UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE ALTERNATE PATHWAYS TO RITUAL POWER: EVIDENCE FOR CENTRALIZED PRODUCTION AND LONG-DISTANCE EXCHANGE BETWEEN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CADDO COMMUNITIES A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By SHAWN PATRICK LAMBERT Norman, Oklahoma 2017 ALTERNATE PATHWAYS TO RITUAL POWER: EVIDENCE FOR CENTRALIZED PRODUCTION AND LONG-DISTANCE EXCHANGE BETWEEN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CADDO COMMUNITIES A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BY ______________________________ Dr. Patrick Livingood, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Asa Randall ______________________________ Dr. Amanda Regnier ______________________________ Dr. Scott Hammerstedt ______________________________ Dr. Diane Warren ______________________________ Dr. Bonnie Pitblado ______________________________ Dr. Michael Winston © Copyright by SHAWN PATRICK LAMBERT 2017 All Rights Reserved. Dedication I dedicate my dissertation to my loving grandfather, Calvin McInnish and wonderful twin sister, Kimberly Dawn Thackston. I miss and love you. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to give my sincerest gratitude to Patrick Livingood, my committee chair, who has guided me through seven years of my masters and doctoral work. I could not wish for a better committee chair. I also want to thank Amanda Regnier and Scott Hammerstedt for the tremendous amount of work they put into making me the best possible archaeologist. I would also like to thank Asa Randall. His level of theoretical insight is on another dimensional plane and his Advanced Archaeological Theory class is one of the best I ever took at the University of Oklahoma. I express appreciation to Bonnie Pitblado, not only for being on my committee but emphasizing the importance of stewardship in archaeology. The many drafts my committee read through the years shows immense patience and dedication to their students. I thank the Caddo Nation and Wichita and Affiliated Tribes of Oklahoma for their continued support. I hope my research lives up to their standards and offers some insight into their past. In particular, I thank Tamara Francis, Phil Cross, Gary McAdams, and Terri Parton. I truly appreciate the friendship shown to me by so many people. The years spent teaching Wichita’s Ceramic Revitalization Workshop has been a privilege and honor. I thank Marc Levine and Susie Fishman-Armstrong for all their help in facilitating my research at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. I also want to thank the Woolaroc Museum, Gilcrease Museum, Oklahoma Historical Center, and Texas Archeological Research Laboratory for giving me access to their collections. iv A special thanks is to the Oklahoma Archeological Survey. The people and friends I made during the years I worked there is irreplaceable. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Marjy Duncan, Bob Brooks, Amanda Regnier, Scott Hammerstedt, Nick Beale, Kristina Wycoff, Kary Stackelbeck, Deb Green, Richard Drass, Susan Vehik, Lee Bement, Brittany Blake, and Brandi Bethke. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to all my friends and colleagues for their encouragement, all night study sessions, sharing ideas, friend trips, and laughter over the course of grad school. This is not an exhaustive list, but I specifically want to thank LeeAnne Wendt, Karla Oesch, Rose and Joe Pearson, Ali Livesay, Fabiola Silva, Sean Dolan, Paige Ford, Jesse Nowak, Dean Afendras, Elsbeth Dowd, Lauren Cleeland, Sonya Beach, Adam Moody, Liz Horton, Jera Davis, Paul Eubanks, and Eric Porth. A number of agencies have provided financial assistance for this research. This study is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. BCS-1702373 and the Nancy L. Mergler Dissertation Completion Fellowship. I also thank the University of Missouri Research Reactor and University of Arizona AMS Laboratory, which provided generous NSF discounts for my samples. Lastly, I would like to thank the Department of Anthropology, Graduate Student Senate, and Arts and Science for both travel and research grants. There will never be enough room to show my appreciation for my family. They have always stressed the importance of following my dreams and getting an education. The morals they have instilled in me have made me the person I am today. They have been there during the good and bad and always cheered me to the finishing line. Love you always and forever. