together. is i111]~)ria111lo WIIIVIII~W~. l~o!\r~rr~ I~I:II th~s1)rot~~s~ was under way during tht*c.t~tr~~-\ ~wior 11, E~rn)lwa~ltSontilc.t. so that the c.ausrs of the Mitldlr Mississ~~~,ta~lclec.li~~r wrrr 1wo1)-

Fwtlit*r Rt~ading: \ II~I~IW,II.I h11 111 (. .. T/IV,Sirr~orr~ri~/r RII.IV O'/rri;/- (/oru\: I'o/i~rw/(,'/ror~,p rrr 111v /,(III,/'ri*/rr.\~orr(~ So~r//~ros/ !l'u~~~alot,~i~: Pti~\~.rhi~!,,I ~I~IKIIII:I l'rt.33. 1004): Ih-1.k. RIII>IIIA,. "l:o~isol~~lat~~~~~ ant1 tlwrarc,hv: (:h~rl;lon~\krlal~ilit! 111 111~M~k>~s.;il)pau ~011th- rast." 411wr~iarr~tu/rrpi/~ 08 (2003):04 1-001: Blitz. JOIIII..~II(WIII f:hry/iIorr~.\ (!/' //I(, 7;1rr1/1~~hi~rI'li~waloosa: L'n~vvrhil\.of' 4lal1a111kr ac.t*ountsprovidrtl I)! rarl! Europran rxplorrrh. ancl particw- l1r(*sh. 1093): lh~tlv~,.1trii111. at111 Piiul \%~II~II.eds.. IN~I'(~~.~/IL~)rrrrd lady from acscounts of tht. Iit.rrlantlo de Soto rupedi~ion. Po1i11 rrr ,%Ir.\,s/.s.vr/~/~r(rr~.Soi.ri,~\ !(.arl)on(lalr: Soutl~er~illlino~s whit*ll \ enturrtl at.ros.s n~ur-l~(11' the 4rnrrit.all Southeast from I n~\wr>il!. (;rn~rrli)r 4rc~liardog1c.alIn\c.stiga110113. 2000): Earlr. 1539 to 1543. Chirliloms with names like .4palat.hee. 'I'irnot h! K.. Hotc Chwfs Conw lo IJorrc,r: 7'lw Polrtud F:corronr? rn Cofi~aclietpi.. Coosa. 'l'asc&oaa. Chi(~asa.Casqui. IJrrlrr.\/or~(Stauli~rtl. CG: Stanl'old ln~vt~hit\I'rt.s3. 1997): Knight. and Pawha Ivap from the tlr Soto acc80unt.sant1 offer impor- \itbrl~on .I.. "'hInstitutional Orpa~~~zatior~of' Mississ~ppia~~ tant insights into ].ate Mississippian socirtv. Hrliglon." 4rncnci~rrArl/ir/r~i/! 51 ( 1986): 675-687: Milnrr. Gtwgr Thrse accounts, however. woultl open one of the last histori- K.. Tlw Crthokro Ch~q/ilorrt:Tho :lrrlrrreolog~ol'tr Mrs,siss~p~~,l,rtrrrSocr- r/i (Wash~ngton.I)(:: Snl~tl~son~anI~~stitution Prc~ss. 1998): Milnrr. cal windows into the world of the Southeastrrn chirfiiolns. On Grorgr K.. Tlw Morortl/~crilrlt.rs:4rrcrrrrr I'iwplrs (4' Etr.s~twrNor~lr the heels of' Spanish and later Frenc~hand English explorers .4mrric~rr (Lo~ltlo~~:'I'ha~~lrs K I-lutlson. 2004): Mullt~l: Jon. came devastating inl'rt.tious diseases. such as measles ant1 .Wz,s.s~.s.\i~~/~iirrrPo/i/i(~t~/ E(YJIIOIII~ (Nw York: l'lrnu~~iPress. 19971: smallpox, against which the people of these Late Mississippian Pauketat. Timothy. ilrrcrrrr~ Ctrhoh~io crrrrl /he Mississipp~r~rt.~ chiefdoms had no natural resistance. Moreover, new European (Camlw~tlgr:Camlwitlgr l'n~\wsityPrrss. 2004): Smith. Brucr. rtl.. colonie~introduced a market-style economy to the Eastern The Mississippicm Ernergrtw~(Washington. DC: Sniithsonian Institu- Woodlanrls. in which native people traded hides and slaves to tion Press. 1990). European merchants fbr manufactured goods such as c.loth, Robin A. Beck

