Researchers from Florida Archaeology will be presenting on a number of topics at the upcoming Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Augusta, Georgia, November 14-17. See abstracts below. A full list of Florida Museum SEAC participants is available here.

Full conference program here.

Thursday Morning, November 15

[2] Symposium: Practicing Pottery: Method and Theory in Southeastern Ceramic Analysis, Part I

10:40 Duke, C. Trevor, Neill J. Wallis, and Ann S. Cordell, Pots that Gather: Repositioning Ceramic Analysis in the Florida Mississippian

Archaeological analyses typically focus on finished products (e.g. pots). By this line of reasoning, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Yet, some archaeologists now view things as gatherings of different properties and history. Pots were the points at which temporalities, social structures, and physical properties intersected, but many contemporary approaches to ceramic analysis fail to recognize this complexity. We use petrographic analysis to deconstruct the sociomaterial constituents of Mississippian period grog-tempered pottery from the Florida Gulf Coast, and chart the implications of this approach for understanding vessel provenance, technology, and social history in the region.

[4] Symposium: Ongoing Research on St. Catherines Island, GA

9:00 Ruhl, Donna L., Opportunistic Foraging or Enhancing Landscapes: An Effort to Assess the Paleoethnobotany of St. Catherines Island Archaic Period Islanders

This paper addresses an understudied aspect of subsistence practices at shell ring sites on St. Catherines Island. Most shell rings contain large quantities of zooarchaeological remains with archaeobotanical remains being less studied or well preserved. Macrobotanical remains from St. Catherines (9LI231) and McQueen (9LI1648) shell rings were recovered using comparable research recovery strategies and processing methods. Data indicate that the contemporaneous Archaic period plant assemblages were not necessarily identical and that the taxa present while in part the result of differential preservation may also reflect differences of use and function.

9:20 Sanger, Matthew, and Ginessa Mahar, Landscapes of Reverence: Surveys around the St. Catherines Island Shell Rings

Built across the southeastern coastline, archaeologists debate the function of Late Archaic shell rings. We provide results of research around two shell rings with two important findings. First, no contemporaneous deposits were encountered, suggesting that rings were not specialized use-areas built by people living nearby. The second is that later island residents rarely deposited objects near the rings, and virtually never on them. Considering both rings were located on highly productive locales, and that there are later occupations nearby, we suggest later island residents considered the rings to be powerful locales that they treated with reverence.

[7] Symposium: Ancient Modalities of the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida: Recent Results of the Lower Suwannee Archaeological Survey

8:40 Donop, Mark C., Sacred Nexus: Palmetto Mound, the Lower Suwannee, and Beyond

Palmetto Mound (8LV2) is an inconspicuous mortuary mound on a small island in the Lower Suwannee that played an important part in cyclic gatherings and widespread social networks for two millennia (ca. 700 B.C. to A.D. 1300). The site was placed on the distal arm of a parabolic dune with cosmological significance, as were earlier Late Archaic cemeteries. Palmetto Mound gradually expanded and became
an essential component of the Shell Mound civic-ceremonial center from A.D. 200–650. Afterward, the mortuary mound received dense deposits of Weeden Island ceramics and other objects, many extra-local, and remained active into the Mississippian period.

9:00 Sassaman, Kenneth E., Meggan E. Blessing, Joshua M. Goodwin, Jessica A. Jenkins, Anthony Boucher, Terry M. Barbour, II, Ginessa J. Mahar, and Mark C. Donop, Ritual Economies of Cosmic Synchronicity: Solstice Events at a Civic- Ceremonial Center on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida

Judging from zooarchaeological analyses to date, maritime economies of the ancient Southeast were centered on collection of small fish and intertidal shellfish. However, at various times and places, large, temporary gatherings of people exceeded the capacity of everyday procurement. At Shell Mound (8LV42) on the northern Gulf coast of Florida, large fish, seabirds, marine turtles, and cultured oysters were harvested in mass quantities to provision gatherings at summer solstices. Beyond the synchronization enabled by solar cycles, solstice orientations were inscribed in the landscape of parabolic dunes, where cemeteries were emplaced long before Shell Mound became a place of large gatherings.

