Burial Mound as Palimpsest

Summary

Time perspectivism has been defined as "the belief that differing timescales bring into focus different features of behaviour" or "or different sorts of processes." These different behaviors and processes require different concepts and explanatory principles. Criticism of time perspectivism has ranged from seeing it as advocating environmental determinism to it simply being a version of Annales history. Research under the umbrella of time perspectivism has generally focused on processes involving long timescales and on viewing archaeological assemblages as palimpsests. One notable exception is a study of the Hochdorf "princely" grave assemblage, usually considered a closed find, but treated as a palimpsest. Woodland period burial mounds in the American Midwest and Southeast can also be viewed as palimpsests. This paper will evaluate the utility of a time perspectivist approach, refining the manner in which it is applied to closed finds, or more accurately, the assemblage of closed finds which comprises a Woodland burial mound and mound group. The Elizabeth site from the lower Illinois River valley serves as a case study.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage