Referencing the Archaic on a Woodland Landscape on Florida’s Northern Gulf Coast

Summary

During a period of uniformity in ceremonial practices, coastal dwellers of the Lower Suwannee diverged from the architectural norm. Although these coastal people were under the larger influence of Woodland-period traditions, their construction efforts continued to follow ancestral ideals in the form shell rings and ridges. Here I argue that differences in terraforming practices along Florida’s Northern Gulf Coast were a citation to a revered and observed local history formulated by natural features of their aquatic landscape. I do so by drawing on concepts borrowed from theories of landscape and memory as practice with a case study of Shell Mound, a Woodland-period civic-ceremonial center, which until recently has been overlooked due to its coastal qualities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21352