Early Human Life on the Southeastern Coastal Plain

by Albert C. Goodyear
Early Human Life on the Southeastern Coastal Plain
Author: Albert C. Goodyear
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2021-04-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1683403010
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Bringing together major archaeological research projects from Virginia to Alabama, this volume explores the rich prehistory of the Southeastern Coastal Plain. Contributors consider how the region’s warm weather, abundant water, and geography have long been optimal for the habitation of people beginning 50,000 years ago. They highlight demographic changes and cultural connections across this wide span of time and space. New data are provided here for many sites, including evidence for human settlement before the Clovis period at the famous Topper site in South Carolina. Contributors track the progression of sea level rise that gradually submerged shorelines and landscapes, and they discuss the possibility of a comet collision that triggered the Younger Dryas cold reversion and contributed to the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna like mastodons and mammoths. Essays also examine the various stone materials used by prehistoric foragers, the location of chert quarries, and the details stone tools reveal about social interaction and mobility. This volume synthesizes more than fifty years of research and addresses many of today’s controversial questions in the archaeology of the early Southeast, such as the sudden demise of the Clovis technoculture and the recognition of the mysterious "Middle Paleoindian" period. Contributors: Robert J. Austin | Mark J. Brooks |Christopher R. Moore | I. Randolph Daniel, Jr. | Joseph E. Wilkinson | Joseph Schuldenrein | Allen West | David K. Thulman | James K. Feathers | Terry E. Barbour II | Douglas Sain | Thomas A. Jennings | Albert C. Goodyear | Andrew H. Ivester | Dr. Malcolm A. LeCompte | Adam M. Burke | James S. Dunbar | Jon Endonino | Richard Estabrook | H. Blaine Ensor | A. Victor Adedeji | Douglas J. Kennett | Ashley M. Smallwood | Kara Bridgman Sweeney | Sam Upchurch | James P. Kennett | Wendy S. Wolbach | M. Scott Harris | Ted Bunch | David G. Anderson | C. Andrew Hemmings | James. M. Adovasio | Dr. Frank J. Vento | Dr. Anthony J. Vega

Early Human Life on the Southeastern Coastal Plain

by Albert C. Goodyear
Early Human Life on the Southeastern Coastal Plain
Author: Albert C. Goodyear
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre: Archaeology
ISBN: 9781683401001
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This text is a collection of articles written by established researchers on the early prehistory of the Coastal Plain of the Southeastern US.

The American Southeast at the End of the Ice Age

by D. Shane Miller
The American Southeast at the End of the Ice Age
Author: D. Shane Miller
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2022-08-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817321284
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"In 1996, the University of Alabama Press published a prodigious benchmark volume, The Paleoindian and Early Archaic Southeast, edited by David G. Anderson and Kenneth E. Sassaman. It was the first to provide a state-by-state record of the Paleolithic and early Archaic eras (to approximately 8,000 years ago) in this region as well as models to interpret data excavated from those eras. It summarized what was known of the peoples who lived in the Southeast when ice sheets covered the northern part of the continent and mammals such as elephants, saber-toothed tigers, and ground sloths roamed the landscape. In the United States, the Southeast has some of most robust data on these eras. The American Southeast at the End of the Ice Age is the updated, definitive synthesis of current archaeological research gleaned from an array of experts in the region. The volume is organized in three parts: state records, the regional perspective, and perspective and future directions. State-by-state chapter overviews of the eras are followed by chapters with regional coverage on lithics (point types), submerged archaeology, gatherers, megafauna, chipped-stone technology, and spatial demography. Chapters on ethical concerns regarding the use of data from avocational collections, insight from outside the Southeast, and considerations for future research round out the volume. The contributors address five questions: When did people first arrive? How did they get there? Who were they? How did they adapt to local resources and environmental change? Then what?"--

Early and Middle Woodland Landscapes of the Southeast

by Alice P. Wright
Early and Middle Woodland Landscapes of the Southeast
Author: Alice P. Wright
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813065283
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Fourteen in-depth case studies incorporate empirical data with theoretical concepts such as ritual, aggregation, and place-making, highlighting the variability and common themes in the relationships between people, landscapes, and the built environment that characterize this period of North American native life in the Southeast.

Paleoindian Societies of the Coastal Southeast

by James S. Dunbar
Paleoindian Societies of the Coastal Southeast
Author: James S. Dunbar
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813065313
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The late Pleistocene-early Holocene landscape hosted more species and greater numbers of them in the Southeast compared to any other region in North America at that time. Yet James Dunbar posits that a misguided reliance on using Old World origins to validate New World evidence has stalled research in this area. Rejecting the one-size-fits-all approach to Pleistocene archaeological sites, Dunbar analyzes five areas of contextual data—stratigraphy; chronology; paleoclimate; the combined consideration of habitat, resource availability, and subsistence; and artifacts and technology—to resolve unanswered questions surrounding the Paleoindian occupation of the Americas. Through his extensive research, Dunbar demonstrates a masterful understanding of the lifeways of the region’s people and the animals they hunted, showing that the geography and diversity of food sources was unique to that period. He suggests that the most important archaeological and paleontological resources in the Americas still remain undiscovered in Florida’s karst river basins. Building a case for the wealth of information yet to be unearthed, he provides a fresh perspective on the distant past and an original way of thinking about early life on the land mass we call Florida. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

