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Stallings Island Revisited: New Evidence for Occupational History, Community Pattern, and Subsistence Technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kenneth E. Sassaman ,
Meggan E. Blessing  and
Asa R. Randall
Kenneth E. Sassaman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Box 117305, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 ([email protected])
Meggan E. Blessing
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Box 117305, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 ([email protected])
Asa R. Randall
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Box 117305, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 ([email protected])
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Abstract

For nearly 150 years Stallings Island, Georgia has figured prominently in the conceptualization of Late Archaic culture in the American Southeast, most notably in its namesake pottery series, the oldest in North America, and more recently, in models of economic change among hunter-gatherer societies broadly classified as the Shell Mound Archaic. Recent fieldwork resulting in new radiocarbon assays from secure contexts pushes back the onset of intensive shellfish gathering at Stallings Island several centuries; enables recognition of a hiatus in occupation that coincides with the regional advent of pottery making; and places abandonment at ca. 3500 B.P. Analysis of collections and unpublished field records from a 1929 Peabody expedition suggests that the final phase of occupation involved the construction of a circular village and plaza complex with household storage and a formalized cemetery, as well as technological innovations to meet the demands of increased settlement permanence. Although there are too few data to assess the degree to which more permanent settlement led to population-resource imbalance, several lines of evidence suggest that economic changes were stimulated by ritual intensification.

Résumé

Résumé

Por cerca de 150 años la isla Stallings de Georgia se destaca de manera prominente por ser la base conceptual de la cultura del Arcaico Tardío en el sureste de Estados Unidos, y que da nombre de la serie cerámica más antigua de Norte América. Tam bién es la base de la definición de los modelos de cambio económicos de sociedades de cazadores recolectores que son clasificadas como el Arcaico de Concheros. En reciente trabajo de campo se han obtenido nuevas fechas de radiocarbono de contextos seguros que ubican los comienzos de la recolección intensiva de moluscos en la isla Stallings varios siglos atrás; permitiendo el conocimiento de un tiempo de ocupación que coincide con el surgimiento de la manufactura de la cerámica, y propone su abandono alrededor del 3500 A. P. Análisis de colecciones e informes de campo sin publicar de la expedición del Peabody en 1929 sugieren que la fase final de ocupación involucra la construcción de aldeas circulares y unos complejos de plaza con sitios de almacenamientos y cementerios formalizados. Así también ocurren innovaciones tecnológicas relacionadas a las demandas de ocupación del asentamiento. Cierto es que hay pocos datos para evaluar el grado de ocupación permanente del asentamiento y como dio paso a un cambio en la relación de población y recursos; varias líneas de evidencia sugieren que los cambios económicos fueron estimulados por la intensificación ritual.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , July 2006 , pp. 539 - 565
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2006 

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