Dr. Anna Semon

The Mississippian period (A.D. 200–1580) on the Georgia coast consisted of chiefdoms structured by a diverse landscape of villages, council houses, mortuary sites, earthen mounds, and camp/processing areas. Recent archaeological investigations of village and mortuary sites on St. Catherines Island, GA have provided new insight into Mississippian life on the coast, including village organization, subsistence practices, burial practices, wood-carving traditions, and pottery manufacturing. In this lecture, I will focus on complicated-stamped pottery recovered from St. Catherines Island and discuss how this pottery can be used to reconstruct life along the Georgia coast on the cusp of European contact, especially the social interactions surrounding how the pottery was made and used.