Midden among the mounds: An Ongoing Study of Faunal Remains from a Platform Mound and Adjacent Midden at the Garden Patch Site (8DI4)

Summary

This paper presents the faunal composition of a platform mound and adjacent village midden as a means of understanding subsistence, feasting, and ceremony at the pre-Columbian Garden Patch site, a Middle Woodland (ca. AD 100 to 500) multi-mound center located on the northwest gulf coast of Florida. The vertebrate faunal remains from the dense midden of Area X are compared to those of adjacent Mound II, a platform mound constructed of alternating lenses of shell midden and sand. The results of faunal analysis from both contexts highlight the extensive use of marine resources from the neighboring marsh and shallow gulf waters. A series of radiocarbon dates aligned with the stratigraphic distribution of faunal remains within Area X and Mound II suggests that the rapid construction of Mound II coincided with use of the Area X kitchen midden. Given the contemporaneity and proximity of the two assemblages, a comparison between the two contexts allows for an evaluation of the composition of mound strata in terms of potential feasting episodes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Recent Considerations of Coastal Subsistence Practices in the Southeastern USA

Keywords

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