Jayur Mehta | Florida State University (original) (raw)

Journal Articles by Jayur Mehta

New Florida Journal of Anthropology, 2020

Hudson et al. (2012) provided five ways in which archaeology can contribute to developing respons... more Hudson et al. (2012) provided five ways in which archaeology can contribute to developing responses to the global climate crisis. By using these five broader themes as a framework, we evaluate the role of Southeastern archaeology in the discussion of climate change but also highlight the reality for 15 archaeological and historical sites in terms of their struggle with the effects of climate change and the associated risk of losing physical remains of past human activity. To better visualize the effects of climate change on these 15 archaeological and historic sites, we created a triage system by placing each site into categories based on its current and near-future preservation condition. Introduction Scholars and scientists have long discussed the topic of climate change, but politicians and the public have increasingly debated plans on how to address it and mitigate its effects. 1 Effects of climate change can include rising temperatures and sea levels, more frequent and intense storms, erratic weather patterns , large-scale wildfires, floods, droughts, and more. These changes have devastating implications for our cultural resources as well as our economy, infrastructure, and wildlife. While archaeology can do little to reverse the current global climate crisis, it can be helpful in determining how our global society handles the consequences of climate change.

The Mayanist, 2020

The Gulf Coast of Mexico unites two distinct culture-historical regions: the Southeastern United ... more The Gulf Coast of Mexico unites two distinct culture-historical regions:
the Southeastern United States and Mesoamerica. In the Southeast
United States, precocious earthen and shell monument construction
dates to as early as 4500 BC and precedes agriculture by millennia.
In Mesoamerica, the first public architecture dates to the early-middle
Formative period, at around 1500 BC, after the development of corn
agriculture. Other than differences in agriculture, what else divides these
two regions? What unites these two regions? Most notably, we conclude
that complexity precedes in fits and starts along the northern Gulf Coast
of Mexico, whereas once monument building begins along Gulf Coastal
Mesoamerica, social and cultural development continues unabated. We
hypothesize differences in these two regions may be tied to early developments in horticulture, maize cultivation, and a writing system in the southern Gulf region. We should not and do not intend to make general evolutionary comments using the comparative approach – rather, these two regions have unique histories and sequences of social and cultural development. This paper strives to abandon a culture-historical perspective and consider an “Archaeology of the Americas” united by the Gulf of Mexico and related regions.

Geomorphology, 2020

Recent geochronology of the Mississippi Delta of coastal Louisiana, USA, provides a high-resoluti... more Recent geochronology of the Mississippi Delta of coastal Louisiana, USA, provides a high-resolution record of land growth that facilitates the study of ancient settlement patterns in relation to delta evolution. We use stratigraphy and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to show that two Late Holocene earthen mounds were constructed several hundred years after the land emerged from open water. This multi-century pause allowed natural processes of overbank and crevasse splay deposition to elevate the land surface, reduce flood risk, and foster desirable environmental conditions prior to human occupation. These results are applied to obtain new age constraints for a large number of at-risk or lost archaeological sites with little-to-no absolute chronology. We use our findings to comment on prehistoric, contemporary, and future human-landscape interactions in the Mississippi Delta and other deltaic environments.

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2020

The Carson site in northwest Mississippi is a monumental Mississippian center with evidence of la... more The Carson site in northwest Mississippi is a monumental Mississippian center with evidence of large and small earthen mounds, an extensive palisaded village, and a bundle-burial mortuary complex. Over 70 houses have been uncovered from over a decade of salvage excavations at the site; these households bear evidence of local populations in the form of ceramics and stone tools, often belonging to the Parchman phase. In addition, numerous household structures that bear resemblance to Mississip-pian buildings from Cahokia and the American Bottom and that date to the Lohmann, Stirling, and Moorehead phases have also been discovered. The presence of these non-local structures and their material culture has provoked continued discussion on the nature of interactions between these two important centers. Herein, we offer a discussion on the nature of trade, diaspora, and Mississippian culture at Carson based on the analysis of material culture and architecture bearing Cahokian influences.

