1 Reexamining Suwannee Valley Pottery

REEXAMINING SUWANNEE VALLEY POTTERY: A TYPOLOGICAL AND FORMAL ANALYSIS OF POTTERY IN FEATURE 1 AT PARNELL MOUND

by Kristen C.D. Hall

Dr. Neill J. Wallis, Honors Thesis Advisor

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Anthropology

University of Florida Gainesville, Florida

April 17, 2013

Introduction

The Suwannee Valley culture (ca. A.D. 750-1500) of North Florida has been only recently recognized and defined by archaeologists since the early 1990s (Milanich 1994).

Through its development into a demarcated archaeological culture, it has been discovered, rediscovered, expanded, named and renamed. Lack of sufficient data and interpretations of minimal material culture related to Suwannee Valley have obfuscated definitions of its physical boundaries, regional interactions and sociopolitical structure. Given the cursory and continually changing descriptions of late pre-Columbian North Florida, Suwannee Valley material culture may still today be discovered during survey and excavation but not recognized. Pottery analysis of Feature 1and associated test units at Parnell Mound (8CO326), a single-component Suwannee

Valley site dating to the 12th and 13th centuries, was conducted in an effort to narrow and refine the definition of the Suwannee Valley culture. Pottery sherd attributes such as count, weight, form, paste, surface treatment and type were recorded. If applicable to rim sherds, thickness, orifice diameter, profiles and vessel form were also recorded. A formal analysis of the pottery will help to elucidate the definitive vessel forms of Suwannee Valley culture and also add sizes and shapes of vessels specific to feasting. This research also provides a guideline that will enable more consistent identification of the Suwannee Valley archaeological culture in future archaeological fieldwork and perhaps rediscovered in past pottery collections.

Islands, Ponds and Valleys: North Florida Culture History

Regionally the Suwannee Valley culture, as the name implies, is confined to the highland

Suwannee River drainage basin including the Santa Fe and Ichetucknee rivers (Johnson 1991;

Worth 1992a, 2012). Although the North Florida region has been extensively surveyed by

Johnson and Nelson (1990), it is unknown whether Suwannee Valley culture continues down river to its drainage in the Gulf of Mexico. Only four Suwannee Valley sites in North Florida are acceptably well-defined including Indian Pond (8CO229), Fig Springs (8CO1), Suwannee Sinks

(8SU377) and, most recently, Parnell Mound (8CO326) (Figure 1). The material culture that is now known as Suwannee Valley was first vaguely described by Brenda Sigler-Lavelle (1980) in her analysis of North Florida Weeden Island period sites. In this work, Sigler-Lavelle (1980) recognized pottery types reminiscent of the Alachua culture of North-central Florida that had been more thoroughly defined (Milanich 1993, 1971). The majority of Suwannee Valley pottery types are also shared with the better known North-central Alachua tradition, although there are several that are unique to the Suwannee Valley series (Worth 2012).

In general, definitions of Suwannee Valley pottery has been hindered by variable characteristics of surface treatment, which are commonly employed as typological traits in the southeastern U.S. In particular, extreme variations in surface treatment execution characterize

Fig Springs Roughened and Lochloosa Punctated, and these types often contain multiple overlapping and non-overlapping surface treatments on the same vessel. Identification of the different variants becomes especially difficult the smaller the pottery sherd size. Milanich et al.

(1984:201) described early frustrations in distinguishing late pre-Columbian pottery by concluding that,”…distinguishing simple stamping, brushing and incising [is] almost impossible.” Milanich and colleagues (1984) preliminary Weeden Island II series was later renamed the Indian Pond complex but was still not well defined due to small samples sizes and the absence of stratigraphic excavations (Johnson and Nelson 1990). Although the Indian Pond complex was defined only by surface collection, it was unique enough for Johnson and Nelson

(1990) to spatially separate it from the better known Alachua and St. Johns archaeological

Figure 1. Compilation of all North Florida sites mentioned in the text.

4 cultures and designate the Indian Pond complex as temporally between the Late Weeden Island and Leon-Jefferson (mission period) cultures. Brent Weisman’s (1992) investigations at the Fig

Springs site documented the first isolated and stratigraphically excavated Suwannee Valley component. The isolated component, named South End, was absent of the later mission period artifacts found throughout the site and contained 525 typed sherds of Suwannee Valley pottery.

From this sample size, John E. Worth was able to rename the Indian Pond complex the

Suwannee Valley culture. In his initial description, Worth (1992b) also defined a type of pottery unique to Suwannee Valley which he named Fig Springs Roughened. Twenty years later, Worth

(2012) defined three other new pottery types of the Suwannee Valley series, Grassy Hole

Pinched, Fig Springs Incised, and Trestle Point Impressed.

The separation between the Suwannee Valley and Alachua traditions is based mostly on pottery, but it has been proposed that another potential defining factor could be the difference between the riverine Suwannee Valley and the inter-riverine and lake adaptations of the Alachua tradition (Worth 1992, Worth 1998 26-32, Worth 2012). The patchy riverine environment of

North Florida is believed to have influenced sociopolitical structure through a settlement pattern characterized by small, widely separated hamlets or clusters with a lack of strong regional integration and perhaps a greater dependence on maize agriculture (Milanich 1994, Worth 1998).

The politically disorganized Suwannee Valley region was also assumed to be characterized by day-to-day interactions and isolated from the contemporaneous Mississippianization interaction sphere. The sociopolitical structure of Suwannee Valley was interpreted by Worth (2012) as consisting of small hamlets without strong regional connections or integration based on the isolating riverine environment and small scatters of material culture.

