Archaeology of the Lower Muskogee Creek Indians, 1715-1836
318 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
44 illustrations
Paperback
Release Date:14 Jan 2007
ISBN:9780817353650
Archaeology of the Lower Muskogee Creek Indians, 1715-1836
University of Alabama Press
The first comprehensive archaeological survey of the Muskogee (Maskókî) Creek Indians
The Muskogee Indians who lived along the lower Chattahoochee and Flint River watersheds had, and continue to have, a profound influence on the development of the southeastern United States, especially during the historic period (circa 1540–1836). Our knowledge of that culture is limited to what we can learn from their descendants and from archaeological and historical sources.
Combining historical documents and archaeological research on all known Lower Muskogee Creek sites, Thomas Foster has accurately pinpointed town locations discussed in the literature and reported in contemporary Creek oral histories. In so doing, this volume synthesizes the archaeological diversity and variation within the Lower Creek Indians between 1715 and 1836. The book is a study of archaeological methods because it analyzes the temporal and geographic variation within a single archaeological phase and the biases of that archaeological data. Foster’s research segregates the variation between Lower Creek Indian towns through a regional and direct historic approach. Consequently, he is able to discern the unique differences between individual Creek Indian towns.
Foster argues that the study of Creek Indian history should be at the level of towns instead of archaeological phases and that there is significant continuity between the culture of the Historic Period Indians and the Prehistoric and Protohistoric peoples.
The Muskogee Indians who lived along the lower Chattahoochee and Flint River watersheds had, and continue to have, a profound influence on the development of the southeastern United States, especially during the historic period (circa 1540–1836). Our knowledge of that culture is limited to what we can learn from their descendants and from archaeological and historical sources.
Combining historical documents and archaeological research on all known Lower Muskogee Creek sites, Thomas Foster has accurately pinpointed town locations discussed in the literature and reported in contemporary Creek oral histories. In so doing, this volume synthesizes the archaeological diversity and variation within the Lower Creek Indians between 1715 and 1836. The book is a study of archaeological methods because it analyzes the temporal and geographic variation within a single archaeological phase and the biases of that archaeological data. Foster’s research segregates the variation between Lower Creek Indian towns through a regional and direct historic approach. Consequently, he is able to discern the unique differences between individual Creek Indian towns.
Foster argues that the study of Creek Indian history should be at the level of towns instead of archaeological phases and that there is significant continuity between the culture of the Historic Period Indians and the Prehistoric and Protohistoric peoples.
Foster and colleagues outline 18th-century Muskogee Creek Indian archaeology, giving a detailed discussion of Muskogee ethnohistory and European contact to establish a baseline for studying its impact on Native material culture. . . . An important study of these Native peoples. Summing Up: Recommended.’
—CHOICE
‘Thomas Foster and his colleagues present an excellent study of the Lower Creeks on the Chattahoochee River during the period 1715–1836. The volume includes a detailed reconstruction of the location of Creek towns, a detailed ceramic study, architectural study, and subsistence studies.’
—Marvin T. Smith, Valdosta State University
. . . a synthesis of a significant amount of unpublished archaeological data and analysis that has been generated by cultural resource management projects in the past thirty or so years. . . . Foster has collected an impressive data set for this book. Anyone interested in Creek archaeology and history will find it a well-organized, useful compendium of much of the Lawson Field phase archaeology.’
—The Alabama Review
H. Thomas Foster II, a specialist in archaeology and human ecology, is Lecturer of Anthropology at Northern Kentucky University and editor of The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796–1810.
Mary Theresa Bonhage-Freund is a specialist in archaeobotanical analysis at Alma College.
Lisa O’Steen is a specialist in zooarchaeological analysis at Wildcat Ridge, Watkinsville, Georgia.
Mary Theresa Bonhage-Freund is a specialist in archaeobotanical analysis at Alma College.
Lisa O’Steen is a specialist in zooarchaeological analysis at Wildcat Ridge, Watkinsville, Georgia.
