Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-2019

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

Kandace Hollenbach

Committee Members

Gerald Schroedl, Julie Reed

Abstract

I use the ceramic assemblage from the Mialoquo site, an eighteenth-century Historic Cherokee community (A.D. 1760-1780), to study the social formation of Cherokees from different Cherokee town areas at the site. The assemblage is composed of at least two Historic Cherokee types, the Overhill and Qualla ceramic series. Three methods were used to evaluate the ceramics from the Mialoquo assemblage: morphological, spatial, and elemental. Morphological analyses (namely temper and surface treatment) of these sherds were used to examine ceramic variability of the assemblage. Spatial analyses, using ArcGIS, were used to identify patterns between ceramic series present. Finally, elemental analysis, using portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF), was used to determine what if any variability in ceramic clay procurement areas occurs between ceramic series. These analyses indicate that the site is characterized by the presence of both local shell-tempered Overhill ceramic series and non-local grit-tempered Qualla ceramic series. The presence of both ceramic series suggests Mialoquo was a coalescent community. The spatial analyses indicate that the Cherokees at Mialoquo blended their communities of practice as Overhill and Qualla ceramic series are recovered in all feature and area contexts. A density analysis of the ceramic’s distribution also suggests a blending of communities of practice as both series are most dense in similar areas. Lastly, the pXRF results also indicate a blending of communities of practice suggesting that potters from both communities shared clay procurement resource areas. Additionally, the pXRF results suggest that Cherokee potters producing Overhill ceramic series pots transported vessels made from non-local clays to the Mialoquo site. The results from the typological, spatial, and element compositional analyses are telling about the social practices of coalescent Cherokee communities in the mid-eighteenth century. Rather than forming ridged social boundaries between communities of practice the data presented here suggest that at least two Cherokee communities of practice blended, sharing their domestic and communal spaces, their disposal of ceramics in refuse-filled pits, and clay procurement areas surrounding the Mialoquo landscape. Such instances of coalescence have implications for understanding social and political change, understanding variation in material culture, and the life history of ceramics.

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