Establishing Provenance and Population Movements of the Vacant Quarter Phenomenon through Ceramic Traditions

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Scaling Potting Networks: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Petrography " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Vacant Quarter is a phenomenon that involved the movement of hundreds, possibly thousands, of sedentary communities in mid-continental North America during the Mississippian period (~AD 1450–1550). Many of the details surrounding this phenomenon are still debated. This study narrows in on two subregions of the Vacant Quarter: (1) the Upper Tombigbee River drainage in Mississippi and Alabama and (2) the Middle Cumberland River drainage in Tennessee. This pilot study analyzes an assemblage of shell-tempered ceramics from multiple archaeological sites in these two subregions. Petrographic analysis is used to determine provenance as well as to understand whether elements of the ceramic manufacturing process were consistent between sites. Ultimately, these analyses will shed light on subregional differences in population flows prior to the Vacant Quarter abandonment that potentially reflect climatic, ecological, or social instability that may have preceded the event. This research may also clarify the speed (gradual or fast) and nature of the abandonment (constant or oscillating), as well as potential patterns of political factionalism or coalescence prior to the abandonment. Preliminary analysis shows site specific recipes that likely utilize local clays, although similar shell preparation strategies seem to have been used across all sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Scaling Potting Networks: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Petrography   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32889