A few little updates for this week. I am currently working on the Theory chapter of IS and it is going pretty well so far, which could either be a good thing or horribly awful because I am overlooking something very important. There are only a few more days until I return home for Thanksgiving break where I will be visiting Highbanks again, this time to look at the artifacts on display there. I actually get to have the case opened and touch them!!!!
A little more about the theory chapter:
As of right now I am discussing the various theories on the purpose/usage of earthworks. I am looking at the latest theories, starting with Prufer. The main ideas that I am coming across are "Vacant Center" theory, also known as the "Dispersed Sedentary Theory", The "Corporate Center Plan", "Central Place", etc. The main theory that I will be working with will most likely be the "Vacant Center" theory which basically says that Hopewellian communities made up of single- or multiple- family households are scattered across the landscape but concentrated around the centrally located burial and ceremonial precincts. These precincts are not directly occupied and coincide with the "Hopewell mortuary cult". It is implied by Prufer that the hamlets that surround the centers constitute as a community, hamlets are self-sufficient. These ceremonial centers are vacant only in the sense that there is no permanent residential population. The centers, with their surrounding 'communities' are then scattered along rivers.
It is an exciting chapter in that I now get to explore the function behind the Orange Township earthworks in a broad and narrow scale.
Stay tuned for more updates!!
awesome....you might need to visit the Decca site across the river, then!
ReplyDelete