Pots and People in Motion in Woodland Period Florida

Summary

Populations across northern Florida during the first millennium CE were highly interconnected as evidenced by shared patterns of mortuary practices, material culture, and settlement patterns. Social networks evidently were predicated on common ritual practices that found purchase in diverse and far-flung communities, especially those associated with "Swift Creek" and "Weeden Island" archaeological cultures. Through time, and with an expanding suite of religious practices and paraphernalia, populations across the region became increasingly aggregated in villages and possibly exhibited differentiated social status. Did Woodland period religious movements fuel village aggregations and incipient social inequality?

We test these apparent correlations through a multifaceted study of nearly a dozen burial mound assemblages from across northern peninsular Florida, seeking to infer patterns of human mobility, social interaction and community formation in the context of mortuary rituals. Isotopic analysis of skeletal populations are combined with demographic and life history information from individual secondary interments to model patterns of diet and mobility. Neutron Activation Analysis of pottery, compared with data from clays across the region, is used to source ornate mortuary wares. Results indicate that frequent transport of mortuary pots and possible integration of disparate populations were fundamental to religious expansion and social change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22265