North American Archaeologist, 2019

Significant scholarly attention has been paid to monument construction, craft production , and le... more Significant scholarly attention has been paid to monument construction, craft production , and leadership strategies in the Mississippian world (A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1540) of the Southeastern and Midcontinental United States. As new sites are discovered and new data brought into consideration, greater consideration can be made linking the building of large earthen mounds to social and political relationships. This article presents an archaeological and ethnohistoric consideration of mound building and mound summit use at Mound D at the Carson site, located in northwest Mississippi. Data from earthen mound excavation, mound summit architecture , material culture, and optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon (accelerator mass spectrometry) dating are used to discuss the formation of the monumental landscape beginning in the early 13th century. Several postulates are offered for the interpretation of mound construction and mound summit use.

Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2019

Sediment coring and trench excavation, radiocarbon dating, LiDAR data, and indigenous material cu... more Sediment coring and trench excavation, radiocarbon dating, LiDAR data, and indigenous material culture are used to evaluate the cultural affiliation of the Grand Caillou earthen mound site and to place this site within its broader geographic context. This prehistoric Native American complex is located within the Lafourche subdelta, an abandoned portion of the Mississippi River Delta that was active from AD 400 to 1400. Interdisciplinary approaches inform the cultural affiliations of prehistoric inhabitants and document how deltaic processes influenced site selection and timing of occupation relative to newly published optically stimulated luminescence ages for Lafourche subdelta evolution. We find that the Grand Caillou site is situated on the natural levee of a major Lafourche distributary, at its junction with a relict crevasse channel. This location provided geographical advantages including access to major and minor waterways and relatively high topography. Mound construction occurred in stages of alternating lithologies, demonstrating geotechnical knowledge. Ceramic analyses assign affiliation to the Barataria phase of the Plaquemine culture (AD 1000 to 1450). Radiocarbon ages for the mound abruptly truncate at 0.6 ka, coincident with abandonment of the Lafourche subdelta. These data demonstrate highly complex, intertwined relationships between humans and river deltas, a timeless phenomenon documented worldwide.

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2017

Lithic artifacts made on Burlington chert from the Carson site in northwest Mississippi were geoc... more Lithic artifacts made on Burlington chert from the Carson site in northwest Mississippi were geochemically measured using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF). Burlington chert is visually identifiable based on its whitish and translucent coloring; the raw material and artifacts are usually associated with geologic sources located hundreds of miles to the north of Carson in the Central Mississippi Valley (CMV). Burlington chert is generally used to make microlithic tools that are found at large Mississippian centers in the CMV such as Cahokia, Zebree, and Labras Lake, all located upriver of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) and of Carson. Herein we report on geochemical sourcing of Burlington chert from Carson; 99 samples were analyzed from elite and non-elite contexts. Geochem-ical data were generated using pXRF technology and are used to evaluate models of trade and exchange in the LMV during the Mississippi period (1200-1540 CE). Preliminary findings indicate that Burlington chert did not originate exclusively from sources controlled by Cahokia (namely the Crescent Quarry), but rather, from a wide-ranging territory. Therefore, we propose that multi-agent, multi-source trade networks brought Burlington chert to Carson. Consequently, we suggest future testing should explore using additional geologic and archaeological samples the hypothesis that multiple, imbricated networks of trade and exchange were responsible for bringing Burlington chert to Carson.

Southeastern Archaeology, 2017

Investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), located in Coahoma County, Mississippi, have uncover... more Investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), located in Coahoma County, Mississippi, have uncovered data on the development of a large Mississippian mound center dating to the period from A.D. 1200 through European contact. Recent sediment coring, excavation, artifact analyses, and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating shed light on earthworks and household structures at Carson, and on Mississippian culture in the Yazoo Basin more generally. Sediment coring demonstrates a laterally transgressing Mississippi River system deposited coarse sandy ridges and clay-filled swales underneath a surface horizon comprised of variously coarse to medium-fine sediment originating from generalized overbank flooding. In some instances, flood-borne sediments were found on mound flanks, indicating that at times river-based flooding may have interrupted mound construction. Sediment coring and trench excavation also demonstrate that Carson’s Mound D was built in four stages, with Stages II and III comprising the major stages of earth moving. Excavations on the mound summit reveal evidence of several superimposed structures that were burned in place and likely used for the production of stone, shell, and wooden craft items, perhaps related to Mississippi Ideational Interaction Sphere (MIIS) paraphernalia. Here we describe recent investigations at Carson and present preliminary findings; forthcoming publications will emphasize strategies of power, monumentality, craft production, and Mississippian exchange systems.

