Lithic Material Use in the Upper Yadkin River Valley and Its Implications for Southeastern Late Woodland Exchange Networks

Summary

Mississippian and Piedmont Village Tradition (PVT) communities contemporaneously occupied the North Carolina and Virginia Piedmont and adjacent areas from AD 1100-1600. Discussions of trade and exchange, however, tend to focus on Mississippian political economies. Previous work at PVT sites has identified non-local lithic materials, some moving between Mississippian and PVT areas, suggesting a regional network that included both cultures. Our work focuses on the fourteenth-century Redtail site (31Yd173), a small, dispersed PVT settlement in the upper Yadkin River Valley. We compare total proportions of local to non-local materials between Redtail and other sites in the valley to examine variations in material use over time and space. We also examine the context, spatial arrangement, and material type of different tools to understand how access to particular materials influenced their use at this site. This work provides new information on PVT exchange behavior, which is critical to understanding the complete scope and structure of Southeastern regional trade networks. The influence of Tom and Charlotte’s approach to research, teaching, and mentoring is apparent throughout every aspect of this project, from the analytical methods to the collaborative approach that values undergraduate students as legitimate scholars.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Toolstone Papers in Honor of the Careers of Charlotte Beck and George T. Jones

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15426