Dr. Ramie A Gougeon

Postcolonial resource use in the historic southeastern United States often left scars on the landscape that impact and exacerbate the effects of modern climate change. Case studies of degenerative agricultural and silviculture practices in European and American colonial and postcolonial Virginia, Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana illustrate the often irrevocable nature of landscape modification. Historical archaeologists are called upon to better elucidate how early human actions first affected local and regional environments in ways that continue to reverberate in the present day.

Archaeologists use the same terms with vastly different meanings, resulting in ineffective communication. Time is of the essence when working with heritage at risk, and standardized language facilitates effective conversations and actions to describe, interpret, and communicate aspects of archaeology in the time of climate change. A panel at the 2022 Society for Historical Archaeology conference was sponsored by the Heritage at Risk Committee to delineate the meaning of the oft-used but rarely defined terms “site,” “resource,” “significance,” “risk,” “triage,” “data,” “audience,” and “sustainability.” The purpose of this article is to take a step toward disciplinary unification to facilitate future dialogue and action through modeling, monitoring, and mitigating heritage at risk.

In a recent examination of bird effigy vessels from the north-central coast of the Gulf of Mexico, one remarkable species identified appears to be Gallus gallus domesticus, or the chicken. Examples of small ceramic rooster heads sporting dramatic, single combs and short beaks may be indirect evidence of contact between native coastal peoples and Spanish explorers in the early decades of the AD 1500s. The particular socio-cultural conditions that would have made possible the introduction of these decidedly non-native birds into the repertoire of Native American potters in the protohistoric era are explored.

Prehistoric archaeologists have done very little yet to explore how gender "works" within the historical processes of social construction during the long prehistory of the Southeast. As we undertake examinations of gender ideologies, roles, and relationships, applications of analogs play an important role. This is despite a distinctly unsettled agreement on uses of analogy in archaeology. In this piece, I explore archaeologists' continued unease with the use of analogy in archaeological interpretation, assigning part of the blame to underlying and unresolved epistemological issues. A disciplined and studied use of formal analogies is suggested.

excerpt - Because of our species' intimate relationship with food, research into food and foodways can provide a myriad of insights into cultural phenomenon, not to mention readily accessible and tangible examples to bring to our assorted professional and avocational audiences. As a case in point, I will examine a seemingly simple interaction that occurred in present-day Georgia between a group of native Southeasterners and sixteenth century Spanish soldiers. Through this very short account and some archaeological evidence, I will
explore traditional foodways of the New and Old World at a critical juncture in history, and discuss how even the most humble of meals can be interpreted through a variety of analytical lenses.

The Vining Phase in central Georgia is an old idea (Kelly 1938) that has new life as a result of more recent excavations in the Oconee National Forest. It was defined as a simple-stamped ceramic complex, an idea that was rejected at the time. Recent excavations suggest that sites with simple stamped pottery and small triangular points located on ridgetops in central Georgia belong to Vining (Elliott and Wynn 1991); it appears to be a Late Woodland-Early Mississippian transitional phase. Four Vining phase sites, Guthrie, Passport, Fant-Davis and Elliott, were excavated between 1988 and 1996. Here we summarize what is known about the Vining phase thus far, describe the results of these modern excavations, and discuss future research directions. This paper is based on the Summary Report (Meyers et al. 1997).