Collaborative Research: Environmental Context of Long Term Cultural Adaptation

The goal of this research is to understand the environmental conditions that occurred during occupation and abandonment of the Moundville site, a regionally important late prehistoric site in Alabama. The research includes collection and analysis of lake sediment cores from Touson Lake, an oxbow located 2 km west of the site. Identification of the contents provides useful data for inferring human impacts that can be applied at a wide range of situations, yielding useful information without methods that are destructive to sites.

Furthermore, understanding how societies responded to past climate change and/or local environmental degradation is important for understanding how challenges of the 21st century might impact populations. Included are sharing of results with the Moundville Archaeological Park Museum and sharing monthly updates to federally recognized Tribal Nations with several representatives of which are involved with both sampling and interpreting the data.

This project also trains one graduate and two undergraduate students at multiple universities in a multi-disciplinary setting.

Combined archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies demonstrate that humans are in direct and constant interaction with their environment. While there is considerable information about climate-environment-human interactions for cultures in central and South America, there is a lack of such information for Mississippian mound-building societies in North America.

This project addresses two overarching research questions: 1) did environmental conditions influence shifts in population and agriculture at Moundville? and 2) did environmental changes create stresses that caused eventual site abandonment? To answer these questions, sediment cores from Touson Lake are analyzed for: 1) stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in organic matter, 2) grain size distribution, 3) magnetic susceptibility, 4) charcoal particles, 5) pollen assemblages, 6) cyanobacteria pigments, and 7) fecal sterols, all of which indicate past environmental conditions.

Compilation of existing archaeological literature on the demography of the local and regional populations are compiled and representatives of Muskogean-speaking tribes affiliated with Moundville contribute to data interpretation with their indigenous traditions and culture histories associated with the region.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.