Blood in the Waters: Violence in the Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Eastern Woodlands
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)
The Late Prehistoric and Mississippian populations of the Eastern Woodlands were deeply interconnected, engaging in long-distance trade and cultural transmission across great swaths of North America. Groups traded for exotic goods and non-local pottery, sharing the iconography that adorned them. They also traded blows; groups like the Oneota, Mississippians, and Fort Ancient engaged in repeated instances of conflict. Archaeological evidence of conflict is represented by the many palisaded villages throughout the region, and iconography depicting warrior figures. Bioarchaeological evidence of conflict tells a more nuanced story. Skeletal evidence of trophy taking, injury recidivism, lethal and non-lethal trauma, and patterned victimization reveal that conflict in the Eastern Woodlands was not just an on-going series of indiscriminate raids designed to kill and capture helpless victims. Instead, some individuals were off-limits and victims fought off attackers. Aggressors performed a multitude of different acts, lethal and non-lethal, on their targets, attempting to injure and kill some, while killing and maiming others. Papers will focus on the nuanced details of conflict in the Mississippian and Late Prehistoric periods of the Eastern Woodlands, and cover a range of topics including victim identity, types of trauma, and conflict practices as seen through the bioarchaeological record.
Other Keywords
Warfare •
Mississippian •
Oneota •
Violence •
bioarchaeology •
Trauma •
Fort Ancient •
Tennessee •
pre-Columbian •
conflict
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
USA (Country) •
Georgia (State / Territory) •
Mississippi (State / Territory) •
Missouri (State / Territory) •
Tennessee (State / Territory) •
North Carolina (State / Territory) •
Kentucky (State / Territory) •
Illinois (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)
- Documents (6)
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Life and Death among the Late Fort Ancient: Injury Recidivism and Perimortem Trauma at Hardin Village, Kentucky (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Hardin Village is a Fort Ancient site located less than half a kilometer from the south bank of the Ohio River. It was excavated under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration in the late 1930s. The skeletal remains from the Late Middle and Late Fort Ancient Periods (A.D. 1450–1675) represent more than 300 individuals, both male and female, aged neonate to 60+ years. Adult individuals presented a range of possible cranial and post-cranial trauma, including blunt force, sharp force, and...
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Life During Wartime: Children, Violence, and Security at Morton Village (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Children are not immune to the violence of war. They can be incidental victims, prime targets, active participants, beneficiaries of fierce protection, or the recipients of warfare-related symbolic action. Though not subject to the same high rates of violent trauma as their adult counterparts, the available osteological data show that a small number of children interred in the late prehistoric Norris Farms #36 cemetery in Fulton County, Illinois did suffer traumatic injuries, both fatal and...
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A Multi-Site Analysis of Intergroup Violence in East Tennessee of 1300-1600 C.E.: Temporal and Regional Patterns (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
A meta-analysis of deliberate violent trauma (i.e., inflicted projectile points, antemortem blunt force cranial trauma, scalping, body element dismemberment and retrieval) in the human skeletal assemblages of twenty late prehistoric sites (N = 1300+ individuals) was undertaken to determine temporal (Dallas phase [1300-1540 C.E.], Mouse Creek phase [1400-1600 C.E.]) and/or regional patterns within the Ridge-and Valley physiographic province of East Tennessee. The site samples were retrieved from...
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Symbols of Ferociousness: Oneota Trophy Taking (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The late prehistoric Oneota tradition developed and spread rapidly across an immense territory in a very short period of time. That expansion, and the period of territorial stability which followed were marked by violence on large and small scales. Taking of human trophies was an integral component of the violence of the time and was steeped in warrior tradition, religious ritual and symbolism reflecting broadly held ideologies. Trophy taking was likely more common than has been acknowledged....
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Warfare in the Mississippian World: Comparing Variation in War across Small and Multi-Mound Centers (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Warfare during the Mississippian Period (ca. AD 1000-1500) of the U.S. Midcontinent and Southeast has been hypothesized as an important political and social practice throughout the region. This paper will explore diachronic and synchronic evidence of warfare, comparing and contrasting evidence between large and small sites. Particular emphasis will be placed on observations of warfare patterns in the Central Illinois Valley of west-central Illinois. Skeletal remains with warfare-trauma have been...
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The Wheel of Conflict: Physical and Spiritual Permanence of Mississippian Violence (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Violence in the daily lives of individuals in late prehistoric eastern North America took many forms. Exposure to violence was pervasive and persistent. From the time you were born until the time you died you were a witness, a participant, and possibly a victim. In some instances death was a not release. In the Tennessee Valley of northern Alabama two Mississippian sites, Kogers Island (1LU92) and Perry (1LU25), demonstrate a range of evidence for interpolity violence. Familiar examples of...