Constructing Histories

Archaic Freshwater Shell Mounds and Social Landscapes of the St. Johns River, Florida

Asa R Randall author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University Press of Florida

Published:30th Sep '15

Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 15th November 2024, but could change

Constructing Histories cover

Large accumulations of ancient shells on coastlines and riverbanks were long considered the result of garbage disposal during repeated food gatherings by early inhabitants of the southeastern United States. In this volume, Asa R. Randall presents the first new theoretical framework for examining such middens since Ripley Bullen’s seminal work sixty years ago. He convincingly posits that these ancient “garbage dumps” were actually burial mounds, ceremonial gathering places, and often habitation spaces central to the histories and social geography of the hunter-gatherer societies who built them.

Synthesizing more than 150 years of shell mound investigations and modern remote sensing data, Randall rejects the long-standing ecological interpretation and redefines these sites as socially significant monuments that reveal previously unknown complexities about the hunter-gatherer societies of the Mount Taylor period (ca.7400–4600 cal. B.P.). Affected by climate change and increased scales of social interaction, the region’s inhabitants modified the landscape in surprising and meaningful ways. This pioneering volume presents an alternate history from which emerge rich details about the daily activities, ceremonies, and burial rituals of the archaic St. Johns River cultures.

ISBN: 9780813061016

Dimensions: 233mm x 155mm x 23mm

Weight: 800g

320 pages