Investigating domestic economy and mobility at a Woodland period ceremonial center in Northwest Florida, USA, using Neutron Activation Analysis

Abstract

The emergence of early villages along the Gulf Coast during the Woodland period (ca. 1000 B.C. – A.D. 900) was associated with significant changes in settlement, mobility, and subsistence, particularly a shift towards greater sedentism and more social and economic integration of households. Our assessment of household ceramic production, consumption, and exchange at a Woodland period ceremonial center on the Florida Gulf Coast using Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) instead suggests that some households were more mobile and more economically autonomous than is often assumed. Domestic ceramics from the Letchworth (8JE337) ceremonial center and other Tallahassee Hills area sites were produced at the household level and circulated within local networks of mobility and exchange. However, some ceramics from domestic contexts at Letchworth were not circulated within the site or the broader region, suggesting that some households were somewhat economically insular. We suggest that relatively high mobility and economic autonomy of households in the Tallahassee Hills area may have been a strategy to mitigate risks associated with unpredictable local environments.