Assessing Complexity through Architectural Analysis at Angel Mounds

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Angel Mounds (12VG1) is a fortified Mississippian multi-mound center on the Ohio River in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. With 11 mounds, hundreds of residential structures, a prepared plaza, and massive daubed palisade wall, previous researchers have suggested Angel is at the top of a complex regional settlement hierarchy in the Ohio Valley. However, to-date, research has concluded that there is little evidence for hierarchy off of the site’s mounds. Recent detailed analysis of size, shape, orientation, internal features, and reconstruction episodes of architecture from Glenn A. Black’s WPA era excavations demonstrates distinctions indicative of a more complex social organization than previously thought. Comparisons with regional hinterland sites provide further evidence of complex socio-spatial practices that enacted regional integration across the Angel polity. In this paper, we present recently digitized architectural data from Angel Mounds that reveal details and variation overlooked by previous analyses, and discuss our results within the context of region-wide architectural patterns.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33456