| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 9, 2022 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 9, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 2214065 |
| 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: | May 15, 2022 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $25,162.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $25,162.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1109 GEDDES AVE STE 3300 ANN ARBOR MI US 48109-1015 (734)763-6438 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
3003 South State St. Room 1062 Ann Arbor MI US 48109-1274 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Archaeology DDRI |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
This project investigates the transition from seasonal to permanent settlement among hunter-gatherers by studying how foraging populations organized their settlement and social relations at large ceremonial centers. Ceremonial centers with impressive monuments and extensive domestic zones have often been interpreted as early villages, making them among the first permanent settlements in their respective regions. Characteristics of early villages such as year-round occupation, integrative social institutions, and incipient forms of complex social organization usually developed in contexts of regional population pressure and circumscription, which limited the ability of people to move freely across the landscape. Limitations on mobility are thought to be a necessary part of this process to counteract the pressure to disperse due to social conflict that accompanies daily life in densely populated, permanent settlements. However, Eastern North America seems to be an exception, as hunter-gatherer populations in this region came together to form large, monumental centers resembling villages in the absence of strong external constraints on mobility. Does the emergence of hunter-gatherer ceremonial centers in Eastern North America represent an alternative trajectory for the development of sedentism and social complexity? Contemporary American society is subject to some of the same tensions that characterized the beginnings of sedentary village life, such as that between autonomy and communalism, making the topic of how and why people in the past voluntarily aggregated into large, dense, and permanent social groups an important area of inquiry. Research conducted as part of this study will provide archaeological education and training opportunities for local volunteers and students.
The project will investigate hunter-gatherer ceremonial centers in Eastern North America to outline how the process of settlement aggregation occurred and how it may have differed from other world regions. The researchers will focus on one large ceremonial center. This site witnessed the development of several large mound centers that have been characterized as early villages. Despite its exceptional size, the site has received comparatively little attention from archaeologists and the nature of its settlement is still largely unknown. Integrating data from excavation, radiocarbon dating, botanical analysis, and ceramic provenance will permit the evaluation of differing models of settlement, mobility, and social organization. These data will then be compared with other ceremonial centers and early villages from North America and other parts of the world to better understand the various trajectories that led hunter-gatherer populations to develop large, permanent settlements and complex societies.
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.
In the American Southeast during the Woodland period (1000 B.C. – A.D. 1000), hunter-gatherers came together at monumental centers with extensive habitation areas that may have been home to hundreds of people. These ceremonial centers and other, smaller Woodland period settlements have been interpreted as villages, but the evidence for year-round, sedentary occupation is inconsistent at many sites. The goal of my research is to investigate village emergence by studying variability in household organization and mobility at hunter-gatherer ceremonial centers. For my case study, I focused on the Letchworth (8JE337) ceremonial center near Tallahassee, Florida. New excavations and radiocarbon dates allowed me to evaluate different models of ceremonial center organization, and to ultimately demonstrate that Letchworth was not a permanent village but was instead occupied by a small population that would have expanded during periodic, probably seasonal aggregations.
Additional research including excavations in the plaza at Letchworth, microbotanical analysis, and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of ceramics was funded by this NSF award. These additional excavations and analyses allowed me to assess the spatial organization of ceremonial practices at the site, the subsistence practices and seasonality of its residents, and the mobility patterns and exchange networks that brought people and goods to Letchworth. Together, these results expand on the interpretations from my intital excavations and dating of the site. The inhabitants of Letchworth were relatively mobile, drawing on resources from across the Woodland period exchange networks of the Gulf Coast. They also had access to intensifiable wild food resources inthe form of starchy wetland tubers that could be intentionally propogated and used to feed large numbers of people during periodic or seasonal aggregations at the site. Finally, despite the limited evidence for intensive, long-term occupation at the site, those who visited the site for periodic ceremonies still maintained the site's plaza, keeping it largely clear of artifacts and features.
Data from Letchworth and other Woodland period ceremonial centers in the region show that settlement patterns and household organization varied considerably, in contrast with theoretical expectations of emerging sedentism based on regional population pressure and circumscription. This suggests that village formation was not a threshold phenomenon in regions such as Eastern North America, where rich environments enabled sedentary occupation in some instances and seasonal mobility in others. This research has the potential to alter our understanding of the processes through which nucleated, sedentary settlements arose by outlining an alternative trajectory based on social consensus and, critically, the ability to say "no".
Last Modified: 12/29/2023
Modified by: Martin Menz
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