Recently, Heller et al. (2011) discovered an additional Suwannee Valley site named

Suwannee Sinks (8SU377). Heller and colleagues (2011) excavated 93 square meters and added a significant amount of data that allowed interpretations of Suwannee Valley culture, particularly pottery typology. Most recently, the largest stratigraphically excavated isolated Suwannee

Valley component has been discovered by Neill J. Wallis (in press). Parnell Mound (8CO326), located 2 kilometers south of the Suwannee River, was excavated during the 2011 and 2012 summer field seasons. Diagnostic pottery of Suwannee Valley culture was discovered in a sand mound, reported to contain human remains, and nearby a large feasting pit recorded as Feature 1

(Figure 2). Feature 1 contained more than 5,000 pottery sherds, the estimated remains of over

100 deer and evidence of ritual deposition of local and extralocal species and objects (Wallis in press, Wallis and Blessing 2013).

Obstacles to Defining Suwannee Valley

Suwannee Valley culture was only recently defined in the early 1990s, effectively filling the gap between two better known temporal periods, Weeden Island (ca. A.D. 200 to 750) and the later Mission period (ca. A.D. 1585 to ca. 1700) and three better known regional cultures,

Fort Walton (Florida panhandle), St. Johns (eastern Florida) and Alachua (north-central Florida).

As the name implies, the Suwannee Valley culture is defined by the geographic space it is said to occupy in North Florida. The potentially fluid boundaries cannot be confidently defined due to sampling bias. Suwannee Valley sites have been discovered primarily through surface survey, and occasionally are recorded as components of mission sites or near earlier mounds (Johnson and Nelson 1990; Milanich 1984; Sigler-Lavelle 1980; Wallis in press; Weisman 1992).

Figure 2. Feature 1 at Parnell Mound. Courtesy of Neill J. Wallis (Wallis and Blessing 2013).

Radiocarbon dates contemporaneous with Suwannee Valley are lacking towards the mouth of the

Suwannee River on the Gulf coast due in part to relatively less survey. There are other problems with the temporal parameters of Suwannee Valley culture that stem from the dating of mixed multicomponent sites (Table 1). The radiocarbon dates by Brent Weisman (1992) at the South village at Fig Springs place Suwannee Valley culture from approximately AD 1000 to 1500.

Heller and colleagues (2011) were the first to directly date the soot on associated

Suwannee Valley sherds. These dates fall within the range established by Weisman and Worth

(1993) but it represents a more limited range from ca. 1000 A.D. to 1200. The radiocarbon date obtained from associated charcoal from a sherd concentration was discarded from further analysis due to contamination (Heller et al.2011:126). Heller and colleagues (2011) believe that

Suwannee Sinks pre-dates the Suwannee Valley occupation at Fig Springs and have named a new phase for Suwannee Valley culture. The Sinks Phase as proposed by Heller and colleagues

(2011) spans from ca. 1000 A.D. to 1200 and represents the middle phase of the three phases reported to comprise the Suwannee Valley sequence. The first phase, ranging from ca. 750 A.D. to 1000 is defined by the appearance of the unique Suwannee Valley pottery types, including Fig

Springs Roughened. The Sinks Phase defined at the Suwanee Sinks site, is characterized by unnamed check stamped varieties and unique rim variations called modes. The third phase of

Suwannee Valley culture named the Fig Springs Phase is represented by the Fig Springs site and ranges from ca. A.D. 1200 to 1540. This phase is characterized by an increase in Prairie Cord

Marked and Alachua Cob Marked pottery types (Heller et al.2011:129-130). Most recently, excavations at Parnell mound produced a radiocarbon date within the ranges defined by the Fig

Springs and Suwannee Sinks sites and would fall in the Sinks Phase. Due to small sample sizes, few previously recorded sites and limited radiocarbon dates, a three-phase

Site # Beta Site Context/Material Conventional Calibrated Reference Lab # Radiocarbon Radiocarbon Age (BP) Age (2 sigma) 8CO1 41054 Fig Springs South End 980±50 980-1170 Worth 1990, Village n.d. 8SU377 303382 Suwannee Lochloosa 960±40 1010-1170 R. Goodwin & Sinks Punctated body Associates, Inc. sherd (soot) 2011

8SU377 304636 Suwannee Lochloosa 940±30 1020-1170 R. Goodwin & Sinks Punctated body Associates, Inc. sherd (soot) 2011

8SU377 303381 Suwannee Fig Springs 930±40 1020-1210 R. Goodwin & Sinks Roughened rim Associates, Inc. sherd (soot) 2011

8CO326 323913 Parnell Feature 1 830±30 1160-1260 Wallis In Press Mound (charred wood)

8CO1 38509 Fig Springs South End 790±50 1160-1290 Worth 1900, Village n.d.

8CO1 41053 Fig Springs South End 680±70 1220-1410 Worth 1990, Village n.d.

8CO1 32577 Fig Springs South End 360±60 1420-1660 Weisman 1992 Village, pit Feature 85 (charred cobs) 8SU377 293691 Suwannee Sherd 80±30 1680-1740 R. Goodwin & Sinks Concentration 1800-1940 Associates, Inc. (charred wood) 1950-1960 2011

Table 1. All known radiocarbon dates related to Suwannee Valley culture.

9 system for Suwannee Valley is premature. Until a greater data set is collected, analyzed and interpreted, no argument or names should be made for the temporal parameters of the Suwannee

Valley culture.

