Revisiting McKeithen Weeden Island: Complexity, Ritual, and Pottery (Archaeology of the American South: New Directions and Perspectives) - Softcover

Rice, Prudence M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817361146 ISBN 13: 9780817361143

Publisher: University Alabama Press, 2023

Synopsis

Reassesses the ancient Indigenous McKeithen site in northern Florida in light of new data, analyses, and theories

Revisiting McKeithen Weeden Island further illuminates an Indigenous Late Woodland (ca. AD 200–900) mound-and-village community in northern Florida that was first excavated in the late 1970s. Since then, some artifacts received additional analyses, and the topic of prechiefdom societies has been broadly reconsidered in anthropology and archaeology. These developments allow new perspectives on McKeithen’s history and significance.

Prudence M. Rice, a Mayanist who began her career at the University of Florida, revisits what is known about McKeithen and recontextualizes the 1970s excavations. Weeden Island and McKeithen are best known through mortuary mounds and mortuary ritual, mainly involving unusual pottery bird effigies. Rice discusses current theoretical trends in studies of ritual and belief systems and their relation to mound-building at McKeithen in early stages of developing societal complexity.

Revisiting McKeithen Weeden Island serves as a masterful example of an esteemed archaeologist advancing the field through rethought and updated interpretations of the site and its significance, primarily through its pottery. Rice’s case study ultimately also fosters understanding of later Mississippian society and other civilizations around the world at this time period. Archaeologists, anthropologists, and social historians as well as students and avocational readers will welcome Rice’s insight.

 

 

About this title

About the Author

Prudence M. Rice is distinguished professor emerita in anthropology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. A specialist in Maya archaeology, she is author of numerous books, including Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, Maya Political Science: Time, Astronomy, and the Cosmos, and Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos: Middle Preclassic Lowland Maya Figurines, Ritual, and Time.
 

Edition details

• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817361146
• ISBN 13: 9780817361143
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132