Thursday Afternoon, November 15

[13] Symposium: Practicing Pottery: Method and Theory in Southeastern Ceramic Analysis, Part II

1:20 Wallis, Neill, Ann Cordell, and Thomas Pluckhahn, Integrated Analyses of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped Pottery and the Challenges of Sourcing Research

In some ways, Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery is an ideal medium for studying Woodland period social networks of the Deep South. But attempting to unlock the full research potential of this pottery type reveals several interpretative and methodological challenges. Here we focus on the provenance of pottery and consider the limits of archaeological inference. We present results of petrographic analysis of 271 pottery vessels from 45 sites across Florida and Georgia, and compare to NAA, paddle matches, and vessel form data to showcase the power of a multi-method integrated approach to pottery provenance research.

[14] Symposium: Finding Middle Ground: Emerging Ideas About Interior Wetlands Florida, Part II

2:40 Cordell, Ann, and Lindsay Bloch, St. Johns Chalky-Ware Pottery: a Florida Pottery Tradition

St. Johns Series chalky-ware pottery has great longevity (late Archaic to contact) and widespread occurrence in Florida. This ware is characterized by an abundance of sponge spicules and relatively soft or chalky texture. Its production may be unique to Florida, as it is found only rarely elsewhere in the southeastern US. This paste type also comprises the Papys Bayou series, Little Manatee Series, Sarasota Incised, and even some Orange fiber-tempered pottery. Recent petrographic and elemental analyses of St. Johns pottery document variability across the state, prompting the updating of traditional ideas regarding production and manufacturing origins of this ware.

[17] General Session: Historic Period Research, Part II

Chair: Lindsay Bloch

1:20 Bloch, Lindsay, An Elemental Analysis of Thomas Chandler’s Alkaline-Glazed Stoneware from the Old Edgefield District, SC

The prolific 19th-century potter Thomas Chandler has been credited with contributing a variety of technological and decorative skills to the alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition of Edgefield, South Carolina. Archaeological investigations have uncovered marked evidence of his manufactures at several kiln sites throughout the district. Furthermore, many of his vessels with ne celadon glazes and slip-trailing
still survive. Here, handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) was used to investigate elemental variation in Chandler’s products through time and space. The results suggest both distinct geographic patterning of raw materials related to local geological boundaries, and Chandler’s development of distinct recipes for ceramic components.

[21] Poster General Session: Zooarchaeological Research, 3:00pm – 5:00pm

Mahar, Ginessa J., Developing Allometric Equations: From Ocean to Equation

Archaeologists use allometric equations to estimate animal size from measurements of skeletal elements. Size estimates inform on the dietary contribution of particular taxa, the sustainability of exploitation, technology used to capture prey, etc. Currently, many allometric equations are based on generalized, family level data, leading to gross or inaccurate approximations for particular species. This is often due to the limitations of extant reference collections. This poster presents the stages and results of a multi-faceted project to generate species specific allometric equations for select marine fish, utilizing museum and laboratory collections, and freshly macerated specimens from the Gulf of Mexico.

Saturday Morning, November 17

[44] General Session: Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany

11:40 Jackson, Kendal, Thomas Pluckhahn, and C. Trevor Duke, Fisher Folk and Wetland Foragers: A Multi-Proxy Study of Coastal Wetland Plant Use at the Crystal River Site (8CI1), Florida

The ancient fisher-hunter-gatherers of Florida’s peninsular Gulf Coast are well known for their
elaborate shell mound architecture, maritime lifeways, and participation within interregional exchange. Paleoenthobotanists working on this coast have identified a ubiquitous suite of terrestrial plants harvested by ancient coastal villagers; however, they lament that various wetland flora, to date, remain invisible in the archaeological record. In this study, centered at the Crystal River site (8CI1), we bring together faunal, microfaunal, and microbotanical evidence to suggest that wetland flora – including many with edible tubers or rhizomes – were utilized on the peninsular Gulf Coast during the first millennium A.D.