The pottery types and variants of Suwannee Valley have been defined and redefined from

Weeden Island II to Indian Pond Complex to Suwannee Valley culture using only relative chronologies developed through frequency seriation of mostly multi-component sites. To add to the confusion, Heller et al. (2011) added even more variants and modes to the definitions of types within the Suwannee Valley series. Lacking an adequate, vessel rims or comparative sites,

Worth (2012) describes Suwannee Valley ceramics as utilitarian, degenerate and the decoration as unintentional because of its unappealing appearance by modern aesthetic standards. With the initial description of Suwannee Valley pottery as utilitarian and in the absence of a comparative ceramic assemblage, Suwannee Valley ceramic assemblages have a priori been placed in a sacred versus secular dichotomy. With insufficient data sets, multiple assumptions have been made regarding the sociopolitical structure, regional involvement, and evolution of the culture.

A scholarly obsession with Missippianization and maize may be partly blamed for the assumptions regarding Suwannee Valley culture (Wallis in press). Suwannee Valley culture, as well as the rest of North Florida, lacks any observable evidence of Missippianization in the form of platform mounds, iconography, and intensive maize agriculture. Arguably, this does not mean that Suwannee Valley culture and other surrounding non-Mississippian cultures were “isolated

[or] ignorant” (Ashley 2002:162). If a culture does not evolve into Mississippian chiefdoms it is somehow assumed to be less regionally connected, more utilitarian and lacking in any sacred ritualized activities. Recent evidence from Parnell Mound is redefining and expanding what is known about Suwannee Valley culture. The roasting pit (Feature 1) at Parnell mound is an

10 unprecedented snapshot in Suwannee Valley culture, revealing a distinct pottery assemblage of over 5,000 sherds, extralocal materials and evidence for ritual deposition.

Feature 1 at Parnell Mound

The Parnell Mound site (8CO326) is situated 2 kilometers south of the Suwannee River.

The large (27 meters across and 3.5 meters high) sand mound overlooks a large dried up pond fittingly called Indian Mound Swamp. Little is known about the actual mound. The only material recovered from the mound is a Fig Springs Roughened Ichetucknee var. sherd recovered in an auger test of a looter pit (Wallis in press). The mound’s lunar-like landscape of looter pits bears the history of unprofessional looting of the rumored burial mound. Caretakers of the property described somewhat sensationalized stories of skulls rolling out of amateur excavations more than 50 years ago. Recent looting during the last five years left large backhoe trenches near the mound, just missing Feature 1. In addition to modern destruction, preservation at the

Parnell site is poor due to acidic soils and bioturbation. The fill of Feature 1 is the exception with dense charcoal, ceramics, and preserved fauna (Figure 3). The density of organics within the feature seems to have fostered preservation and presents an excellent lens into an event of the

Suwannee Valley Culture. The stratigraphic layer from the surface to 40 cm below datum is highly mixed due to a combination of plowing and overburden from the looter backhoe trench excavation. Below 40 cm, Feature 1 appears to be largely intact to 120 cm below datum with minimal disturbance. About the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, the pit is approximately 2.5m by

3m and approximately 80 cm at its deepest. Below the plow zone, Feature 1 was first recognized by very dark grayish-brown fine sand with dense charcoal flecks and then a dense

Figure 3. Stratigraphic profile of Feature 1 in TU 1, 9, 11, and 15 East wall. Courtesy of Neill J. Wallis.

12 layer of very dark grayish-brown mottled with very dark brown sand with dense charcoal chunks and flecks and artifacts (shaded in figure 3).

Within the feature, an impressive variety of material culture was discovered. Recovered from the feature were over 5,000 local and extralocal sherds of pottery, two fragments of quartz crystal, the remains of over 100 deer, dog and bear, three small nodules of red ochre and numerous Pinellas points and lithic debitage and tools made from chert and fine grained mineral originating from local hard rock phosphate deposits More importantly, Feature 1 at Parnell

Mound provides a unique opportunity for analysis of the material culture from a single- component that may be represent a single feasting event at around A.D. 1200. Not only is

Feature 1 an isolated context, but a representative snapshot of a single event in the Suwannee

Valley culture.

Methodology

Typological designations followed the descriptions of Worth (1992, 2012). Due to inadequate sample sizes, lack of comparative collections and qualified descriptions of previous definitions, some variants (Worth 1992: 194, n.d.) and all rim modes (Heller et al. 2011) were not considered in the pottery analysis from the Parnell site. Sherds were recorded based on attributes of count, weight, form, paste, surface treatment and type. Diminutive sherds were defined as being less than 2 cm unless there was an apparent surface treatment. Unidentified sherds greater than 2 cm were described based on surface treatment and paste. If applicable, rim thickness, orifice diameter and rim profiles were also recorded. Unless the orifice could be accurately and precisely determined, any rim sherds that represented less than five percent of the entire vessel were excluded from orifice diameter estimations. The addition of the highly subjective, variable, and newly defined types, variants and modes makes analysis of Suwannee

Valley ceramic collections difficult and confusing. Until greater comparative and holistic analysis can be executed on future (re)discovered ceramic collections, insufficient and qualitative new types, variants and modes should not be created nor haphazardly added to the relatively nascent definition of Suwannee Valley ceramics.

Description of Types

The Suwannee River Valley ceramic assemblage as defined by Worth (1992, 2012) contains five main types. The only type unique to the Suwannee River Valley culture is Fig

Springs Roughened which has two varieties: Ichetucknee and Santa Fe. The four other main types include Lochloosa Punctated, with three varieties Lochloosa, Grassy Flats, and Devil’s

Eye (Worth 1992:194, n.d.), Alachua Cob Marked, Prairie Cord Marked and sand tempered plain, the last referred to by Milanich (1971) and Worth (1992b) as Alachua Plain. Minority local wares also part of the Suwannee Valley culture include Grassy Hole Pinched, Fig Springs

Incised and Trestle Point Impressed. Extralocal wares also present in the Suwannee Valley series include St. Johns Plain and St. Johns Check Stamped, Pasco Roughened, Pasco Plain, Fort

Walton Incised and Lake Jackson Incised (Milanich 1971, Worth n.d.,2012).

