Native American Interaction during the Spanish Contact and Mission Period on the Central Coastal Plain of Georgia, USA, A.D. 1540 to A.D. 1700.

Summary

This paper examines how interaction between Native American groups living in areas of indirect contact changed during the Spanish colonization of the Southeastern United States. The project area, the Big Bend Region of the Ocmulgee River Valley in the central coastal plain of Georgia, had ties to the Spanish mission region in both prehistoric and historic periods, though there was little direct interaction between Spanish missionaries and Native Americans. Using technological style as a theoretical backdrop, I demonstrate how interaction changed through time by defining the step-by-step sequence of ceramic production, from clay selection to final decorative attributes. Results shows that the production sequence changed through time in the region and decorative attributes suggest increasing contact with groups living in coastal Georgia, where there was a string of Spanish missions. Though interaction with other groups may have changed, the potters of Ocmulgee Big Bend remains a relatively cohesive potting group despite the changing world around them, as the effects of European colonization spread through the Southeastern United States.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Investigating Interaction from Tunnacunnhee to Talaje: Papers in Honor of Richard W. Jefferies

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15382