In the Mississippian Southeast, little is known about the economy of how craft goods were produce... more In the Mississippian Southeast, little is known about the economy of how craft goods were produced. Archeologists do understand to a certain degree the organization of production of certain microlithic tools, saltpans, and stone palettes and pipes, but few craft production areas have been identified. Evidence from the floor of a structure on the summit of Mound D at the Carson site, in Coahoma County, Mississippi, suggests for the production of items made of wood and shell. Recovered lithic tools may potentially have been used to craft items like shell beads and gorgets and perhaps wooden and stone statuary. This study contributes significantly to the study of craft production and suggests elites at Carson may have played a strong role in controlling valued prestige items. In addition to standard analyses of artifacts, thin-section analysis and micromorphology are techniques with great potential for identifying activities that took place on surfaces uncovered through structure excavations. With continued research, it is possible that our study will play a significant role in elucidating the role of elites in the political economy of craft production.

Journal of Anthropology, 2012

The application of combined techniques such as aerial imagery, sediment coring, down-hole magneti... more The application of combined techniques such as aerial imagery, sediment coring, down-hole magnetic susceptibility, and mechanized trench excavation can provide critical information on landscape formation and mound stratigraphy, specifically if they can be used to understand mound sequences and development. This paper reviews preliminary findings from recent coring and test excavations at the Carson mounds site (22CO505) in Coahoma County,Mississippi. Aerial imagery assisted in the characterization of a crevasse ridge flood deposit underlying the site and detailed field descriptions of the pedology corroborated its existence. Subsequent sediment coring and trench excavation revealed the nature of flooding in prehistory, indicating that high-intensity floods were responsible for the formation of the crevasse ridge and that lower intensity floods were potentially responsible for interruptions in mound building at the site. This suggests that the Carson settlement was initiated on an actively flooding landform. Down-hole magnetic susceptibility correlated effectively with the pedology; however, it also helped discern anthropogenic surfaces (i.e., occupational layers) that are difficult to identify visually, such as those we found in Mound C. Findings from this pilot study demonstrate the utility of sediment coring and magnetic susceptibility as effective and feasible methods for developing hypothesis driven
research.

Journal of Anthropology, 2012

Papers by Jayur Mehta

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

As large areas of the Mississippi River Delta (MRD) of the USA disappear into the sea, present-da... more As large areas of the Mississippi River Delta (MRD) of the USA disappear into the sea, present-day communities and cultural resources are lost. While the land loss may be readily quantified, describing the impact of cultural losses is less straightforward because cultural elements are frequently less tangible and difficult to map, identify, and categorize. The elision of cultural components of landscapes and ecosystems is evident in restoration practices and policies, although numerous scholars have identified the interlinked processes of culture and ecology as critical to rebuilding healthy and resilient environments. We define and measure cultural-ecosystem resilience (CER) in the Mississippi River Delta through analyses of Indigenous oral histories, mound-building practices and settlement patterns, and the persistence and reuse of archaeological sites. CER describes a system containing resilient properties embedded in human-natural settings including river deltas that may manifes...

PLOS ONE

America’s unique response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has been both criticized and applauded ... more America’s unique response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has been both criticized and applauded across political and social spectrums. Compared to other developed nations, U.S. incidence and mortality rates were exceptionally high, due in part to inconsistent policies across local, state, and federal agencies regarding preventive behaviors like mask wearing and social distancing. Furthermore, vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and vaccine safety have proliferated widely, making herd immunity that much more challenging. What factors of the U.S. culture have contributed to the significant impact of the pandemic? Why have we not responded better to the challenges of COVID-19? Or would many people in the U.S. claim that we have responded perfectly well? To explore these questions, we conducted a qualitative and quantitative study of Florida State University faculty, staff, and students. This study measured their perceptions of the pandemic, their behaviors tied t...

Journal of Field Archaeology

Local lore has long identified an entrenched feature crossing Fort Morgan peninsula on Alabama&am... more Local lore has long identified an entrenched feature crossing Fort Morgan peninsula on Alabama's Gulf of Mexico coast (USA) as an ancient canoe canal, a folk identification now confirmed by archival, artifactual, geochronological, geoarchaeological, and hydrological evidence. A 1.39 km canal (site 1BA709) linked two estuaries, Oyster Bay and Little Lagoon, connecting Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico late in the Middle Woodland period, ca. A.D. 600. Construction of such a large hydraulic engineering feature by a non-agricultural, non-hierarchical society seems unusual but not inconsistent with the sorts of monumental landscape alterations accomplished more routinely by other Woodland populations in eastern North America. Although such canals certainly expedited local travel, communication, and transport, their construction and use had broader social ramifications.

