Digging Ditches:

A Council Circle at Etzanoa? Multi-sensor Drone Survey at an Ancestral Wichita Settlement in Southeastern Kansas

“…Conversely, excavations show that council circles often contain not only significant evidence of domestic occupation, including hearths, grinding stones, and lithics, but also a high percentage of elite and imported objects, leading Vehik (2002a, 2002b) to argue that they are best interpreted as the residences of chiefly or priestly elites. Alternatively, some scholars have argued that council circles are defensive fortifications, similar to those found elsewhere in the Great Plains (Baugh 2007; Baugh and Blaine 2017; Drass et al 2018; Hollinger 2005). For example, several sites in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle associated with the roughly contemporary Wheeler phase (AD 1450–1725), including Duncan, Edwards I, and Bridwell, have large circular ditches that appear to have been fortifications surrounding villages, and it is possible that council circles served a similar function (Baugh and Blaine 2017:122–124).…”

“…Excavations of council circles have revealed habitations, cache pits, ritual offerings, and exotic goods within pits and beneath mounds, leading to an ongoing debate among specialists regarding their function. Council circles have been interpreted variously as astronomical calendars and ritual sites (Wedel 1967), the residences of chiefly elites or warrior societies (Vehik 2002a, 2002b), or as a regional variant of defensive fortifications found throughout much of the southern Great Plains (Baugh and Blaine 2017; Drass et al 2018; Hollinger 2005). Whatever their purpose, most scholars agree that, although these circular earthworks may have once been more common, twentieth-century agricultural land use in the southern Great Plains has likely destroyed most evidence of these features.…”