Branch, Alabama 90 6.3. Digging Trenches in Mulberry Creek, Alabama 91 7.1. Excavation at the Bluff-top Read Site, Kentucky 141 7.2. Jimtown Hill Excavation 142 7.3. Bluff Setting for Jimtown Hill Site 143 8.1. Dog Burials at Read, Kentucky 190 Tables 2.1. Radiocarbon Dates by River 12 2.2. Duration of Selected Activities at Several Sites 19 4.1. Mussel Fishery Statistics for 1912–1914 55 4.2. Mussel Poundage Taken from Iowa’s Rivers, 1920–1942 60 4.3. Shell Tonnage by River, 1965–1987 61 6.1. Volumes for Some Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian Mounds 89 6.2. Tool Counts at Archaic Sites 98 6.3. Groundstone Items per Non-Infant 101 6.4. Site-Specific Evidence of Violence 110 6.5. Burial Positions of Violent Deaths at Indian Knoll and Carlston Annis 116 6.6. Additional Possible Violent Deaths (Body Counts) 118 6.7. Initial Burials in Mounds of the Southern Ohio Valley 123 6.8. Types of Grave Goods as Percentage of All Burials 128 6.9. Statistical Tests for Significance of Differences between Types of Sites 132 8.1. Fauna in Proposed Renewal Offerings 176 8.2. Proposed Ritual Killings 182 ...