Copyright © 2012 Jayur Madhusudan Mehta et al. This is an open access article distributed under t... more Copyright © 2012 Jayur Madhusudan Mehta et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The application of combined techniques such as aerial imagery, sediment coring, down-hole magnetic susceptibility, and mechanized trench excavation can provide critical information on landscape formation andmound stratigraphy, specifically if they can be used to understandmound sequences and development. This paper reviews preliminary findings from recent coring and test excavations at the Carsonmounds site (22CO505) in Coahoma County, Mississippi. Aerial imagery assisted in the characterization of a crevasse ridge flood deposit underlying the site and detailed field descriptions of the pedology corroborated its existence. Subsequent sediment coring and trench excavation revealed the nature of flooding in prehistory, indicati...

Lithic Technologies in Sedentary Societies, 2019

New Florida Journal of Anthropology, 2020

Hudson et al. (2012) provided five ways in which archaeology can contribute to developing respons... more Hudson et al. (2012) provided five ways in which archaeology can contribute to developing responses to the global climate crisis. By using these five broader themes as a framework, we evaluate the role of Southeastern archaeology in the discussion of climate change but also highlight the reality for 15 archaeological and historical sites in terms of their struggle with the effects of climate change and the associated risk of losing physical remains of past human activity. To better visualize the effects of climate change on these 15 archaeological and historic sites, we created a triage system by placing each site into categories based on its current and near-future preservation condition. Introduction Scholars and scientists have long discussed the topic of climate change, but politicians and the public have increasingly debated plans on how to address it and mitigate its effects. 1 Effects of climate change can include rising temperatures and sea levels, more frequent and intense storms, erratic weather patterns , large-scale wildfires, floods, droughts, and more. These changes have devastating implications for our cultural resources as well as our economy, infrastructure, and wildlife. While archaeology can do little to reverse the current global climate crisis, it can be helpful in determining how our global society handles the consequences of climate change.

The Mayanist, 2020

The Gulf Coast of Mexico unites two distinct culture-historical regions: the Southeastern United ... more The Gulf Coast of Mexico unites two distinct culture-historical regions:
the Southeastern United States and Mesoamerica. In the Southeast
United States, precocious earthen and shell monument construction
dates to as early as 4500 BC and precedes agriculture by millennia.
In Mesoamerica, the first public architecture dates to the early-middle
Formative period, at around 1500 BC, after the development of corn
agriculture. Other than differences in agriculture, what else divides these
two regions? What unites these two regions? Most notably, we conclude
that complexity precedes in fits and starts along the northern Gulf Coast
of Mexico, whereas once monument building begins along Gulf Coastal
Mesoamerica, social and cultural development continues unabated. We
hypothesize differences in these two regions may be tied to early developments in horticulture, maize cultivation, and a writing system in the southern Gulf region. We should not and do not intend to make general evolutionary comments using the comparative approach – rather, these two regions have unique histories and sequences of social and cultural development. This paper strives to abandon a culture-historical perspective and consider an “Archaeology of the Americas” united by the Gulf of Mexico and related regions.

Geomorphology, 2020

Recent geochronology of the Mississippi Delta of coastal Louisiana, USA, provides a high-resoluti... more Recent geochronology of the Mississippi Delta of coastal Louisiana, USA, provides a high-resolution record of land growth that facilitates the study of ancient settlement patterns in relation to delta evolution. We use stratigraphy and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to show that two Late Holocene earthen mounds were constructed several hundred years after the land emerged from open water. This multi-century pause allowed natural processes of overbank and crevasse splay deposition to elevate the land surface, reduce flood risk, and foster desirable environmental conditions prior to human occupation. These results are applied to obtain new age constraints for a large number of at-risk or lost archaeological sites with little-to-no absolute chronology. We use our findings to comment on prehistoric, contemporary, and future human-landscape interactions in the Mississippi Delta and other deltaic environments.

