Mounds, Myths, and Cherokee Townhouses in Southwestern North Carolina

Abstract

This paper explores the role of public architecture in anchoring Cherokee communities to particular points within the southern Appalachian landscape in the wake of European contact in North America. Documentary evidence about Cherokee public structures known as townhouses demonstrates that they were settings for a variety of events related to public life in Cherokee towns, and that there were a variety of symbolic meanings associated with them. Archaeological evidence of Cherokee townhouses—especially the sequence of six townhouses at the Coweeta Creek site in southwestern North Carolina—demonstrates an emphasis on continuity in the placement and alignment of public architecture through time. Building and rebuilding these public structures in place, and the placement of burials within these architectural spaces, created enduring attachments between Cherokee towns and the places in which they lived, in the midst of the geopolitical instability created by European contact in eastern North America.

Household Archaeology in the Southeastern United States: History, Trends, and Challenges

“…Ancestor worship constitutes an area of household ritual frequently discussed in the literature on households in some areas of the world (e.g., McAnnany 1995; Robin 2003, p. 322); it is a growing area of interest among those studying prehistoric and historic native households in the Southeast. A number of studies (e.g., Hally 2008;Hally and Kelly 1998;Krause 1996;Rodning 2007;Schambach 1996) have demonstrated the manner in which the graves of ancestors and the buried remnants of structures may create ''architectural threads weaving generations of houses together'' (Rodning 2007, p. 465). At Coweeta Creek, some houses were rebuilt as many as five times (Rodning 2007).…”

“…A number of studies (e.g., Hally 2008;Hally and Kelly 1998;Krause 1996;Rodning 2007;Schambach 1996) have demonstrated the manner in which the graves of ancestors and the buried remnants of structures may create ''architectural threads weaving generations of houses together'' (Rodning 2007, p. 465). At Coweeta Creek, some houses were rebuilt as many as five times (Rodning 2007). Each time, the structures were shifted only slightly, and the placement of hearths, roof support posts, and entryways remained unchanged.…”

“…4-13;Gillespie 2000Gillespie , 2007. Rodning (2007) makes a case that the Cherokee houses at Coweeta Creek took on this role, based on the evidence of ritual rebuilding cited above. Perhaps more provocatively, Brown (2007) reinterprets the mortuary data from Mound C at the Mississippian site of Etowah in Georgia, arguing that a model of rival, interrelated elite houses fits the archaeological record better than that of a single paramount lineage, as has usually been assumed.…”

Expanding mission archaeology: A landscape approach to indigenous autonomy in colonial California

“…Spatially, native autonomy ranged from intra-site organization to regional settlement patterns and economic connections, to the maintenance of sites of cultural importance and commemoration (Rodning, 2009;Rubertone, 2000). At these different places in the landscape, however, agents may have pursued different strategies based on their age, gender, ethnolinguistic affiliation, or relative social status (Rodríguez-Alegría, 2010).…”

Monumentalization and ritual landscapes at Fort Center in the Lake Okeechobee basin of South Florida

“…Based on the radiocarbon dates, it appears that midden accumulation adjacent to the river, construction of the Great Circle and the other circular ditches, and possibly the construction of an early stage of Mound B are all present around the same time. The construction of these earthworks marks an event in that they fundamentally shift the way in which Fort Center will be viewed by successive generations, as well as the way people connected to this particular place on the landscape (i.e., Rodning's (2009) …”