Of walls and war: Fortification and warfare in the Mississippian Southeast

My research provides a methodological approach to the study of prehistoric conflict/warfare and explores the types of supporting evidence that should be used to recognize warfare in the archaeological record, especially in situations where skeletal materials are either unavailable (due to NAGPRA and other legal impediments), not well preserved, or absent altogether. The present study explores late pre-contact indigenous fortifications in the American Southeast to examine what these constructions can tell us regarding the nature of Mississippian warfare. Mississippian sites are particularly useful in this endeavor because defensive fortifications, especially palisades, become commonplace in the Southeast after A.D. 1000. I use the Mississippian site of Canebreak in east-central Alabama as a case study to illustrate how archaeologists can determine the difference between defensive and non-defensive architecture and what these constructions can tell us about the nature of Mississippian warfare.;My research on Mississippian fortification deals with the response to, and effects of, prehistoric human violence. The timing of the appearance and development of fortifications in the Mississippian Southeast could show patterns that document the evolution of sociopolitical relationships between neighboring sites and/or polities---the cycling of "raiding and trading," or war and peace. Thus, studies of fortification systems are important because this class of physical evidence can help anthropologists understand how war affected the sociopolitical climate and relationships in an area when written records and skeletal data are absent or unavailable.