Hatch Under the direction of Dr. James Hatch, Mr. Adam King will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. The goal of his research is to reconstruct the development of different organizational forms of chiefdoms in the Etowah River Valley of Georgia during the period of ca. AD 950-1550. The Etowah site is famous because of its large size and the raised earthen mounds which it contains. For many years it has provided a focus for archaeology in this region of the U.S. In addition to work at the site however, a number of additional surveys have been conducted and many sites of varying size located. Mr. King will work with these data in an attempt to reconstruct the regional system of which Etowah formed a part and to determine how this developed and changed over time. In particular, he is interested in learning how - and to what extent - the region was integrated into a single political and economic unit. To accomplish this goal, he will synthesize data from past excavations and conduct small scale excavation to fill in several blanks. He will examine size relations among sites to determine the degree to which a hierarchical system existed. He will also focus on the analysis of ceramic assemblages from a large number of sites to determine the extent to which different types of pottery are shared among sites. Pottery provides a good indicator not only exchange but relative status. Archaeologists know that many U.S. prehistoric native American societies were organized into chiefdoms or complex social entities which grouped large numbers of people into organized social units. The large sites and impressive earthworks in the Southeastern U.S. attest to such a large regional system. However it is not clear how it developed and was maintained. The degree to which centralization took place is also not known. Because of long term archaeological interest in this region a great deal of data is available. However it has not been synthesized and Mr. King will undertake t his task. The result will be of interest to many archaeologists. It will shed new light on the growth of complex society and aid in the training of a promising young scientist.