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2020

The Carson site in northwest Mississippi is a monumental Mississippian center with evidence of la... more The Carson site in northwest Mississippi is a monumental Mississippian center with evidence of large and small earthen mounds, an extensive palisaded village, and a bundle-burial mortuary complex. Over 70 houses have been uncovered from over a decade of salvage excavations at the site; these households bear evidence of local populations in the form of ceramics and stone tools, often belonging to the Parchman phase. In addition, numerous household structures that bear resemblance to Mississip-pian buildings from Cahokia and the American Bottom and that date to the Lohmann, Stirling, and Moorehead phases have also been discovered. The presence of these non-local structures and their material culture has provoked continued discussion on the nature of interactions between these two important centers. Herein, we offer a discussion on the nature of trade, diaspora, and Mississippian culture at Carson based on the analysis of material culture and architecture bearing Cahokian influences.

North American Archaeologist, 2019

Significant scholarly attention has been paid to monument construction, craft production , and le... more Significant scholarly attention has been paid to monument construction, craft production , and leadership strategies in the Mississippian world (A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1540) of the Southeastern and Midcontinental United States. As new sites are discovered and new data brought into consideration, greater consideration can be made linking the building of large earthen mounds to social and political relationships. This article presents an archaeological and ethnohistoric consideration of mound building and mound summit use at Mound D at the Carson site, located in northwest Mississippi. Data from earthen mound excavation, mound summit architecture , material culture, and optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon (accelerator mass spectrometry) dating are used to discuss the formation of the monumental landscape beginning in the early 13th century. Several postulates are offered for the interpretation of mound construction and mound summit use.

Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2019

Sediment coring and trench excavation, radiocarbon dating, LiDAR data, and indigenous material cu... more Sediment coring and trench excavation, radiocarbon dating, LiDAR data, and indigenous material culture are used to evaluate the cultural affiliation of the Grand Caillou earthen mound site and to place this site within its broader geographic context. This prehistoric Native American complex is located within the Lafourche subdelta, an abandoned portion of the Mississippi River Delta that was active from AD 400 to 1400. Interdisciplinary approaches inform the cultural affiliations of prehistoric inhabitants and document how deltaic processes influenced site selection and timing of occupation relative to newly published optically stimulated luminescence ages for Lafourche subdelta evolution. We find that the Grand Caillou site is situated on the natural levee of a major Lafourche distributary, at its junction with a relict crevasse channel. This location provided geographical advantages including access to major and minor waterways and relatively high topography. Mound construction occurred in stages of alternating lithologies, demonstrating geotechnical knowledge. Ceramic analyses assign affiliation to the Barataria phase of the Plaquemine culture (AD 1000 to 1450). Radiocarbon ages for the mound abruptly truncate at 0.6 ka, coincident with abandonment of the Lafourche subdelta. These data demonstrate highly complex, intertwined relationships between humans and river deltas, a timeless phenomenon documented worldwide.

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 2017

Lithic artifacts made on Burlington chert from the Carson site in northwest Mississippi were geoc... more Lithic artifacts made on Burlington chert from the Carson site in northwest Mississippi were geochemically measured using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF). Burlington chert is visually identifiable based on its whitish and translucent coloring; the raw material and artifacts are usually associated with geologic sources located hundreds of miles to the north of Carson in the Central Mississippi Valley (CMV). Burlington chert is generally used to make microlithic tools that are found at large Mississippian centers in the CMV such as Cahokia, Zebree, and Labras Lake, all located upriver of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) and of Carson. Herein we report on geochemical sourcing of Burlington chert from Carson; 99 samples were analyzed from elite and non-elite contexts. Geochem-ical data were generated using pXRF technology and are used to evaluate models of trade and exchange in the LMV during the Mississippi period (1200-1540 CE). Preliminary findings indicate that Burlington chert did not originate exclusively from sources controlled by Cahokia (namely the Crescent Quarry), but rather, from a wide-ranging territory. Therefore, we propose that multi-agent, multi-source trade networks brought Burlington chert to Carson. Consequently, we suggest future testing should explore using additional geologic and archaeological samples the hypothesis that multiple, imbricated networks of trade and exchange were responsible for bringing Burlington chert to Carson.