A recent Phase III study of the Suwannee Sinks site (8SU377) has defined more variations of Suwannee Valley ceramics. Heller et al. (2011) argue for the addition of three rim modes which appear indistinguishable from late Weeden Island II rims. The Sinks mode (n=15) is defined by Heller et al. (2011) by a single incised line with a row of punctations underneath on the exterior of the rim. Sinks mode was only found on four decorated sherds and the rest were plain or unidentified. The Line mode (n=8) contains an encircling incised single line on the exterior of the rim without any punctations. The final mode, notched lip (n=1) is defined by

14 diagonal notches in the lip. Along with three new rim modes Heller et al. (2011) also describe a new variety named after a natural spring North of the Suwannee Sinks site (8SU377). Prairie

Fabric Impressed var. Lime Springs (n=13) is described as a dimpling on the exterior of the vessel possibly created by a paddle of wrapped fabric. Not all previously defined types of

Suwannee Valley ceramics were recovered in excavation at Parnell Mound (8CO326). Some were not utilized in the pottery analysis at Parnell Mound due to inadequate definitions and sample sizes. Specifically, all rim modes, Lochloosa Punctated variants (except for var. Devil’s

Eye) and Prairie Cord Marked var. Lime Springs were not considered in the analysis. Types and variants that were discovered at Parnell and considered in the analysis are listed below.

Local Types

Fig Springs Roughened

The first variety of Fig Springs Roughened is named Santa Fe and is characterized by a roughening of the outside of the vessel with seemingly random, shallow (<1mm) drag marks using a handful of small sticks or straw (Figure 4). The second variety, Ichetucknee, has been described as an overlapping drag or scrape with a scallop shell. The scallop shell seems to be the most likely tool in the production of the Ichetucknee design because of the uniformity of the drag marks closely resembling the cross section ridges of a bay scallop shell. The Suwannee River drainage is the present northern extent of Florida Bay Scallop environment. Argopecten irradians has 19 to 21 radiating ribs and an average total shell width between 55 and 90 mm.

(Leal, Fay et al. 1983). On average, the radiating ribs of the Florida Bay Scallop should be approximately 3.63 mm wide. Towards the end of the scallop the ridges of the radiating ribs

30 cm 30cm

a. b.

Figure 4. Fig Springs Roughened var. Ichetucknee: (a) var. Ichetucknee rim with perpendicular breaks; (b) var. Ichetucknee rim with perpendicular breaks; (c) Large var. Ichetucknee sherd; (d)

Florida Bay scallop

17 splay out forming a 1-2 mm gap. Arguably, these intercostal gaps could be the stylus for the scraped lines of the Ichetucknee variant. Because of the extreme variability among the two variants, in future analyses of Suwannee Valley ceramics, quantified reexamination and redefinition is needed.

Lochloosa Punctated

Lochloosa Punctated was first defined by Milanich (1971:33-34) as a part of the north-central

Florida Alachua pottery series (Figure 5). Lochloosa was the first defined variation of

Lochloosa Punctated and consists of seemingly random punctations or clusters of punctations on the outside of the vessel. These punctations were most likely created using clusters of sticks or straw and often had another brushing or dragging surface treatment. The second variety of

Lochloosa Punctated as defined by Worth (1992b) is Grassy Flats. Unlike the Lochloosa,

Grassy flats is characterized by punctations covering the entire exterior of the vessel with no space in between clusters of punctations. There is also no evidence of brushing or scraping in

Grassy Flats. Worth also added an additional variety of Lochloosa Punctated, Devil’s Eye, which is characterized by half-moon fingernail punctations that are often not very deep (relative to other variants of Lochloosa Punctated) and below the rim of the vessel (Worth n.d.). Due to the high variation of the Lochloosa Punctated type, in my analysis, I lumped the Grassy Flats and Lochloosa variants together. Previous minimal data sets may have interpreted these variants to be distinct, but from the extensive data set and larger sherds from Parnell mound, the clusters of punctations are highly variable over the exterior of the vessel. What may appear to be a cluster of punctations with no spaces between them is totally dependent on how much of the vessel is available to observe. In other words, surface treatments consistent with the variants

a. 26 cm

38 cm

c. 46 cm

50 cm

28 cm

Figure 5. Rims of Lochloosa Punctated: (a) Mended Lochloosa Punctated rim with perpendicular breaks; (b) Lochloosa Punctated Rim; (c) Sponge spicule tempered Lochloosa Punctated rim; (d)

Large cross mended Lochloosa Punctated rim; (e) Lochloosa Punctated var. Devil’s Eye rim

Grassy Flats and Lochloosa were both repeatedly observed on single large sherds in the analysis of the Parnell Mound sample. Heller et al. (2011) also describe the possibility of adding another variant to the Lochloosa Punctated type. They describe punctations created using a rolling stylus, such as a pine cone cob. A more detailed and quantified description of the presently highly subjective variants is warranted. The excavations at Parnell revealed the first recorded example of Lochloosa Punctated tempered with sponge spicules, similar to the paste of the St.

Johns ceramic tradition (Figure 5c).

