| dc.description.abstract | During the Mississippi period (A.D. 900-1500), middle-range societies constructed large earthworks throughout the Southeast as a means to construct sacred places on the landscape and reflect the negotiations formed between leaders and community members. Situated at western edge of the eastern Woodlands in the Arkansas River drainage system, Brackett (34CK-43) is a Mississippi period Spiroan site with one platform mound, eight structures, and a Burial Area. Since its depression-era excavations, Brackett has been incorporated into research on the social practices and types of sites identified throughout the region, but only in a superficial way. This research is an important step away from assuming that all mound sites and platform mounds were used in the same way. This research draws on theories developed for societies from the Mississippi period, Caddo area, and outside the region to discuss the impacts leaders-community social dynamics have on the spatial and social organization of mound sites. I employed the models by Dowd (2012) and Wyckoff and Baugh (1980), in addition to ethnohistoric data concerning the historic Caddo to interpret the archaeological record at Brackett. I propose that Brackett was the location of communal and exclusive ritual activities and was the residence of a small community comprised of a ritual specialist(s) and his/her immediate family. I argue that the site was occupied during the Harlan and Norman phases, around A.D. 1040 to 1265. The temporal and cultural placement of Brackett onto the regional landscape is an important element for discussions on variability in the role of mound sites and for middle-range societies of the Mississippian tradition. | en_US |
