Shifting Communities: Demographic Profiles of Early Village Population Growth and Decline in the Central American Bottom

Barrier, Casey R.; Horsley, Timothy J.

doi:10.7183/0002-7316.79.2.295

Cited by 37 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Work at both floodplain and nearby upland locations shows significant levels of population movements and reorganizations that begun in pre-Mississippian times and continued throughout the Mississippian period (Alt 2002;Barrier and Horsley 2014;Emerson 1997;Kelly 1990;Koldehoff and Galloy 2006;Mehrer 1995;Mehrer and Collins 1995;Milner 1990Milner , 1998Pauketat 2003;Quinn and Barrier 2014;Welch 2006). Just prior to AD 1050, the largest known population concentrations were present at Cahokia and possibly a few other sites in the northern American Bottom, as well as at the Pulcher site several kilometers to the south ( Kelly 1993).…”

Section: Early Mississippian In the American Bottom: Situating The Wamentioning

confidence: 99%

Town aggregation and abandonment during the era of urban transformations in the Cahokia region: Bayesian modeling of the Washausen mound-town

Barrier

2017

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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The American Bottom portion of the Central Mississippi River Valley is a region where urban transformations occurred in the pre-Columbian era. During the 11 th century AD, Cahokia experienced significant population increases through immigration of non-local migrants to the site and, assumedly, the aggregation of extant local groups. This article considers the latter phenomenon and the extent to which urbanization involved demographic reorganizations on a regional scale. A suite of AMS radiocarbon dates are presented for the Washausen site, a place where residents built one of the earliest mound-and-plaza towns outside of Cahokia. Knowledge of the site from broad-scale geophysical survey, surface collections, excavations, and artifact analyses, provides information utilized for Bayesian chronological modeling. A new site 1 chronology places major occupations in the late 11 th -early 12 th centuries, and suggests the site occupations spanned a brief period of potentially 30 years or less. The data also support a scenario wherein town abandonment was rapid and begun by AD 1100 or shortly thereafter, possibly undertaken as a single event. Washausen's site chronology demonstrates that some early regional centers were abandoned as Cahokia and other large settlements were approaching their maximum population sizes. This study provides evidence for models of urban development that consider the movements of local populations and communities as part of the urbanization process.

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Section: Early Mississippian In the American Bottom: Situating The Wamentioning

confidence: 99%

Town aggregation and abandonment during the era of urban transformations in the Cahokia region: Bayesian modeling of the Washausen mound-town

Barrier

2017

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…Two to three earthen platform mounds -traditionally considered a classic component of Mississippian culture -were constructed at the settlement, representing some of the earliest examples of this form of monumentality in the greater American Bottom (see Milner, 2006). Noting the potential significance of the site for addressing issues pertaining to the Mississippian emergence, over the last decade, several archaeologists have conducted fieldwork at Washausen (Bailey, 2007;Barrier and Horsley, 2014;Betzenhauser, 2011; Burks, 2004;Kelly, 2006; Kelly and Brown, 2012:122).…”

Section: The Washausen Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For one example, the ground-truthed magnetometer data have been utilised to construct a demographic profile of the Washausen settlement (Barrier and Horsley, 2014). A total of five inferred basin structures were targeted for partial excavation.…”

Section: The Washausen Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

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Prospecting for New Questions: Integrating Geophysics to Define Anthropological Research Objectives and Inform Excavation Strategies at Monumental Sites

Horsley

Wright

Barrier

2014

Archaeological Prospection

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Abstract:Geophysical data have the potential to significantly contribute to archaeological research projects when effectively integrated with more traditional methods. Although pre-existing archaeological questions about a site may be answered using geophysical methods, beginning an investigation with an extensive geophysical survey can assist in understanding the function and archaeological potential of a site, and may even transform preconceptions about the type and spatial organisation of features that are present. In this way, these prospection tools not only accurately locate and map features to allow recovery of cultural material for identification and dating, we argue that they can go much further, allowing us to prospect for new and appropriate archaeological and anthropological research questions. Such an approach is best realised when geophysical and traditional archaeologists work together to define new objectives and strategies to address them, and by maintaining this collaboration to allow continual feedback between geophysical and archaeological data. A flexible research design is therefore essential in order to allow the methodologies to adapt to the site, the results, and the questions being posed. This methodology is demonstrated through two case studies from mound sites in the Southeast United States: the transitional Mississippian Washausen site in Illinois; and the Middle Woodland Garden Creek site in North Carolina. In both cases, integrating geophysical methods throughout the archaeological investigations has resulted in multiple phases of generating and addressing new research objectives. While clearly beneficial at these two mound sites in the Southeast U.S., this interdisciplinary approach has obvious implications well beyond these temporal and geographic areas.Geophysical methods have become a common part of the archaeologist's toolkit in southeastern North America, where they are increasingly utilised to explore large sites and landscapes (e.g. Kvamme, 2003; Peterson, 2007;Horsley and Wall, 2009;Thompson and Pluckhahn, 2010;Burks and Cook, 2011). Often, however, these non-invasive methods have been used more narrowly, to locate specific buried features for targeting in subsequent excavations. This is especially true in commercial applications that require the production of maps of anomalies worth more invasive testing.Although very effective in these situations, we illustrate that geophysics can be deployed to better advantage in research contexts. (This paper focuses on research-driven projects, our * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 610 526 5025; fax: +1 610 526 5655; e-mail: cbarrier@brynmawr.edu. approach-and geophysical surveys in general-is also amenable to commercial contexts: e.g. Johnson and Haley, 2006;Lockhart and Green, 2006). In the mid-1990s, Boucher (1996 argued that geophysical methods were not used to their full potential. Citing examples from the U.K., he determined this resulted from poor communication between geophysicists and archaeologists. Nearly two decades on, th...