Prairie Cord Marked

Like Lochloosa Punctated, Prairie Cord Marked was initially described by Milanich

(1971:33) as cord impressions on the exterior of the vessel created by a cord-wrapped paddle

(Figure 6). Cordmarking is often perpendicular to the rim of the vessel and cross-cordmarking is frequent and also found at Parnell (Figure 6a). The cord markings can either be close (1-2 mm apart) or widely spaced (up to 5mm) (Figure 6b) (Worth 1992b).

Sand Tempered Plain

Sand tempered plain pottery is found throughout Florida and over a broad temporal spectrum and is assigned many different names according to temporal and geographic context.

For the Alachua culture, Milanich (1971:31-32) calls it Alachua Plain and it is defined by an undecorated surface treatment of the vessel. Worth (1992b) also recognizes Alachua Plain as definitive of Suwannee Valley ceramics.

28 cm

b. 28 cm

Figure 6. Rims of Prairie Cord Marked: (a) Closely spaced cross Prairie Cord Marked rim; (b)

Widely spaced Prairie Cord Marked rim.

Grassy Hole Pinched

Grassy Hole Pinched is characterized by pinches of the exterior of the vessel (Figure 7). As defined by Worth (1992b) at Fig Springs, this unpleasantly-named type closely resembles Tucker

Ridge Pinched, but is instead characterized by random rather than linear. The Grassy Hole

Pinched rim discovered at Parnell Mound is unprecedented and offers more insight into the unique type.

Trestle Point Impressed

This type was also defined by Worth (2012) at the excavations at Fig Springs (Figure 8).

Using a stylus similar to Fig Springs Roughened Ichetucknee var., Trestle Point Shell Impressed appears to be created by punctuating the surface of the vessel with the edge of a scallop shell.

Extralocal Types

Marsh Island Incised

Marsh Island Incised is part of the better known Fort Walton ceramic series of the Florida

Northern Gulf coast (Figure 9a). Originally defined by Gordon Willey (1949: 422-426, 466),

Marsh Island incised and subsequent variations have been refined and developed with some confusion among researchers (Marinaan and White 2007, Scarry 1985). It is characterized by finely incised lines parallel to the vessel rim.

28 cm

Figure 7. Grassy Hole Pinched Rim

Figure 8. Trestle Point Shell Impressed body sherd

a. 36 cm

b. c.

Figure 9. Extralocal Types: (a) Marsh Island Incised rim; (b) Swift Creek Complicated Stamped body sherd; (c) St. Johns Check Stamped rim.

Swift Creek Complicated Stamped

One small piece of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped was found in Feature 1 at Parnell

(Figure 9b). The surface treatment is created by pressing a carved wooden paddle into the exterior of the vessel, often overstamping and smoothing the pattern.

St. Johns Plain, Simple Stamped and Check Stamped

The St. Johns ceramic assemblage is characterized by the distinctive sponge spicule paste and chalky feel of the sherds. St. Johns complicated Stamped was created by using a check-carved wooden paddle and pressing into the outside of the wet vessel. St. Johns simple stamped is also created with a wooden paddle but with carved perpendicular lines, often overlapping.

Ceramic Analysis of Feature 1

Feature 1 and associated test units (Figure 2, 10) at the Parnell Site (8CO326) contained 5,481 specimens identifiable as pottery sherds. This sample of pottery represents the largest stratigraphically excavated example of a Suwannee Valley series assemblage to date. Feature 1 adds a sample of Suwannee Valley pottery that is unprecedented in its size and the apparent rapidness of its deposition.. Based on the number of identifiable sherds, the types of pottery remain consistent after 40 cmbd, which is considered Feature 1 (Figure 11). There do not seem to be significant trends in the vertical distribution of types of pottery within the feature. It may be that Feature 1 is a single depositional event and therefore is considered a single context, regardless of excavation unit or level. There were 12 identifiable types included within the

Parnell sample. Excluding all diminutive and unidentifiable sherds, 2,756 sherds were assigned to type and represent the sample (n) for the calculated percentages. Of the 12 types, four made

Figure 10. Test units associated with Feature 1 at Parnell mound (8CO326).

Sort Types Update Data Remove Add Test Save Pottery Types cm Total (N) of below ICH LP PCM SF STP sherds datum

37 20 40 416 50 69

60 226

70 238 80 244 90 268

100 354 403 110 120 224

130 56

140 20

2555 Grand Total *Only the four main types and variants of pottery which make up over 90 percent of the sample were included in the graph. DE=Lochloosa Punctated var. Devil’s Eye ICH=Fig Springs Roughened var. Ichetucknee LP=Lochloosa Punctated PCM=Prairie Cord Marked SF=Fig Springs Roughened var. Santa Fe STP=sand tempered plain

Figure 11. Frequency seriation of number of pottery sherds based on cm below datum and type. *

up 93.07% of the total number of identifiable sherds (n=2,565). Those types included Lochloosa

Punctated including Devil’s Eye var. (48.98%, n=1,350), Fig Spring Roughened, including

Ichetucknee var. and Santa Fe var. (19.74%, n=544), sand tempered plain (19.52%, n=538) and

Prairie Cord Marked (4.83%, n=133). The rest of the identified sherds included sand-tempered check stamped (1.12%, n=31), Grassy Hole Pinched (0.40%, n=11), Marsh Island Incised

(0.18%, n=5), Swift Creek Complicated Stamped (0.04%, n=1), St. Johns Check Stamped

(0.76%, n=21), St. Johns eroded (1.60%, n=44), St. Johns Simple Stamped (0.11%, n=3) and

Trestle Point Shell Impressed (0.65%, n=18). Together these sherds make up a total minority percentage of 6.93% (n=191) of the sample.

