Documenting the Archaeology of Ethnogenesis at the Lynch Site (25BD1), Nebraska

Summary

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

Maize farmers settled the Lynch site in northeastern Nebraska from the late 1200s through the 1300s during a period of significant drought and social, demographic, and economic changes linked to Cahokia’s decline. Oneota groups expanded westward into the central Great Plains during this time as indigenous Central Plains Tradition farmers abandoned the western parts of their ranges and moved east. Lynch and other nearby sites show ceramic patterns suggesting that these two distinct groups may have lived side-by-side, forming new communities with distinct identities. The Lynch site is far larger than sites in the region before or after (it covers at least 69 hectares [170 acres]) and likely represents a fundamental social transformation in the region. Fieldwork in the 1930s and 1950s documents some aspects of the site and provides a baseline for current work. This paper presents the results of geophysical prospecting and new excavations. We document the presence of at least 1300 archaeological anomalies, suggest that the site may be even larger than previously thought, and discuss preliminary analyses of new collections.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24932