Date of Graduation

8-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Anthropology

Advisor/Mentor

Kowalski, Jessica

Committee Member/Reader

Hare, Laurence

Committee Member/Second Reader

Brown, Lucy

Committee Member/Third Reader

Lockhart, Jami

Abstract

During the Mississippi period (ca. AD 1050-1500), native groups occupying bluff shelters in the Northwest Arkansas Ozarks constructed three similarly sized mound-and-plaza centers: Goforth-Saindon (3BE0245), Collins (3WA0001), and Huntsville (3MA0022). Similarities in size and number of mounds suggests none rose to a position of power over the other and each integrated a separate community. Previous research hypothesizes that communities in emergent complex societies such as these are best defined by those who you interact with regularly, with mound centers less than a day’s travel from each other likely integrating the same communities. This study uses least-cost analysis, generating likely travel paths from the three mound centers in Northwest Arkansas to each other and to nearby bluff shelters with evidence of Mississippian occupation, factoring in water resources and slope to calculate the distances one would have traveled between sites and to identify catchments of bluff shelters. The resulting models show these mound centers are distant more than a day’s travel and depict clear catchments of bluff shelters around each one, supporting the idea that each mound center served a separate community.

Keywords

Least-Cost Analysis; GIS; Archaeology; Bluff Shelters; Community Integration

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