From this type percentage breakdown, there is already a clear contrast with the other ceramic assemblages at known Suwannee Valley sites (Table 2). At both Fig Springs and

Suwannee Sinks, Fig Springs Roughened is the most frequent type of pottery while at Parnell

Mound almost half of the typed sherds were Lochloosa Punctated. Less than twenty percent of the pottery at Feature 1 is Figs Springs Roughened. Fig Springs Roughened occurs at much higher frequency making up 45.5 percent at Suwanee Sinks and 41.4 percent at Fig Springs. .

The ceramic assemblage of Feature 1 at Parnell also contains 261 typed rim sherds. From those rim sherds 162 could be further analyzed for orifice diameter, vessel thickness and vessel shape

(Table 3, 4). Lochloosa Punctated accounts for nearly half of the sample of orifice diameters

(n=126). Recorded orifice for the typed rim vessels range from 18 to 42 cm in diameter.

Lochloosa Punctated vessels have the largest average orifice at 35.5 cm on average, excluding

Marsh Island Incised and St. Johns Check Stamped due to low sample size (both n=2).

Table 2. Comparison of relative frequencies of types among known Suwannee Valley sites.

Site name and number Suwannee Sinks Fig Springs Parnell Mound 8SU377 8CO1 8C0326 Type Count Percent of Count Percent of Count Percent of Diagnostic Diagnostic Diagnostic Sherds Sherds Sherds Fig Springs Roughened Var. Ichetucknee 106 25.8% 37 21.3% 178 6.5% Var. Santa Fe 24 5.8% 3 1.7% 366 13.3% Var. unspecified 57 13.9% 32 18.4% Lochloosa Punctated Var. Lochloosa 60 14.6% 26 14.9% Var. unspecified 78 19.0% 15 8.6% 1326 48.11 Var. Devil's Eye 24 0.87% Prairie Cord Marked 4 1.0% 42 24.1% 133 4.83% Prairie Fabric Impressed 2 1.1% Var. Lime Springs 13 3.2% Var. Unspecified 2 0.5% Trestle Point Shell 8 1.9% 18 0.65% Impressed Untyped Check Stamped 48 11.7% 31 1.1% Ft. Walton Varieties 3 0.7% 1 0.6 % 5 0.18% Alachua Cob Marked 9 5.2% Sand Tempered Plain 39 14.7% 538 19.52% St. Johns Varieties 2 0.8% 25 4.5% Grassy Hole Pinched 1 0.4% Swift Creek Complicated 1 0.04% Stamped

Table 3. Feature 1 rim orifice and thickness average, standard deviation and range by type.

Rim Type Count Orifice Average Standard Deviation Orifice Vessel Vessel (cm) for Orifice Average Diameter Thickness Thickness (cm) Range (cm) Average (mm) Range (mm)

Sand tempered Check Stamped 3 18 7.60 Grassy Hole Pinched 2 22 8.85 8.7-9 Fig Springs Roughened Var. Ichetucknee 17 32.75 9.46 16-50 8.85 3.3-10.3 Var. Santa Fe 31 26.8 9.30 18-40 8.24 6.7-10.4

Lochloosa Punctated 66 35.8 9.43 18-50 6.45 4.4-8.9 Var. Devil's Eye 6 28 9.92 18-38 6.78 6.2-7.1 Marsh Island Incised 2 36 5.70 5.6-5.8 Prairie Cord Marked 14 25 9.06 20-38 6.89 4.9-7.9 St. Johns Check Stamped 2 42 16.97 7.10 St. Johns Plain 3 25 4.24 22-28 6.30 6.2-6.4 Sand Tempered Plain 22 31.3 9.39 22-40 6.96 6.1-8.2

Table 4. Vessel form and orifice diameter by pottery type from Feature 1 and associated test units.

Type/Variant Vessel Class Vessel Form Count Orifice Diameter(s) (n=63) Fig Springs Roughened Restricted Bowl/Jar 8 18, 24, 24 Var. Santa Fe Unrestricted Bowl/Jar 1 28

Lochloosa Punctated Restricted Bowl/Jar 6 18, 26, 30, 30, 26, 28

Bowl 9 30, 32, 33, 36, 38, 38, 40, 40, 42

Unrestricted Bowl/Jar 1 30

Bowl 5 26, 42, 48, 50, 50 sand tempered plain Restricted Bowl/Jar 1 22

Bowl 2 34, 40 Unrestricted Bowl 1 34

Collared Jar 2 30, 30

Fig Springs Roughened Restricted Bowl/jar 2 Var. Ichetucknee Jar 1 16

Bowl 7 40, 30, 30, 30, 50, 50, 50 Lochloosa Punctated Restricted Bowl/jar 1 28 Var. Devil's Eye Bowl 1 38 Unrestricted Bowl/jar 2 16, 18 Marsh Island Incised Restricted Bowl 1 36

Grassy Hole Pinched Restricted Bowl/jar 1 28

Unrestricted Bowl 1 32 sand tempered check Restricted Bowl/jar 1 stamped St. Johns Plain Restricted Bowl/Jar 1 28 Prairie Cord Marked Restricted Bowl/Jar 7 20, 20, 20, 26, 28, 28, 38 St. Johns Check Restricted Bowl 1 42 Stamped

The frequency distribution of rim orifice diameter shows non-symmetric, bimodal peaks over 30 and 40 cm (Figure 12). These large orifice diameters represent the two most frequent vessel sizes in Feature 1. The vessels at Parnell mound are larger on average than the vessels from Fig Springs and Suwannee Sinks. Unfortunately, at the Fig Springs site, rims were considered rare and could not be used as a comparative in the analysis (Worth 1992b: 194). At

Suwannee Sinks, the average vessel size is 22.13 cm (n=64) which makes the pots at Parnell mound on average over 60 percent larger than the vessels at Suwannee Sinks. Due to lack of sufficient raw pottery data, no test could be executed for statistical significance comparing rim orifices from Parnell mound with Suwannee Sinks and Fig Springs (Heller et al. 2011, Weisman

1992). no test could be executed for statistical significance comparing rim orifices from Parnell mound with Suwannee Sinks and Fig Springs (Heller et al. 2011, Weisman 1992).

