Exploring the season of mound building through oxygen isotope geochemistry at the Garden Patch site, Gulf Coast Florida, USA

ABSTRACT

The American Southeast saw the development of large ceremonial village centers, the coalescence of households, and monumental architecture integrated into village layout during the Middle Woodland period (ca. AD 1–600). These shifts toward more sedentary lifeways occurred independently of, and prior to, the domestication of plants across the Southeast. This paper examines the seasonality of monumental construction at the Garden Patch site located on the central Gulf Coast of Florida. This site contains evidence for rapid mound construction that followed a predetermined site plan. Here, we present oxygen isotope analyses of archaeological mollusk shells (Crassostrea virginica) to evaluate the seasonality and periodicity of monument construction. We conclude that mound construction occurred during the cooler months of the year. Ultimately, this contributes to an anthropological understanding of the development of these early ceremonial centers in the Southeast.

KEYWORDS:

• Florida
• oxygen isotopes
• season of shell collection
• monumentality
• early villages
• Woodland period

Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the Florida Museum of Natural History and Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida. We thank Donna Ruhl for assistance with the collection. Additional support was provided by the Departments of Anthropology at the University of Georgia and the University of Georgia Center for Applied Isotope Studies. We thank the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Florida Division of Historical Resources, and the Florida Public Archaeology Network for their support and enthusiasm.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest are reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Isabelle H. Lulewicz is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia. She is an environmental archaeologist specializing in zooarchaeological analyses and stable isotope analyses with special interests in coastal, complex fisher–hunter–gatherers in the North American Southeast.

Neill J. Wallis is associate curator in archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida.

Victor D. Thompson is professor of anthropology and director of the Laboratory of Archaeology at the University of Georgia.

ORCID

Isabelle Holland Lulewicz http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3326-5913

Neill J. Wallis http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4740-286X

Victor D. Thompson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1688-8932

Data availability statement

The Garden Patch materials are curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Accession ANT-2013-22. Data associated with the isotopic analysis presented here can be obtained by contacting the first author. Inquiries pertaining about all other data associated with Garden Patch should be directed to the second author.