This is a model for investigations of the Mississippian dimensions of Fort Ancient societies. The last prehistoric cultures to inhabit the Middle Ohio Valley (ca. A.D. 1000-1650) are referred to as Fort Ancient societies, which exhibited a wide variety of Mississippian period characteristics. What is less well known and little understood are the social processes by which Mississippian characteristics spread to Fort Ancient communities. Through a comprehensive study of Sun Watch, one of the few thoroughly excavated Fort Ancient settlements, the author focuses on the development of village social structure within a broad geographic and temporal framework, recognizing border areas as particularly dynamic contexts of social change. As a fundamental study of social patterning of Fort Ancient villages, this work reveals the interrelationships of small social units in culture change and social structure development and provides a full reconsideration of the Mississippian dimensions of Fort Ancient societies and a model for future investigations of larger patterning in the late prehistory of the region.

Book Information
ISBN 9780817354589
Author Robert A. Cook
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint The University of Alabama Press
Publisher The University of Alabama Press