Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Interaction, Tradition, and Middle Woodland Monumentality at Garden Creek, North Carolina

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Roughly 2000 to 1500 years ago, the southern Appalachian Mountains marked the edges of two spheres of indigenous culture contact and exchange: Hopewell, centered in the Midwest, and the Kolomoki pattern of platform mound ceremonialism, concentrated in the Deep South. Under the direction of her advisor, Dr. Robin Beck, dissertation student Alice Wright will examine the relationships between these interaction spheres and the emergence of monumental architecture at the Middle Woodland period (ca. 300 BC - AD 800) Garden Creek site in western North Carolina. Since monuments are well-known archaeological signposts of novel social, political, and religious institutions, Ms. Wright's research stands to clarify how interactions among far-flung egalitarian communities contributed to profound cultural changes in the pre-Columbian Eastern Woodlands. Garden Creek includes significant archaeological deposits that pre-date and coincide with the construction of earthen mounds and enclosures, as well as large assemblages of local and non-local artifacts, providing an ideal case study for evaluating the roles of both local traditions and non-local influences in shaping unprecedented monument construction. To date, Ms. Wright's research at Garden Creek has involved the re-analysis of large but unpublished artifact collections from the 1965 excavations of Garden Creek Mound No. 2 and five months of fieldwork (2011-2012) targeting areas around the mound. Preliminary analyses of these datasets have focused on evidence for continuity and change in the spatial organization of activities, food production and consumption, and craft production. In this award, several monumental and non-monumental contexts will be radiocarbon dated to link such changes to the history of monument construction at the site. Several stratified features will be examined micromorphologically to clarify the nature and timing of the activities that generated them. Ms. Wright will also coordinate macrobotanical and geoarchaeological (Fourier transform infrared microscopic) analyses by specialists to further refine observations regarding foodways and possible feasting associated with monumentality. Finally, several non-invasive geophysical survey techniques (magnetometry, magnetic susceptibility, ground penetrating radar) will be employed to map the extent of the site and to generate an incomparable view of its monuments and surrounding built environment. The results of this research will form the basis of Wright's dissertation and subsequent publications, and will elucidate the relationships among cross-cultural interactions, monuments, and historical change in ancient Eastern North America (and in comparative case studies worldwide). The project will have broader impacts on the local community that presently inhabits the site and its surroundings, as well as on the non-renewable archaeological resources of western North Carolina. Ms. Wright has worked closely with local residents, the Canton Area Historical Museum, archaeologists at the National Forests of North Carolina, and several regional universities to foster archaeological engagement and stewardship. By developing a museum exhibit on Garden Creek, maintaining a regularly updated blog to report recent findings, hosting a public archaeology day at the site, and presenting talks to local schools and historical societies, the project actively encourages local interest and enthusiasm for archaeological research, essential for insuring the preservation of archaeological resources in the rapidly developing portions of western North Carolina.