In every region, there are time periods rarely discussed by archaeologists. Early and Middle Woodland Landscapes of the Southeast addresses one such blind spot by not only offering detailed empirical studies but also engaging with cutting-edge theoretical interpretations. Made up of 17 chapters by 24 authors and coauthors, the volume demands a reengagement with the earliest portions of the Woodland period in the U.S. Southeast, a place and time long overlooked by archaeologists who instead often focus their attention on contemporaneous Adena and Hopewell peoples further to the north in the Ohio Valley and elsewhere in the Midwest.
A central theme of the volume is a demand that archaeologists reevaluate the Early and Middle Woodland in the American South under its own terms. The present volume showcases the rich material record and interpretive possibilities of a region that is often thought of as an empirical backwater. The first substantive chapter, written by Applegate (Chapter 2), finds interesting patterns in terms of mobility, the division of sacred and secular space, and the importance of different natural resources when establishing residences by looking at 70 domestic structures from across Kentucky. Similarly rich empirical datasets are found in Franklin and colleagues’ paper (Chapter 5), which draws together OSL and radiometric dates, use-wear on lithic tools, ceramic typology, and the presence of different faunal materials to better understand landscape use in Tennessee.
Many chapters offer novel interpretive lenses, particularly for understanding burial mounds. Clay (Chapter 4) suggests that traditional conceptions of mounds, in which people are memorialized and claims of ownership are manifest, are incorrect because mound builders used these places not as a point of looking back but rather as a place to look forward. Interpreting the sequential use of burial mounds over centuries, Clay posits that burying the dead in earthen constructions marked the place for future gatherings during which people could conduct an extended ritual cycle spanning multiple generations. Likewise, Kimball, Whyte, and Crites (Chapter 8) view earthen formations as accumulations of not only sediments but also relationships between people, nonhuman animals, objects, and place, whereas Keith views mounds as a means of creating a sacred cultural landscape, in part through the deposition and mixture of earth and midden materials. Similar conceptions of a sacred landscape tied together through deposition of objects and the movement and gatherings of people can be found in contributions by Boudreaux (Chapter 10), Eubank (Chapter 11), and Brown (Chapter 16).
Explicit engagement with different temporal and spatial scales is a theme throughout the book, and it is one developed most explicitly by chapters such as Pluckhahn and Thompson's contribution (Chapter 12), in which they paradoxically provide an expansion of scale by looking at three broadly contemporaneous sites—Kolomoki, Crystal River, and Fort Center, spread across almost 1,000 km—even while shrinking the experiential scale to that of an individual visiting and engaging with each of these sites in similar and dissimilar ways. Dekle (Chapter 13) similarly offers a paradoxical yet ultimately productive view of interregional trade across broad landscapes when she suggests such practices were less about broad-scale political manifestations and more about the development of individual identities derived from the ownership and display of “exotic” objects obtained from great distances. Wallis (Chapter 14) likewise promotes an understanding of interregional exchange as reflecting the wills and desires of individuals when he compares how Swift Creek and later Weeden Island groups deployed local and nonlocal pottery in mound contexts. Shifting from a tradition that included vessels from diverse areas and times to only using pottery produced by a select group of people, Wallis describes the ritual and social performances associated with mound activities as becoming increasingly limited and exclusionary over time, possibly reflecting changing power relations.
Henry (Chapter 15) is one of the few to explicitly discuss the political organization of Early and Middle Woodland groups in the Southeast, specifically in northern Kentucky. Contrary to traditional interpretations of mounds and interregional trade as evidence of power centralization, Henry argues that these groups were far more heterarchical, in part because communities were highly mobile and operated within a broader ritual landscape that they were constantly refashioning based on their relations with one another.
In sum, Early and Middle Woodland Landscapes of the Southeast provides an opportunity for archaeologists not working in this region and time to appreciate both the current work being conducted as well as the potential for future studies. The book has been an important contribution to the literature since it was first published in hardcover in 2013, and it well deserves its release as a paperback in 2019.