ANCIENT VILLAGE LIFE IN THE SOUTHEAST

Villages during ancient times in the Southeast were commu- In the Southeast, the earliest unequivocal evidence for people nities where a number of family groups lived for much or all living year-round in one location dates to the Middle Holocene, of the year, practicing a sedentary way of life. Initial occupa- about 5,000 years ago, at the Horr's Island site in southwest tion of the Southeast during the Late Pleistocene and Early Florida. This site, a massive midden composed mainly of shell- Holocene, before village life was established, was by hunter- fish and other subsistence debris, is located on the coast in an gatherer groups tha~in most areas appear to have been highly area rich in marine and estuarine food resources. Numerous mobile, moving their residences a number of times a year in postholes were found at the base of the midden, indicating that the scheduled pursuit of new resources, as those around their structures were present, although what they looked like is campsites became depleted. These groups or bands were typ- unknown. In the warm south Florida climate these buildings ically small, no more than a Sew families totaling between would not have to have been substantial, although, as was the twenty-five to fifty individuals, and people likely came case in later occupations in this region, some were characterized together in large numbers only for short periods when by elaborate woodworking that included representations of real resources were plentiful in a given area and could support the and mythic animals, intended to convey status and ceremonial rendezvous of two or more bands. meaning and to impress visitors. The presence of remains of plants and animals available only Middens containing large quantities of subsistence debris during specific times of the year is widely used by archaeolo- appear in a number of coastal and interior riverine settings gists to identify the season or seasons when sites were occupied. across the Southeast during and after the Middle Holocene. Ancient Village Life in the Southeast

The remains within them, where they have been examined by substantial domestic structures, dense midden deposits, and specialists, indicate that many of these sites were occupied marked cemeteries, suggesting a mainly sedentary way of life, seasonally or for longer periods. Most of those that have been do not appear widely in the Southeast until the Late carefully examined do not, however, appear to have been occu- Holocene, about 5.000 years ago, and after. At this same time pied year-round. During one or more seasons, populations are evidence for monumental construction also appears, in the thought to have dispersed away from these sites, to take advan- form of mound and earthwork building, in the lower Missis- tage of resources available in other areas. Some of these mid- sippi River valley, at sites like Watson's Brake, Frenchman's dens were truly massive accumulations, and some also appear Bend, and Caney. Given the lack of evidence for extended to have been intentionally built in a ring or "U" shape, with the occupation, it is assumed that these mound centers were location, amount, and kinds of debris in specific segments or occupied for short periods of time, during intermittenl portions, perhaps reflecting the arrangement, size, and status episodes of ceremony, festival, and construction, by groups of individual families or lineages within the community. The dispersed over the surrounding landscape much of the year. open areas within the circles or the U's, furthermore, may have The presence of these mound centers, produced by collective had the same function as more formally prepared plazas or short-term labor for ceremonial purposes, is a pattern that open areas surrounded by mounds or earthworks that appear occurs over and over again in the millennia to come. It is also widely across the region over the following millennia. yet another indication that at least some of the peoples of the The first evidence for the construction of substantial Southeast were becoming permanently invested and attached domestic structures also occurs during the Middle Holocene. to specific parts of the landscape. The increasingly territorial Structures with posts and other large construction members, behavior reflected by the occurrence of middens, mounds, prepared floors and dug-out foundations, and thick wattle- and cemeteries was a part of the process leading to sedentary and-daub, hide-covered, or wovenlthatched roofs and walls life and permanent village communities on the landscape. require appreciable effort to build, and attest to the likelihood By the Woodland period, from 3,000 to 1,000 years ago, that group mobility was minimal during the periods these evidence of fairly substantial domestic structures appears in structures were occupied, which was likely over one or more many parts of the Southeast, and mounds were being built in seasons. The more substantial walled and roofed structures many areas, most typically dome-shaped earthen edifices that were likely used as residences during cold weather, a theory covered and commemorated burials placed within and under supported in some cases by the presence within them of them, and less commonly truncated pyramids or platforms hearths or seasonal biotic indicators. Substantial domestic whose tops were likely used for public ceremonies, and less structures in the Southeast have been found in a number of commonly as bases for temples, charnel houses, or other areas dating back at least 4,000 more years, including at the structures. Whether permanently occupied communities were Bailey site in Tennessee, at the Mill Branch and Lover's Lane present is less certain in most areas, particularly until late in sites in eastern Georgia, and at several midden mound sites the period, and many Woodland groups are thought to have with substantial prepared clay floors or platforms in the been residentially mobile at least part of the year. Many of the Tombigbee River valley of northeast . mounds and earthworks that are hallmarks of the period, in Human burial in marked cemeteries is an additional indica- fact, are thought to have been built by populations dispersed tor of extended settlement in a given area and at specific loca- much of the time and, as a result, used only intermittently. tions. Cemeteries are created when people are buried in Where residential structures are found on Woodland period specific locations over a period of years or generations, per- sites, evidence for large-scale storage, in the form of pits or haps in marked graves and family groupings. Such behavior storerooms capable of holding great quantities of food, some- marks the location as one in which the group has a substantial times appears in and around these structures, again suggest- personal history and investment. The earliest marked cemeter- ing more permanent settlements. ies in the Southeast occur during the Paleoindian period with Toward the end of the Woodland period, after about AD 700, the Dalton culture of the central Mississippi Valley, as repre- the bow and arrow appears in the Southeast, and evidence for sented by the numerous clusters of human bone and elaborate, warfare increases dramatically. Intensive maize agriculture well-made artifacts found at the Sloan site in northeast also appears in some areas soon after, and by the Mississip- , and during the Late Paleoindian and Early pian period, after about AD 1100, maize was grown widely Holocene periods in parts of Florida, as represented by buri- across much of the region. Communities that were unquestion- als submerged in sinks or ponds, such as at Little Salt Spring ably occupied most or all of the year appear in many areas, or Windover. At least one Dalton site from northeast Arkansas, with the extended settlement likely facilitated by the increased the Lace site, had a substantial midden, but the site was crop yields and surpluses. Fortified communities first appear destroyed by land leveling before thorough excavations could during the Late Woodland ~eriod,often tightly packed be conducted to determine whether structures were present. arrangements of houses surrounded by and ditches. Aside from these early and somewhat isolated examples, Social organization changed to accommodate the demands of archaeological cultures characterized by sites with increased population and interaction, extended settlement, Southeast Region