Southeastern Archaeology, 2017

Investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), located in Coahoma County, Mississippi, have uncover... more Investigations at the Carson site (22CO505), located in Coahoma County, Mississippi, have uncovered data on the development of a large Mississippian mound center dating to the period from A.D. 1200 through European contact. Recent sediment coring, excavation, artifact analyses, and radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating shed light on earthworks and household structures at Carson, and on Mississippian culture in the Yazoo Basin more generally. Sediment coring demonstrates a laterally transgressing Mississippi River system deposited coarse sandy ridges and clay-filled swales underneath a surface horizon comprised of variously coarse to medium-fine sediment originating from generalized overbank flooding. In some instances, flood-borne sediments were found on mound flanks, indicating that at times river-based flooding may have interrupted mound construction. Sediment coring and trench excavation also demonstrate that Carson’s Mound D was built in four stages, with Stages II and III comprising the major stages of earth moving. Excavations on the mound summit reveal evidence of several superimposed structures that were burned in place and likely used for the production of stone, shell, and wooden craft items, perhaps related to Mississippi Ideational Interaction Sphere (MIIS) paraphernalia. Here we describe recent investigations at Carson and present preliminary findings; forthcoming publications will emphasize strategies of power, monumentality, craft production, and Mississippian exchange systems.

In the Mississippian Southeast, little is known about the economy of how craft goods were produce... more In the Mississippian Southeast, little is known about the economy of how craft goods were produced. Archeologists do understand to a certain degree the organization of production of certain microlithic tools, saltpans, and stone palettes and pipes, but few craft production areas have been identified. Evidence from the floor of a structure on the summit of Mound D at the Carson site, in Coahoma County, Mississippi, suggests for the production of items made of wood and shell. Recovered lithic tools may potentially have been used to craft items like shell beads and gorgets and perhaps wooden and stone statuary. This study contributes significantly to the study of craft production and suggests elites at Carson may have played a strong role in controlling valued prestige items. In addition to standard analyses of artifacts, thin-section analysis and micromorphology are techniques with great potential for identifying activities that took place on surfaces uncovered through structure excavations. With continued research, it is possible that our study will play a significant role in elucidating the role of elites in the political economy of craft production.

Journal of Anthropology, 2012

The application of combined techniques such as aerial imagery, sediment coring, down-hole magneti... more The application of combined techniques such as aerial imagery, sediment coring, down-hole magnetic susceptibility, and mechanized trench excavation can provide critical information on landscape formation and mound stratigraphy, specifically if they can be used to understand mound sequences and development. This paper reviews preliminary findings from recent coring and test excavations at the Carson mounds site (22CO505) in Coahoma County,Mississippi. Aerial imagery assisted in the characterization of a crevasse ridge flood deposit underlying the site and detailed field descriptions of the pedology corroborated its existence. Subsequent sediment coring and trench excavation revealed the nature of flooding in prehistory, indicating that high-intensity floods were responsible for the formation of the crevasse ridge and that lower intensity floods were potentially responsible for interruptions in mound building at the site. This suggests that the Carson settlement was initiated on an actively flooding landform. Down-hole magnetic susceptibility correlated effectively with the pedology; however, it also helped discern anthropogenic surfaces (i.e., occupational layers) that are difficult to identify visually, such as those we found in Mound C. Findings from this pilot study demonstrate the utility of sediment coring and magnetic susceptibility as effective and feasible methods for developing hypothesis driven
research.

Journal of Anthropology, 2012

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

As large areas of the Mississippi River Delta (MRD) of the USA disappear into the sea, present-da... more As large areas of the Mississippi River Delta (MRD) of the USA disappear into the sea, present-day communities and cultural resources are lost. While the land loss may be readily quantified, describing the impact of cultural losses is less straightforward because cultural elements are frequently less tangible and difficult to map, identify, and categorize. The elision of cultural components of landscapes and ecosystems is evident in restoration practices and policies, although numerous scholars have identified the interlinked processes of culture and ecology as critical to rebuilding healthy and resilient environments. We define and measure cultural-ecosystem resilience (CER) in the Mississippi River Delta through analyses of Indigenous oral histories, mound-building practices and settlement patterns, and the persistence and reuse of archaeological sites. CER describes a system containing resilient properties embedded in human-natural settings including river deltas that may manifes...

PLOS ONE

America’s unique response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has been both criticized and applauded ... more America’s unique response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has been both criticized and applauded across political and social spectrums. Compared to other developed nations, U.S. incidence and mortality rates were exceptionally high, due in part to inconsistent policies across local, state, and federal agencies regarding preventive behaviors like mask wearing and social distancing. Furthermore, vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and vaccine safety have proliferated widely, making herd immunity that much more challenging. What factors of the U.S. culture have contributed to the significant impact of the pandemic? Why have we not responded better to the challenges of COVID-19? Or would many people in the U.S. claim that we have responded perfectly well? To explore these questions, we conducted a qualitative and quantitative study of Florida State University faculty, staff, and students. This study measured their perceptions of the pandemic, their behaviors tied t...

