Terminal Late Woodland Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- by and +1
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- Ritual, Cahokia Mounds, Bone Hair Pins, Terminal Late Woodland

Recent archaeological investigations for a new Mississippi River bridge in southwestern Illinois have uncovered a large prehistoric settlement known as the Janey B. Goode site (11S1232). This massive (>6 ha) site is buried under historic-period fill in a rail yard near Brooklyn, Illinois, and it is unusually well preserved. Although Janey B. Goode was first settled during the Late Woodland Patrick phase (A.D. 650–900), the most intensive occupations span the Terminal Late Woodland (A.D. 900–1050) and Mississippian (A.D. 1050–1400) periods. The Illinois State Archaeological Survey, funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation, recently completed six years of investigations at this site. This work resulted in the excavation of approximately 7,000 features, a record high number for an individual site in the American Bottom and very likely the entire country. This article provides a brief overview of the investigations and highlights some of the most noteworthy discoveries. The latter include evidence for (1) Terminal Late Woodland pottery that parallels the earliest ceramic phases in the southern American Bottom and which will thus require revision of the ceramic sequence for the northern American Bottom; (2) ditching and possible land reclamation associated with the Terminal Late Woodland occupation, which demonstrate a greater degree of community planning and labor mobilization than has been previously demonstrated for this period; (3) the use of domesticated dogs as sacrificial victims, pack animals, and possibly as food; (4) the importation of exotics from the Gulf Coast, which started during the early Terminal Late Woodland period and reached its peak during the Mississippian period; and (5) numerous everyday objects that do not normally survive the forces of decay, such as bone tools and body ornaments, pieces of fabric, and a very large sample of (dog) coprolites.

This thesis is a morphological and functional analysis of pottery that explores whether technological changes in pottery reflect the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to complex agricultural ones that occurred circa A.D. 1070 in the Black Warrior Valley of Alabama. During the West Jefferson phase (A.D. 1020-1120) of the Late Woodland period, indigenous hunter-gatherer groups lived contemporaneously with, yet peripheral to, the earliest Mississippian agriculturalists and were beginning to adopt some Mississippian traits, including shell-tempered vessels of a shape known as the “standard Mississippian jar.” Although it is well known that Mississippian lifeways gradually replaced those of hunter-gatherers, the processes by which this transition took place are largely unclear. By morphologically and functionally analyzing vessels of this transitional period, this study examines how, or if, technological changes in pottery reflect the adoption and intensification of agriculture by hunter-gatherers. Specifically, it examines whether West Jefferson pottery, the majority of which consists of cooking vessels, reflects a traditional nut-processing technology or if it instead indicates that indigenous groups were essentially copying Mississippian vessel forms and maize-processing technologies.

- by Kareen Hawsey
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- Pottery technology and function, Terminal Late Woodland

Archaeological investigations at the late prehistoric Janey B. Goode site (11S1232) in southwestern Illinois resulted in the recovery of over 5,400 domestic dog (Canis familiaris) remains, representing over 100 individual animals. The substantial size of this well-preserved faunal assemblage allows for a detailed study of Native American dogs during the Late Woodland Patrick phase (A.D. 650-900), Terminal Late Woodland (A.D. 900-1050), and Mississippian (A.D. 1050-1400) periods in the American Bottom. One aspect of this on-going, multifaceted research project is the documentation, analysis, and interpretation of prehistoric trauma and pathologies. This article presents a preliminary summary of the dog paleopathology evidence obtained thus far from the Janey B. Goode site.

- by Steven Kuehn
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- Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Paleopathology, North American archaeology