NSF Org:	BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
Recipient:	WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, THE
Initial Amendment Date:	July 6, 2020
Latest Amendment Date:	July 6, 2020
Award Number:	2032257
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	John Yellen jyellen@nsf.gov  (703)292-8759 BCS  Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE  Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Start Date:	September 1, 2020
End Date:	August 31, 2023 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$26,992.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$26,992.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2020 = $26,992.00
History of Investigator:	Tristram Kidder (Principal Investigator) trkidder@wustl.edu Seth Grooms (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Washington University 1 BROOKINGS DR SAINT LOUIS MO  US  63130-4862 (314)747-4134
Sponsor Congressional District:	01
Primary Place of Performance:	Washington University in St. Louis Campus box 1114, One Brookings d St. Louis MO  US  63130-3017
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	L6NFUM28LQM5
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	Archaeology DDRI
Primary Program Source:	01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	1391, 9150, 9179
Program Element Code(s):	760600
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.075

ABSTRACT

Hunter-gatherers are thought to live in small groups with no formal leaders. However, recent research indicates that hunter-gatherers in the past had a variety of forms of leadership and ways of organizing themselves. Within this broader context this project will use the scale and pace of earthen mound building at a site in Mississippi as a proxy for understanding the extent of leadership required to construct labor intensive monuments. The monumental landscape presents an ideal case study for hunter-gatherer socio-political organization, and specifically the relationships between leadership, planning, mound building, and the Native histories that led to the remarkable Poverty Point phenomenon. The Jaketown site is a registered National Historic Place and learning more about the social organization of the extraordinary Poverty Point culture and the monuments they left behind will add to the already significant heritage value of the site. Furthermore, the research team is committed to collaborating with the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes in generating and sharing knowledge.

The researchers will excavate three mounds. Using standard archaeological methods augmented with geoarchaeological approaches, they will recover stratigraphic evidence and artifacts, including material for radiocarbon dating, that will allow them to explore how quickly these mounds were built, and if they were built at the same time. If the mounds were built quickly and simultaneously it suggests planning and leadership. Building multiple mounds quickly requires effort and coordination that that surpasses the capability of a household; some person or persons need to mobilize the labor, direct the work, and ensure resources were available to workers.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

I conducted four research expeditions at the Jaketown site in west-central Mississippi. Jaketown is an important site for understanding the Poverty Point culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley during the period of ca. 4500-3000 years ago. Jaketown also has the most earthworks of any Poverty Point-affiliated site other than the type site in Louisiana. There have been 15 mounds documented at Jaketown, including at least three Late Archaic period (ca. 5000-3000 years ago) constructions. Furthermore, the artifacts documented at Jaketown shows a high degree of similarity with the type site. These factors combine to make Jaketown a critical site for understanding the historical processes that led to the creation of the Poverty Point site. Extant regional histories situate Poverty Point as a center of innovation that exported material culture, practices, and cultural identity to presumably contemporary sites in the region. The data generated by my research contradict this model. We processed 11 new AMS 14C samples, adding to the existing 22, and I created a high-resolution chronological model of site occupation at Jaketown. The model, combined with artifacts, geoarchaeological, and paleoethnobotanical data, demonstrate that some practices considered to originate at Poverty Point, such as mound building and the importation of nonlocal lithics, occurred first at Jaketown. Our work also demonstrates that traditional scholarly theories about hunter-gatherers are too simplistic and bias our expectations for social complexity, or lack thereof, among such socieites. 

Last Modified: 11/29/2023
Modified by: Seth B Grooms

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.