Journal of Field Archaeology

Local lore has long identified an entrenched feature crossing Fort Morgan peninsula on Alabama&am... more Local lore has long identified an entrenched feature crossing Fort Morgan peninsula on Alabama's Gulf of Mexico coast (USA) as an ancient canoe canal, a folk identification now confirmed by archival, artifactual, geochronological, geoarchaeological, and hydrological evidence. A 1.39 km canal (site 1BA709) linked two estuaries, Oyster Bay and Little Lagoon, connecting Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico late in the Middle Woodland period, ca. A.D. 600. Construction of such a large hydraulic engineering feature by a non-agricultural, non-hierarchical society seems unusual but not inconsistent with the sorts of monumental landscape alterations accomplished more routinely by other Woodland populations in eastern North America. Although such canals certainly expedited local travel, communication, and transport, their construction and use had broader social ramifications.

Copyright © 2012 Jayur Madhusudan Mehta et al. This is an open access article distributed under t... more Copyright © 2012 Jayur Madhusudan Mehta et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The application of combined techniques such as aerial imagery, sediment coring, down-hole magnetic susceptibility, and mechanized trench excavation can provide critical information on landscape formation andmound stratigraphy, specifically if they can be used to understandmound sequences and development. This paper reviews preliminary findings from recent coring and test excavations at the Carsonmounds site (22CO505) in Coahoma County, Mississippi. Aerial imagery assisted in the characterization of a crevasse ridge flood deposit underlying the site and detailed field descriptions of the pedology corroborated its existence. Subsequent sediment coring and trench excavation revealed the nature of flooding in prehistory, indicati...

Lithic Technologies in Sedentary Societies, 2019

New Florida Journal of Anthropology, 2020

As climate change has become a global issue, it is important to assess its impacts on not only ou... more As climate change has become a global issue, it is important to assess its impacts on not only our modern day resources, but also our archaeological resources. An archaeological approach to climate change sheds light on themes of resilience, natural and cultural relationships, public outreach, social inequalities, and interdisciplinary perspectives (Hudson et al. 2012). In this paper, we organize fifteen archaeological and historical sites within the southeastern United States in a way that highlights their status regarding current climate change effects and their preservation needs. Tying these sites to these five themes, we show how consideration of southeastern archaeology can contribute to the global narrative on climate change.

<p>This chapter provides an examination of the Contact era in the Southeast through the len... more <p>This chapter provides an examination of the Contact era in the Southeast through the lens of Chaos Theory. Everyday life in the protohistoric Native American Southeast was guided by tradition, but it was also affected in seemingly unpredictable ways by colonial exploration, trade, missionization, and settlement. The authors focus on the Yazoo Basin in northwestern Mississippi, the Apalachee province of northern Florida, the Cherokee town areas of southern Appalachia, and the areas of Natchez and Taensa settlements in southwestern Mississippi and northeastern Louisiana. The authors found that everyday life for particular people at particular places was shaped not only by local history and local forces but also by the increasingly global forces of change that affected both native peoples and European colonists.</p>

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 2016

B O S T O N UNIVERSITY LIB R AR Y has been given a valuable collection of Lincoln letters, docume... more B O S T O N UNIVERSITY LIB R AR Y has been given a valuable collection of Lincoln letters, documents a n d related materials, number ing eighty-six items. Of special interest is an order to Genera l Winf ie ld Scott to susp e n d the writ of habeas corpus. T h e donor is the H o n o r a b l e Edward C. Stone, a member of the Massachusetts Senate a n d chairm a n of the Board of Trus tees of the university.

Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage, 2020

ABSTRACT New Orleans is a place of living history, a wounded but vibrant place. The shadow of the... more ABSTRACT New Orleans is a place of living history, a wounded but vibrant place. The shadow of the past is omnipresent, and it confronts the present daily as statues that commemorate the Confederate army are taken down and colonial pottery washes out of roadcuts. Teaching the history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which spanned from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries and resulted in millions of Africans becoming enslaved in the New World, was an eye-opening experience. As both college instructors and high school educators in the city, we were fortunate to teach on many topics related to the beginnings of the slave trade, the role of sugar in plantation slavery, and the complicated lives of free people of color and Creoles in French Colonial Louisiana and its western frontier. Here we present a reflection on learning and teaching in a city steeped in the history of slavery.