and agricultural productivity, with hereditary groups or elites alike or were comparable in size. Some communities. partic- and controlling public ceremony, warfare, and con- ularly during the Archaic were little more than scat- struction, in part through the use of crop surpluses. Many of the tered households. Over time larger groupings of houses larger permanently occupied Mississippian communities- occurred, sometimes with associated plazas, earthworks, and besides serving as the centers of elite households, temples, and mounds-but, again, not everywhere in the region. Even dur- public ceremony-were. if fortified, refuges that outlying pop- ing the Woodland many people lived in dispersed households ulations could retreat to in times of warfare. and may have moved one or more times a year. Although Warfare was directed at controlling land, crops, and agri- increasing investment in facilities such as mounds, cemeter- cultural surplus and obtaining and maintaining prestige and ies, and structures occurred. only with the appearance of prerogatives. It took two distinct forms: attacks on individuals intensive agricultural food production were communities or small parties away from settlements, or large-scale attacks occupied year-round, true villages as we tend to think of the on the settlements themselves. Evidence for the destruction of term. in large parts of the region. communities and the massacre of inhabitants soon follows the establishment of permanent communities in the region, with Further Reading: Anderson, David G.. and Robert C. Mainfort Jr., the ruins ofsuddenly destroyed settlements themselves some- eds., The Woodland Southeas/ (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama what paradoxically providing archaeologists with some of Press, 2002): Anderson, David G.. and Kenneth E. Sassaman, "Earlv their best evidence for village life. In communities that were and Middle Holocene Periods. 9500-3750 B.C." in Smithsonian abandoned more gradually or peacefully, in contrast, most Handbook of North American Indians, Southeast vol., edited by evidence for household life was removed as the people Raymond D. Fogelson (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, departed, with the buildings themselves pulled apart or left to 2004), 87-100; Gibson, Jon L., and Philip J. Can; eds., Signs of gradually decay in the region's damp climate. Powec The Rise of Cultural Complexity in the Southeast What went on in the village communities of the Southeast (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004); Milner, George over the thousands of years that they existed? Family life, for R., The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America the most part, including food preparation and cooking, tool (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003); Pauketat, Timothy R., Ancient and the Mississippians (Cambridge: Cambridge manufacture, and the fabrication of items of everyday life. In University Press, 2004); Pauketat, Timothy R., Chiefdoms and many communities the dead were buried under or near the Other Archaeological Delusions (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, houses they lived in, while in others, or when the people were 2007); Sassaman, Kenneth E., People of the Shoals: Stallings Cul- of special status, the deceased might be placed in special char- ture ofthe Savannah River Valley (Gainesville: University Press of nel houses, mounds, or temples. More public interaction, such Florida, 2006); Sassaman, Kenneth E., and David G. Anderson, as games or ceremonies involving larger numbers of people, eds., The Archaeology of the Mid-Holocene Southeast (Gainesville: took place in the open areas between residences, or in the University Press of Florida, 1996); Sassaman, Kenneth E., and larger communities in the formal plazas that were typically sur- David G. Anderson, "Late Holocene Period, 3750 to 650 B.C.," in rounded by houses, mounds, or earthworks. During the last mil- Smithsonian Handbook of North American Indians, Southeast vol., lennia prior to contact, village boundaries in many areas were edited by Raymond D. Fogelson (Washington, DC: Smithsonian defined by fortification lines, as warfare became more common. Institution, 2004), 101-114; Smith, Bruce D., "The Archaeology of the Southeastern United States: from Dalton to de Soto, Not everyone lived this way. In some areas, communities 10,500-500 B.P.," Advances in World Archaeology 5 (1986): were more dispersed, with households scattered over the 1-92; Smith, Bruce D., Rivers of Change: Essays on Early Agricul- landscape, along stream or river margins. What is meant by a ture in Eastern North America (Washington, DC: Smithsonian "community" or a village in the Southeast thus varies, and Institution Press, 1992). care must be taken to avoid assuming that they all looked David G. Anderson

DE SOTO'S EXPEDITION AND OTHER EARLY EUROPEAN-INDIAN ENCOUNTERS

The contact between different cultures has been a central objects) ~ers~ective.The resulting analyses have contributed focus of anthropological interest since the discipline's incep- to the understanding of patterns of adaptation by both coloniz- tion. This has been especially true for historical archaeology, ing and indigenous peoples. which has the unique ability to examine the topic from both a The archaeological perspective concerning the cultural historical (documents) and an archaeological (material contact human experience has changed through time. Early