Dirt Archaeology and Big Histories - Tacking Between Details and Impacts of Tim Pauketat’s Career in Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The lengthy and illustrious career of Timothy Pauketat has spanned decades of research in the American Bottom of Illinois. Rooted in meticulous methodology and a “dirt archaeologist” at heart, Tim’s theoretical scholarship has ranged broadly. Here we focus on the two decades in which Tim’s teachings have shaped our own work, specifically the emphasis on scale and history, as well as centering religion and alternate ontologies in historical processes. From our initial work together excavating structures at eastern upland shrine sites to exploring Cahokia’s missionizing sites in the hinterlands of Wisconsin, we consider the ways in which we can work from detailed data to big-picture histories. During this era of Tim’s influence, we recognize the ways in which considering Cahokia through the lens of urbanism reframed our understanding of the site’s impacts beyond the American Bottom.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50864