Time, Typology, and Point Traditions in North Carolina Archaeology

by I. Randolph Daniel
Time, Typology, and Point Traditions in North Carolina Archaeology
Author: I. Randolph Daniel
Publisher: University Alabama Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2021-03-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0817320865
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A reconsideration of the seminal projectile point typology In the 1964 landmark publication The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont, Joffre Coe established a projectile point typology and chronology that, for the first time, allowed archaeologists to identify the relative age of a site or site deposit based on the point types recovered there. Consistent with the cultural-historical paradigm of the day, the “Coe axiom” stipulated that only one point type was produced at one moment in time in a particular location. Moreover, Coe identified periods of “cultural continuity” and “discontinuity” in the chronology based on perceived similarities and differences in point styles through time. In Time, Typology, and Point Traditions in North Carolina Archaeology: Formative Cultures Reconsidered, I. Randolph Daniel Jr. reevaluates the Coe typology and sequence, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. Daniel reviews the history of the projectile point type concept in the Southeast and revisits both Coe’s axiom and his notions regarding cultural continuity and change based on point types. In addition, Daniel updates Coe’s typology by clarifying or revising existing types and including types unrecognized in Coe’s monograph. Daniel also adopts a practice-centered approach to interpreting types and organizes them into several technological traditions that trace ancestral- descendent communities of practice that relate to our current understanding of North Carolina prehistory. Appealing to professional and avocational archaeologists, Daniel provides ample illustrations of points in the book as well as color versions on a dedicated website. Daniel dedicates a final chapter to a discussion of the ethical issues related to professional archaeologists using private artifact collections. He calls for greater collaboration between professional and avocational communities, noting the scientific value of some private collections.

The Historical Turn in Southeastern Archaeology

by Robbie Ethridge
The Historical Turn in Southeastern Archaeology
Author: Robbie Ethridge
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1683401905
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This volume uses case studies to capture the recent emphasis on history in archaeological reconstructions of America’s deep past. Previously, archaeologists studying “prehistoric” America focused on long-term evolutionary change, imagining ancient societies like living organisms slowly adapting to environmental challenges. Contributors to this volume demonstrate how today’s researchers are incorporating a new awareness that the precolonial era was also shaped by people responding to historical trends and forces. Essays in this volume delve into sites across what is now the United States Southeast—the St. Johns River Valley, the Gulf Coast, Greater Cahokia, Fort Ancient, the southern Appalachians, and the Savannah River Valley. Prominent scholars of the region highlight the complex interplay of events, human decision-making, movements, and structural elements that combined to shape native societies. The research in this volume represents a profound shift in thinking about precolonial and colonial history and begins to erase the false divide between ancient and contemporary America. Contributors: Susan M. Alt | Robin Beck | Eric E. Bowne | Robert A. Cook | Robbie Ethridge | Jon Bernard Marcoux | Timothy R. Pauketat | Thomas J. Pluckhahn | Asa R. Randall | Christopher B. Rodning | Kenneth E. Sassaman | Lynne P. Sullivan | Victor D. Thompson | Neill J. Wallis | John E. Worth A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

New Directions in the Search for the First Floridians

by David K. Thulman
New Directions in the Search for the First Floridians
Author: David K. Thulman
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2019-05-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1683400801
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Presenting the most current research and thinking on prehistoric archaeology in the Southeast, this volume reexamines some of Florida’s most important Paleoindian sites and discusses emerging technologies and methods that are necessary knowledge for archaeologists working in the region today. Using new analytical methods, contributors explore fresh perspectives on sites including Old Vero, Guest Mammoth, Page-Ladson, and Ray Hole Spring. They discuss the role of hydrology—rivers, springs, and coastal plain drainages—in the history of Florida’s earliest inhabitants. They address both the research challenges and the unique preservation capacity of the state’s many underwater sites, suggesting solutions for analyzing corroded lithic artifacts and submerged midden deposits. Looking towards future research, archaeologists discuss strategies for finding additional pre-Clovis and Clovis-era sites offshore on the southeastern continental shelf. The search is important, these essays show, because Florida’s prehistoric sites hold critical data for the debate over the nature and timing of the first human colonization of the Western Hemisphere.

New Histories of Village Life at Crystal River

by Thomas J. Pluckhahn
New Histories of Village Life at Crystal River
Author: Thomas J. Pluckhahn
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2018-05-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1683400631
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This volume explores how native peoples of the Southeastern United States cooperated to form large and permanent early villages, using the site of Crystal River on Florida's Gulf Coast as a case study. Crystal River was once among the most celebrated sites of the Woodland period (ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1000), consisting of ten mounds and large numbers of diverse artifacts from the Hopewell culture. But a lack of research using contemporary methods at this site and nearby Roberts Island limited a full understanding of what these sites could tell scholars. Thomas Pluckhahn and Victor Thompson reanalyze previous excavations and conduct new field investigations to tell the whole story of Crystal River from its beginnings as a ceremonial center, through its growth into a large village, to its decline at the turn of the first millennium while Roberts Island and other nearby areas thrived. Comparing this community to similar sites on the Gulf Coast and in other areas of the world, Pluckhahn and Thompson argue that Crystal River is an example of an "early village society." They illustrate that these early villages present important evidence in a larger debate regarding the role of competition versus cooperation in the development of human societies. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series