The Savannah River Chiefdoms

Download or read book The Savannah River Chiefdoms written by David G. Anderson and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 1994-11-30 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores political change in chiefdoms, specifically how complex chiefdoms emerge and collapse, and how this process—called cycling—can be examined using archaeological, ethnohistoric, paleoclimatic, paleosubsistence, and physical anthropological data. The focus for the research is the prehistoric and initial contact-era Mississippian chiefdoms of the Southeastern United States, specifically the societies occupying the Savannah River basin from ca. A.D. 1000 to 1600. This regional focus and the multidisciplinary nature of the investigation provide a solid introduction to the Southeastern Mississippian archaeological record and the study of cultural evolution in general.