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“…Rather, they represent efforts to solidify communal ties. Similarly, Casey Barrier and Timothy Horsley () discuss the construction of monumental structures by small communities in the American Bottom that underwent cycles of fissioning and reaggregation. Both of these studies demonstrate that complexity and monumentality can emanate from bottom‐up, local processes.…”

Section: The Anthropology Of Space In Archaeological Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeologies of the Past and in the Present in 2014: Materialities of Human History

Morehart

2015

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

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Research from the past year demonstrates archaeologists' diverse contributions to the anthropological study of human experience and social relationships in time and space. I divide literature published from late 2013 to late 2014 into five themes. First, archaeological research on space focuses on the persistence and materiality of landscapes, the creation and dynamics of communities and cities, and the mobility and migration of people.Second, studies of climate change and environmental interaction stress that organizational relationships and their long-term legacies are fundamental to ecological sustainability. Third, archaeologists offer anthropology the ability to contextualize the causes and the manifestations of violence and conflict through longitudinal cases studies and material analysis. Fourth, work on objects, bodies, and identity emphasizes that social subjectivities are not only variable but are historically connected to material worlds. Finally, fifth, archaeologists engaged with the present offer critical understandings of heritage policies and promote an activism that seeks more ethical practices with descendent communities and within the discipline itself. Despite differences, the recent literature reveals archaeologists' contributions to these significant anthropological topics by studying long-term, historical legacies and the materiality of human relationships. [archaeology, anthropology, materiality, history, year in review] RESUMEN Investigación del año pasado demuestra contribuciones diversas de los arqueólogos al estudio antropológico de la experiencias humana y las relaciones sociales en tiempo y espacio. Divido la literatura publicada desde finales del 2013 a finales del 2014 en cinco temas. Primero, la investigación arqueológica sobre espacio se enfoca en la persistencia y materialidad de los paisajes, la creación y dinámica de comunidades y ciudades, y la movilidad y migración de personas. Segundo, estudios de cambio climático e interacción ambiental enfatizan que las relaciones organizacionales y sus legados de largo plazo son fundamentales para la sostenibilidad ecológica.Tercero, arqueólogos le ofrecen a la antropología la habilidad de contextualizar las causas y las manifestaciones de la violencia y el conflicto a través de estudios de caso longitudinales y análisis material. Cuarto, trabajos sobre objetos, cuerpos, e identidad enfatizan que las subjetividades sociales no son solamente variables, sino que están históricamente conectadas a los mundos materiales. Finalmente, quinto, arqueólogos comprometidos con el presente ofrecen entendimientos críticos de las políticas hereditarias y promueven un activismo que busca prácticas máséticas con comunidades de descendientes y dentro de la disciplina en sí misma. A pesar de las diferencias, la reciente literatura revela las contribuciones de los arqueólogos a estos temas antropológicos significativos al estudiar legados históricos de largo plazo y la materialidad de las relaciones humanas. [arqueología, antropología, materialidad, hi...

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Shifting Communities: Demographic Profiles of Early Village Population Growth and Decline in the Central American Bottom

Cited by 37 publications

References 39 publications

Town aggregation and abandonment during the era of urban transformations in the Cahokia region: Bayesian modeling of the Washausen mound-town

Town aggregation and abandonment during the era of urban transformations in the Cahokia region: Bayesian modeling of the Washausen mound-town

Prospecting for New Questions: Integrating Geophysics to Define Anthropological Research Objectives and Inform Excavation Strategies at Monumental Sites

Archaeologies of the Past and in the Present in 2014: Materialities of Human History

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