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2020

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2019

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2018

Historical Ecologies, Heterarchies, and Transtemporal Landscapes, 2019

Investigating the Ordinary: Everyday Matters in Southeast Archaeology, 2018

by J. Heath Anderson, Ronald "Sonny" Faulseit, Gary Feinman, Tristram Kidder, Nicola Sharratt, Julie A Hoggarth, Christina Conlee, Jakob Sedig, Andrea Torvinen, Scott Hutson, Kari A. Zobler, Thomas E Emerson, Kristin Hedman, Maureen E Meyers, Chris Rodning, Jayur Mehta, Rebecca Storey, Matthew Peeples, Christopher Pool, Victor Thompson, and Richard Sutter

The last several decades have seen the publication of a considerable amount of scholarly and popu... more The last several decades have seen the publication of a considerable amount of scholarly and popular literature concerning the collapse of complex societies, yielding a fair amount of comparative data and hypotheses regarding this phenomenon. More recently, scholars have begun to challenge these works, rejecting the notion of collapse altogether in favor of focusing on concepts such as resilience and transformation. Driven by these developments, archaeologists have turned their attention to what occurs in the aftermath of sociopolitical decline, attempting to identify factors that contribute to the regeneration, transformation, or reorganization of complex sociopolitical institutions. Subsequent research has provided important data shedding light on political environments that were once characterized as “dark ages.” In that time, general theoretical approaches have transformed as well, and recent frameworks reconsider collapse and reorganization not as unrelated or sequential phenomena but as integral components in a cyclical understanding of the evolution of complex societies. The most recent of these approaches incorporates the tenets of Resilience Theory, as developed by environmental scientists.
In March 2013, an international conference held at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale brought together scholars with diverse theoretical perspectives to present and synthesize new data and approaches to understanding the collapse and reorganization of complex societies. No restrictions were imposed regarding chronological periods, geographical regions or material specialties, resulting in a wide-ranging potential for comparative analysis. This publication is the outcome of that meeting. It is not organized merely as a collection of diverse case studies, but rather a collaborative effort incorporating various data sets to evaluate and expand on theoretical approaches to this important subject. The works contained within this volume are organized into five sections: the first sets the stage with introductory papers by the editor and distinguished contributor, Joseph Tainter; the second contains works by distinguished scholars approaching collapse and reorganization from new theoretical perspectives; the third presents critical archaeological analyses of the effectiveness of Resilience Theory as a heuristic tool for modeling these phenomena; the fourth section presents long-term adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric societies to cope with stresses and avoid collapse; the final section highlights new research on post-decline contexts in a variety of temporal and geographic ranges and relates these data to the more comprehensive works on the subject.

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Two weeks of coring, trenching and geophysical investigation were conducted at the Carson Mounds ... more Two weeks of coring, trenching and geophysical investigation were conducted at the Carson Mounds site in the summer of 2009. Coring was found to be an efficient method for evaluating mound construction sequences and investigating landscape formation. In addition to sedimentological analyses, the magnetic susceptibility of soils was also measured using the Bartington Instruments MS2H Down-hole magnetic susceptibility meter. This paper summarizes our findings from the previous season, the data made available form coring exclusively, and the utility of conduction down-hole magnetic susceptibility tests.

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Lithic artifacts made on Burlington chert from the Carson site in northwest Mississippi were sour... more Lithic artifacts made on Burlington chert from the Carson site in northwest Mississippi were sourced using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF). Burlington chert is visually identifiable based on its whitish and translucent coloring; the raw material and artifacts are usually associated with geologic sources located hundreds of miles to the north of Carson in the Central Mississippi Valley (CMV). Burlington chert is generally used to make microlithic tools that are found at large Mississippian centers in the CMV such as Cahokia, Zebree, and Labras Lake, all located upriver of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) and the location of Carson. Herein we report on geochemical sourcing of Burlington chert from Carson; 99 samples were analyzed from elite and non-elite contexts. Geochemical data were generated using pXRF technology and are used to evaluate models of trade and exchange in the LMV during the Mississippi period (AD 1200-1540). Preliminary findings indicate that Burlington chert did not originate exclusively from sources controlled by Cahokia (namely the Crescent Quarry), but rather, from a wide-ranging territory, suggesting that multiple, imbricated networks of trade and exchange were responsible for bringing Burlington chert to Carson.