In addition to rim thickness and diameter, vessel form was also analyzed from rim profiles. Fortunately, the pottery sample from Parnell mound produced relatively large rim sherds which could be used to infer vessel form (Table 4). For my analysis, I used the definitions by Gordon Willey (1949:496-506) for differentiating vessel form. From the sample

(n=63), five different vessel forms were identified. The most frequent vessel form among the different pottery types was a large restricted bowl which represented approximately 55 percent of the sample. A restricted bowl as defined by Willey (1949:496 ) is a vessel whose maximum orifice diameter is greater than it is wide with incurved walls and a maximum diameter below the lip. Larger restricted bowls may serve a cooking function because of the reduction of heat loss and spillage of contents (Hally 1986: 288).

Count 5 (n=59)

0 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 46 48 50 Orifice Diameter (cm)

Figure 12 . Frequency distribution of number of rims based on orifice diameter (cm).

Eventful Feasting

I believe this large ceramic assemblage, together in association with the contents of

Feature 1 including associated deer, ritual deposits, extralocal and local, materials creates a strong argument for a feasting event that occurred at Parnell Mound. Feasting or eventful, large scale food consumption can be expressed in the archaeological record in a number of ways.

According to according to Nerissa Russell (2012:377-392) eight hallmarks of these activities are:

(1) Associations with nearby ritual places, (2) large quantity of fauna deposited in a high density event, (3) large vessels and/or other large scale eating materials, (4) low species diversity, (5) the choice cuts of proportions and larger portions of fauna, (6) less processing of remains, (7) display of the feast through specific cooking methods like roasting and (8) speedy burial of all remnants of the large scale event including material culture and fauna remains. Neill J. Wallis

(in press) considers Parnell mound representative of all factors defined by Russell (2012) of eventful, large scale food consumption.

Large-group food consumption defined by John H. Blitz (1993a) in his analysis of the

Mississippi period Lubbub Creek mound (in Alabama) was identified by (1) larger orifice vessels in the mound than the village and (2) less variation in orifice size in the village than in the mound. Bimodal frequency distributions of rim orifice data similar to Parnell mound (Figure

13) have also been expressed in mound contexts analyzed by Blitz (1993b). If the Suwannee

Sinks assemblage is considered representative of a village, Parnell Feature 1 appears to have an extraordinary assemblage, with, on average, 60 percent larger vessels and more variety of orifice diameter, and presumably, size. Direct evidence for feasting has been interpreted as being present at Parnell by Wallis and Blessing (2013) in the massive deposition of over 100 individual deer as well as the vessels found interpreted as, “big pots for big shots” (Blitz 1993).

The frequently-used dichotomy between the sacred mound and the secular village forces a mutually exclusive comparative approach of ceramic assemblages. Food consumption can be considered a quotidian activity but has the potential to become a ritualized event creating/reinforcing social ties, ranks and regional connections (Wallis in press). In addition to previously mentioned evidence of feasting, Parnell mound also demonstrates potential ritual deposits of quartz crystal, red ochre, and the presence of species like bear and dog. Almost half of the ceramic assemblage found in Feature 1 is large Lochloosa Punctated vessels suggesting a special or potential ritual use of an otherwise “utilitarian” defined pottery type (Worth 2012).

The high frequency of Lochloosa Punctated at Parnell mound may be due to functionality of the type itself in feasting contexts. It could also be a potential temporal or spatial marker. This seems unlikely because of how unique Parnell mound compares to the contemporaneous approximately 45 k nearby Suwannee Sinks site. Lochloosa Punctated may also be a type specific to the feasting event at Parnell. All of these potential markers and functions of

Lochloosa Punctated are not mutually exclusive and the high frequency is most likely due to a combination of all of these explanations. Like the problematic dichotomy described by Wallis (in press), Parnell mound represents a quotidian village performing a ritual event and a utilitarian pottery type transforming into a potential sacred ware of feasting.

Conclusions

Much of Suwannee Valley culture remains to be defined due to a lack of academic research and substantial data. The pottery of Feature 1 provides a snapshot into Suwannee Valley culture. In comparison to surrounding contemporaneous village sites, Parnell Mound represents a higher density of pottery, different frequency among types and much larger orifice diameters.

The pottery analysis adds to, and supports the evidence of ritual, eventful feasting at Parnell

Mound while simultaneously clarifies the previously cloudy definition of Suwannee Valley culture. This assemblage has permitted a greater refinement of the definition of Suwannee

Valley ceramic and vessel types. More specifically, two of the three variants defined by Worth

(1992b) as Lochloosa Punctated, Grassy Flats and Lochloosa occur frequently on the same sherd and do not exist as separate categories in the Parnell mound sample.

