Tornadoes as an Impetus of Social Change in the Eastern United States
Author(s): Robert Williams
Year: 2024
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Mississippian and related sedentary settlements in the eastern United States often appear unstable in the archaeological record. The eastern US is also in the most tornadically active area on earth. Tornadoes have been an impetus of settlement and social change in both the historic and modern era. Using 50 years of data collected by the National Weather Service, I demonstrate that it is probable that tornadoes effected many precolonial settlements in the American South. These effects could further expand on the unstable nature of Mississippian settlements, polities, and region as a whole.
Cite this Record
Tornadoes as an Impetus of Social Change in the Eastern United States. Robert Williams. Presented at The 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2024 ( tDAR id: 499687)
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Keywords
Geographic Keywords
North America: Southeast United States
Spatial Coverage
min long: -93.735; min lat: 24.847 ; max long: -73.389; max lat: 39.572 ;
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 39282.0