With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Thomas Pluckhahn, Victor Thompson, and Brent Weisman will conduct archaeological research at the Crystal River site, a mound complex on the Gulf Coast of Florida dating primarily to the Woodland period (ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1000). Crystal River has long been noted as one of the most important sites in North America, but remains poorly understood due to the limited scope and under-reporting of previous investigations. The research objective is to examine the dynamic between cooperation and competition in the formation of early village societies. This topic has rarely been a focus of concerted study, although notions regarding competition and cooperation are implicit in archaeological theories of human societies. In the few instances where the topic has been directly addressed, the focus has primarily been on chiefdoms and states, where competitive and cooperative practices were already institutionalized.
The study will evaluate spatial and temporal variation in three categories of material remains: prestige goods, public architecture, and feasting debris. The goal is to determine whether these remains are spatially restricted and temporally punctuated (indicating greater competition) or open-access and regularly scheduled (indicating greater cooperation.) The project will employ two methods for accomplishing a fine-grained study of these remains, while respecting the need for site conservation: 1) comprehensive reanalysis of the collections from previous investigations; and, 2) systematic, minimally invasive new field work to both correct the biases and limited scope of previous studies. The field investigations include geophysical survey, coring, and test excavations. Laboratory analyses include a variety of archaeological dating techniques, as well as studies to determine season of occupation and rate of deposition.
The research contributes to the understanding of the dynamic between competition and cooperation in human societies---one of the foremost issues in the social sciences. The project also contributes to the study of social complexity through focused study of early villages, precursors to better-studied ranked and stratified societies. Finally, the project contributes to the understanding of Crystal River and related sites of the Woodland period on the Gulf Coast, an area and time period marked by one of the most distinctive, yet least understood, material culture complexes in the prehistory of North America.
The proposed research has broader impacts in education, within academia and beyond. Undergraduate and graduate training are given priority; this training includes both specialized techniques and traditional archaeological methods. Affiliations with the Florida Public Archaeology Network and the Public Archaeology program at the University of South Florida provide a ready-made infrastructure for the involvement of the general public in the research, and a framework for the training of graduate students in the theory and method of public archaeology. Finally, the insights that will be generated through the proposed study will be applied to enhancing on-site museum displays, signs, and brochures, better interpreting for the general public one of the nation's most important archaeological sites.
The project was designed to evaluate the nature of early village formation along the central Florida Gulf Coast. The research focused on the site of Crystal River, but relatively intensive work was also conducted at the neighboring mound site of Roberts Island and less substantial investigations were undertaken at a few other sites in the region. Previous research across the southeastern United States shows that between BC500 and AD1000 there was a large-scale restructuring of social life with permanent, year-round villages emerging across the landscape. Using different analytical techniques, we evaluated the timing and chronology of daily refuse and the constructions of monumental shell architecture in the area. The major findings of our research are as follows: We defined four major phases of occupations based on extensive radiocarbon dating and sampling of the mounds and middens at both Roberts Island and Crystal River. Based on our analysis of these dates, we calculated the rate of midden (i.e., domestic refuse) for each phase. It appears that Crystal River was used primarily for burial rituals during its early occupation (AD 125-242) with only sporadic occupation. However, once the village was established during the second phase (AD 238-499) it grew rapidly, rather than from a gradual expansion. Subsequently, the layout of the site became more structured and formal and its occupants engaged in large-scale monumental constructions of earth and shell. In the third (AD 521-747) phase, settlement declined at Crystal River, although mound construction continued. In the final phase (AD 779-982) Roberts Island eclipsed Crystal River as a center for settlement and ceremony. Changes in bone and shell tools and ceramics track these changes in occupational intensity. The stable isotope data from oysters from the middens at both Roberts Island and Crystal River indicate year-round occupation during some phases with more seasonal use of these sites during others. These data corroborate our findings based on our calculated accumulation rates. In addition during the later part of the occupation of Crystal River and Roberts Islands our findings indicate that the occupants of these sites lived there permanently throughout the year. The stable isotope data from oysters from the mounds at Roberts Islands and Crystal River indicates that mound construction generally seem to occur during the cooler months of the year. Unlike the midden areas that mostly evidenced year-round collection and consumption of oysters, the ones tested from the mounds were weighted more towards winter collection. We argue that it would have been during this time that feasts and rituals associated with mound building took place. It is also likely that it was during this time of the year when oysters and other resources were at their peak, allowing for large scale surplus collections to support such feasts. 4. Both our remote sensing survey and our excavations of the mounds show complex construction techniques that are previously unknown for contemporary sites in the region. At both Crystal River and Roberts Island we observed new techniques and innovations in Native American architecture. We found that at Crystal River the occupants used a variety of construction materials including the incorporation of alternating sand construction stages within shell mound architecture. At Roberts Island we observed two stepped shell platform mounds, an unheard of form of mound construction in the southeastern United States. Many of the mounds appear to have been constructed quickly, in coordinated labor efforts probably tied to seasonal aggregations. We found no evidence of exclusionary architecture on the summits of the mounds. We found that shifts in the intensity of occupation of each site varied with changes in environmental conditions. Based on our dating, it appears that as Crystal River began declining, the Roberts Island site supplanted it as the major ceremonial center in the region. We believe that the shift to Roberts Island was motivated in large part by changes in sea level (with occupation on the island being closer to shellfish beds located nearer to the Gulf of Mexico), rather than competition between the two mound centers. These findings when situated within the larger body of knowledge of what we know about early villages in the region provide insight into the nature of such societies. First, it appears that large-scale periodic rituals in the form of burial ceremonies pre-dated the emergence of sedentary communities. Second, once established these places were not easily abandoned and lasted for centuries. Third, the formation of large-villages formed rapidly. Fourth, given the lack of evidence for conflict in the region, it appears that these traditions and practices developed in a context unlike those of other the coalescent societies, which form in periods of hostility and which frequently include collective defense and fortifications. These observations contribute to the growing body of knowledge on how early villages formed and persisted over long time frames.