Future investigations of Suwannee Valley culture need more comparative data and analysis to move beyond basic descriptions of material culture. The Parnell Mound area offers vast opportunities for new data including additional comparative analysis with non-feature related test units and the adjacent Buck site (8CO1201). From the Parnell region alone, petrographic, residue, vessel typology and breakage analyses remain as potential sets of data to be interpreted and added to the definition of Suwannee Valley culture. With future comparative collections, more quantifiable descriptions of Suwannee Valley pottery types and variants may be redefined. More quantified definitions will assist future researchers in a more objective identification of Suwannee Valley ceramics. Once Suwannee Valley culture is more easily recognizable, the potentially fluid boundaries could stretch past North Florida. Over 116 kilometers away, the warm, Gulf water Florida bay scallop is commonly used in Suwannee

Valley ceramics. The use of an extralocal shell stylus is more than an “…item commonly available in a domestic context” (Worth 2012). Much more survey is needed towards the Gulf of

Mexico to interpret whether Suwannee Valley culture extends to the mouth of the Suwannee

River.

The roasting pit (Feature 1) at Parnell mound is an unprecedented snapshot in Suwannee

Valley culture revealing a distinct pottery assemblage of over 5,000 sherds, extralocal materials

38 and evidence for ritual deposition. If the Suwannee Valley culture is to be well defined temporally, spatially and materially, larger sample sizes, multiple comparative sites and a resolute hesitation of assigning new types, modes and cultural phases before acquiring large samples is required. In future research, it would be advantageous to look at Suwannee Valley ceramics in a greater temporal, geographic and quantified manner.

acknowledgements I am extremely thankful to Dr. Neill Wallis for allowing me the opportunity to analyze the pottery collected from Parnell mound during the 2011-2012 field seasons. Without his guidance and confidence in my research of Suwannee Valley culture this paper would not be possible. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Ken Sassaman for sharing multiple opportunities and advice throughout my undergraduate career. Dr. Sassaman’s contagious love for prehistoric archaeology was the inspiration to change my major to Anthropology. I trust he will continue to inspire many more students like me. Thank you, Micah Monés for your open ear and discussion of my ideas from the beginning and for your help navigating and locating necessary resources. I would also like to thank my parents for their unconditional support, love and interest.

Bibliography

Ashley, Keith H. 2002 On the Periphery of the Early Mississippian World: Looking within and Beyond Northeastern Florida. Southeastern Archaeology 21:162

Blitz, John H. 1993a Big Pots for Big Shots: Feasting and Storage in a Mississippian Community. American Antiquity58: 80-96.

1993b Ancient Chiefdoms of the Tombigbee. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, in press.

Fay C.W., R.J. Neves and G.P. Pardue 1983. Species profiles: life histories and environmental requirements of costal fishes and invertebrates (Mid-Atlantic)- bay scallop. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Biological Servies, FWS/OBS-82/11.12. US Army Corp of Engineers, TR EL-82-4. Hally, David J. 1986 The Identification of Vessel Function: A Case Study from Northwest Georgia. American Antiquity 51:288 Heller, Nathanael, William P. Barse, Haley Holt, Sherman W. Holt III, Charlotte Pevny, Brain Ostahowski, Sean Coughlin, Raegen Buckley 2011 Phase III Archaeological Data Recorver at Site SU377, Suwannee County, Florida. R. Goodwin and Associates, Inc. Submitted to the Florida Master Site File. Survey # 18748. Johnson, Kenneth W., and Bruce C. Nelson 1990 The Utina: Seriations and Chronology. Florida Anthropologist 43:48-62.

Leal, J.H. Bivalves Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, Florida. http://www.shellmuseum.org/BivalvesLeal.pdf, accessed March 2, 2013. Marrian, Rochelle A and Nancy Marie White 2007 Modeling Fort Walton Culture in Northwest Florida. Vol. 26. No.2. Southeastern Archaeology.

Milanich, Jerald T. 1971 The Alachua Tradition of North Central Florida. Contributions of the Florida State Museum, Anthropology and History, no. 17, Gainesville.

1994 Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Russell, Nerissa 2012 Social Zooarchaeology: Humans and Animals in Prehistory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Scarry, John F. 1985 A Proposed Revision of the Fort Walton Ceramic Typology: A Type –Variety System. The Florida Anthropologist. Vol. 38, No.3, pp 224-226.

Sears, William H. 1973 The Sacred and the Secular in Prehistoric Ceramics. In Variations in Anthropology: Essays in Honor of John McGregor, edited by a. J. D. D. Lathrap, pp. 31- 42. Illinois Archaeological Survey, Urbana.

Sigler-Lavelle, Brenda J. 1980 On the non-random distribution of Weeden Island period sites in North Florida. Southeastern Archaeology Conference Bulletin 22:22-29.

Wallis, Neill J. In press. Ritualized Practices of the Suwannee Valley Culture in North Florida. In New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida, edited by Neill Wallis and Asa Randall. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Wallis, Neill J. and Meggan E. Blessing Depositing a Suwannee Valley Feast: Feature 1 at Parnell Mound. Paper presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 4, 2013.

Weisman, Brent Richards 1992 Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier: Archaeology at the Fig Springs Mission.University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Willey, Gordon R. 1949 Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 113. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Worth, John E. n.d. The Prehistory of Mission San Martin de Ayacuto: An Archaeological Exploration of the Suwannee Valley Culture, Ichetucknee Springs State Park, 1990. Draft manuscript on file with the author.

1992a The Timucuan missions of Spanish Florida and the rebellion of 1656. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville.

1992b Revised Aboriginal Ceramic Typology for the Timucua Mission Province, A.D. 1597-1656. Appendix D to Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier: Archaeology at the Fig Springs Mission, by Brent R. Weisman, pp. 188-205.

1998 The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida, Volume I: Assimilation. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2012 An Overview of the Suwannee Valley Culture. In Late Prehistoric Florida: Archaeology at the Edge of the Mississippian World by Keith Ashley and Nancy Marie White, pp. 149-171. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Appendix A