Graduation Year

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Anthropology

Major Professor

Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Ph.D.

Committee Member

E. Christian Wells, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Nancy White, Ph.D.

Keywords

Archaeology, Built Environment, Circular Village, Civic-Ceremonial Center, Georgia, Woodland Period

Abstract

In southeastern North America, the Woodland period (ca. 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1050) was arguably witness to the first early village societies, and Kolomoki—located in southwestern Georgia—is among the largest villages during this interval. Though archaeologists recognize these communities as seminal developments in the course of human history, little attention has been paid to how they develop and vary internally. This thesis seeks to address these issues by focusing on the development and social construction of the early village community at Kolomoki. The results of an excavation program carried out within Kolomoki’s South Village affords a clearer picture of this understudied area, and provides supplemental collections to previous work at the site. New radiocarbon dates suggest a dynamic developmental sequence of Kolomoki’s village, starting as a relatively compact village sometime around the second century A.D., and growing to a massive scale around the seventh or eighth century A.D. Comparisons of various classes of material cultural provide evidence for contrasts between occupation along Kolomoki’s northern and southern enclosures, interpreted as differing uses of space by an internally differentiated community.

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