Storage and relative surplus at the Mississippian site of Moundville

In the shadow of Moundville: A bioarchaeological view of the transition to agriculture in the central Tombigbee valley of Alabama and Mississippi

“…Regular and frequent contact between sites, from trade, provisioning, and/or post-marital residence would have increased relative pathogen exchange, particularly nearest centers, subsequently resulting in a rise in systemic infections (e.g., tuberculosis and treponematosis) across groups, even smaller ones. Sites extensively provisioning should display greater evidence of muscle strain due to dual demands of corporate and domestic modes of production (cf., Barrier, 2011;Sahlins, 1972). Conversely, if farms were relatively isolated, and self reliant, with subsistence regulated almost exclusively along a DMP, their low population densities may have allowed for efficient foraging and hunting with a net result of relatively good nutrition and health (Cohen, 1989;Danforth, 1999, p. 16;Danforth et al, 2007, p. 73).…”

“…Provisioning, like food surplus, is not easily detected archaeologically (cf., Barrier, 2011), although relative proportions of maize vary across the Tombigbee sites (Futato, 1987). Maize frequency appears to be higher at Lubbub (Caddell, 1981) and Kellogg (Atkinson et al, 1980, p. 221) than Tibbee Creek, although the sample was small in the latter farmstead (O'Hear et al, 1981).…”

“…Storage, dispersal, provisioning and feasting all would have been self-serving and system serving (Blitz, 1993b, p. 93). Maize surplus may have created dangers of raiding at small undefended farmsteads, especially seasonally and/or during times of famine, and a shift from below ground pits at households to above ground public granaries (Wesson, 1999) and/or in large ceramic vessels that could be transported and used in variety of spaces, domestic and public (Barrier, 2011), arguably mitigated these risks. Above ground facilities have not been identified, while the latter is suggested through ceramic data of large vessels at Moundville (Barrier, 2011) and Lubbub (Blitz, 1993b).…”

“…1), and in spite of Hally's (1993, p. 143) proposed a maximum size limit for most southeastern chiefdoms of 40 km, Moundville's early influence is evident through material culture at sites as far west as Lubbub and Lyon's Bluff (Knight, 2010). The populace of Moundville, estimated in the thousands, was necessarily supported through food provisioning, tribute, and labor from outlying sites (cf., Barrier, 2011;Welch and Scarry, 1995;Wesson, 1999), and studies of skeletons recovered from hinterland sites, 50-100 km west of Moundville in the central Tombigbee River valley, consequently afford an otherwise hidden measure of quality of life surrounding early regional maize intensification.…”

“…We contend that intensification of maize agriculture may have alleviated health stress for populations along the Tombigbee, as previously hypothesized by Scott (1983), but subsequently would have presented new challenges, including unequal access to nutrition and health across the landscape: changes that would be expected if farmsteads commonly engaged in food sharing through provisioning and/or tribute on top of a domestic mode of production (DMP) (cf., Barrier, 2011;Sahlins, 1972). To address this hypothesis, we apply a series of predictions to osteological data from settlements across the central Tombigbee River valley, spanning the terminal Late Woodland (900-1100 AD) to early Mississippian (1000-1200 AD).…”