An Assessment of Central Plains Tradition Ceramic Variation in the Flint Hills Region of the Eastern Plains, USA

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Central Plains tradition (CPt) encompasses a variety of Late Prehistoric adaptations in the eastern Plains between AD 1100 and 1400. Cultural taxa within the CPt often are defined by certain pottery types within defined areas along the Kansas and Missouri River valleys. The Smoky Hill phase is a CPt taxon for the Flint Hills region in the Kansas River valley. Recent studies of particular Smoky Hill phase sites by the authors in the vicinity of the Fort Riley Military Installation have prompted us to reassess their pottery assemblages and temporal placements. Our studies have uncovered a mix of traits in these CPt ceramic complexes that make it difficult to understand whether certain sites reflect an in-situ development, long-distance influence, population intrusion, or multiples of these factors. This paper assesses some of the variation within CPt pottery in the Flint Hills region with a focus on documenting the composition of these assemblages and how their variability relates to recent radiometric dates for the sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25554