Enduring Traditions and the (Im)materiality of Early Colonial Encounters in the Southeastern United States

Abstract

Hernando de Soto's expedition through the southeastern United States between 1539 and 1543 is often regarded as a watershed moment for the collapse of Indigenous societies across the region. Historical narratives have proposed that extreme depopulation as a result of early contact destabilized Indigenous economies, politics, networks, and traditions. Although processes of depopulation and transformation were certainly set in motion by this and earlier colonial encounters, the timing, temporality, and heterogeneous rhythms of postcontact Indigenous histories remain unclear. Through the integration of radiocarbon and archaeological data from the Mississippian earthen platform mound at Dyar (9GE5) in central Georgia, we present a case of Indigenous endurance and resilience in the Oconee Valley that has long been obfuscated by materially based chronologies and typologies. Bayesian chronological modeling suggests that Indigenous Mississippian traditions persisted for up to 130 years beyond contact with European colonizers. We argue that advances in modeling radiocarbon dates, along with meaningful consultation/collaboration with descendant communities, can contribute to efforts that move us beyond a reliance on materially based chronologies that can distort and erase Indigenous histories.

The role of radiocarbon dating in advancing Indigenous-led archaeological research agendas

“…AMS dating of potential "contact-era" and early colonial sites that do not yield European trade goods can defy traditional artefactbased relative dating. People did not always leave materials behind when using or constructing a place or acquire Europeanmanufactured goods when they appeared elsewhere in the landscape (Manning et al, 2018;Holland-Lulewicz et al, 2020). In fact, there may be cultural aversion or resistance to incorporating European goods that is often overlooked in estimating the ages of sites.…”

“…Generally, archaeologists constructed these chronologies early in the heyday of the development of culture-histories without a deeper consideration of sampling, recovery rates, nor the complex economic behaviours that governed the distribution and consumption of European goods. As recent research demonstrates, Indigenous peoples variously incorporated or rejected European goods (Birch et al, 2021;Holland-Lulewicz et al, 2020;Manning et al, 2018Manning and Hart, 2019;Panich and Schneider, 2019). The singular importance of the assumed desire to engage in trade with Europeans also overlooks the fact that such objects often travelled along preexisting Indigenous longdistance trade networks and that the disruptions of the early colonial era variously served to cement or disrupt preexisting economic structures.…”

Broken Worlds: Towards an Archaeology of the Shatter Zone

“…It is important to note, however, that the decline of these chiefdoms was not uniform and that the ability of communities to adapt to, resist, or pre-empt change would have varied across and within polities. As noted above, the adaptive cycles of the panarchy often move asynchronously, meaning that communities would have maintained varying levels of resilience-for varying amounts of time-in the face of changing conditions (see Holland-Lulewicz et al, 2020). Some, such as the paramount chiefdom of Coosa, appear to have weathered the initial impacts of the entrada only to later suffer the disastrous consequences of commercial slaving and epidemics that swept through the region during the seventeenth century (Ethridge, 2009a: 9).…”

Finding Archaeological Relevance during a Pandemic and What Comes After

“…Their conclusions are supported by well-resolved palynological records showing no evidence for “rewilding,” or decreases in agricultural production, as they did following the Black Death. The use of multiple environmental and material culture datasets to challenge narratives of disease has also been employed in North America to demonstrate the resistance and resilience of Indigenous populations rather than their disappearance (Holland-Lulewicz et al 2020).…”