Macrobotanical Analysis of Archaeological Excavations at the Moundville (1Tu500) Riverbank

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This project looks at plant remains from an archaeological site, Moundville (1Tu500), in the Black Warrior River Valley of west central Alabama. Over centuries of occupation (AD 1020-1650), the people of the Black Warrior River Valley experienced profound changes in population size and social organization. Signatures of past peoples co-mediating demographic and political changes may be visible archaeologically in plant remains. For this research project, I analyzed macrobotanical remains, such as seeds, nuts, and other plant remains visible to the naked eye, collected during the 2017, 2018, and 2019 field seasons at the northernmost periphery of the site. Exploring changes in plant use over time helps disentangle plant-related activities and gain insight into the past lives of people at Moundville. I identified taxa presence, abundance, and density, and compared my work to previous work that was completed in the region during the 1980s and 1990s. New theoretical lenses and improved recovery techniques demand refreshed scholarship on the site’s food systems and human-plant interactions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39985.0