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………iv List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………..viii List of Figures………………………………………......................................................ix Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..xvi Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………..1 Research Questions……………………………………………………………...6 Research Design ………………………………………………………………..7 Organization of Chapters……………………………………………………….12 Chapter 2: Caddo Emergence and Cultural Variability………………………………...13 A Short History of Research on Mississippian Emergence…………………….16 Ritual Mode of Production and Distribution in Small-Scale Societies………...22 Historicizing the Formative Caddo Landscape………………………………...25 Historicizing Caddo Emergence………………………………………………..25 Formative Caddo Emergence and Cultural Variability………………………...34 Summary………………………………………………………………………..51 Chapter 3: Environmental Settings and Site Backgrounds……………………………..54 Environmental Setting………………………………………………………….55 Site Summaries…………………………………………………………………60 Northern Caddo Mound Sites…………………………………………………..61 Spiro Site (34LF40)…………………………………………………….61 Brackett Site (34CK43)………………………………………………...72 Harlan Site (34CK6)……………………………………………………75 Reed Site (34DL4)……………………………………………………...78 Norman Site (34WG2)…………………………………………………83 Southern Caddo Sites…………………………………………………………..87 George Davis Site (41CE19)…………………………………………...87 Crenshaw Site (3MI6)………………………………………………….91 Boxed Springs Mound Site (41UR30)…………………………………94 Mounds Plantation Site (16CD12)……………………………………..98 Summary………………………………………………………………………102 Chapter 4: Ceramic Style and Compositional Analysis as a Proxy to Understand Communities of Practice……………………………………………………...104 Style as a Proxy to Understand Past Communities…………………………...105 Communities of Practice……………………………………………………...119 Summary ……………………………………………………………………..125 vi Chapter 5: A Comprehensive Analysis of Formative Fine Wares: Vessel Form, Construction, and Design Variability…………………………………………126 General Observations on Formative Caddo Fine Wares………..…………….128 Methods of Stylistic and Technological Analysis…………………………….129 Vessel Form Classification, Distribution, and Construction………………….132 Design Stratigraphy as a Proxy to Understand Overall Design Structure…….185 Summary………………………………………………………………………217 Chapter 6: Compositional and Point Density Analysis of Fine Wares……………….219 Background on INAA Research in the Surrounding Caddo Region………….219 Methods……………………………………………………………………….225 Results………………………………………………………………………...235 Kernel Point Density Analysis………………………………………………..259 Summary……………………………………………………………………....269 Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions………………………………………………272 Social Contexts of Arkansas Valley Formative Fine Wares………………….272 Implications of Technological and Stylistic Results………………………….274 Implications of Compositional and Kernel Point Density Results……….…...277 Implications of Formative Caddo Craft Production……………………….….279 Implications of Multiple Communities of Practice…………………………...283 Alternate Pathways to Ritual Power…………………………………………..285 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………...290 Future Work…………………………………………………………………...291 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..293 Appendix A. Arkansas Valley Ceramic Samples used for INAA…………………….320 Appendix B. Ceramics used for Kernel Point Density Analysis……………………...325 vii List of Tables Table 3.1. Gravelot periods and cultural phases (adapted from Brown 1996:161)…….62 Table 3.2. Formative finewares used for stylistic and compositional analysis at Spiro..71 Table 3.3. Sherds selected for INAA at Brackett………………………………………75 Table 3.4. Formative fine ware used for stylistic and compositional analysis at Harlan………………………………………………………………………………..78 Table 3.5. Formative fine wares used for stylistic and compositional analysis at Reed………………………………………………………………………..83 Table 3.6. Formative fine wares used for stylistic and compositional analysis at Norman……………………………………………………………………………...87 Table 3.7. Selected whole vessels for stylistic analysis at George C. Davis…………...90 Table 3.8. Whole vessels selected for stylistic analysis at Crenshaw………………….93 Table 3.9. Mounds plantation pottery sherds and their contexts……………………...101 Table 5.1. Vessel Form Distribution by Site. Percentages in cells are row Percentages…………………………………………………………………………...154 Table 5.2. Minimum Number of Vessel (MNV) Analysis on fine ware sherds at the George C. Davis site (MNV analysis by Newell and Krieger 1949)…………………169 Table 5.3. Number of whole vessels divided by design type and site location……….216 Table 6.1. Formative Fine Ware Sherds Selected for INAA………………………….227 Table 6.2. Utility sherds selected for INAA…………………………………………..228 Table 6.3. Sherd sample selected for INAA (Southern Caddo INAA data provided by Perttula 2010)…………………………………………………………………………229 viii List of Figures Figure 1.1. Location of the Northern and Southern Caddo areas (adapted from Perttula 2012: Figure 1-2)………………………………………………………………………...2 Figure 1.2. Caddo sites selected for research in the northern Caddo area of eastern Oklahoma with locations of other ceremonial