-
Title
-
Archaeological Research Concerning 16th c. Spanish and Indians in Alabama
-
Date
-
1982
-
Bibliographic Citation
-
Curren, Cailup B. Jr., Keith J. Little, and George E. Lankford III. 1982. Archaeological Research Concerning 16th Century Spanish and Indians in Alabama. Report prepared for the Alabama-Tombigbee Regional Commission, University of Alabama Museum of Natural History, Tuscaloosa.
-
annotates
-
• This study presents a testable culture history model of the Soto route through Alabama, based on Spanish chronicles, archaeological data, and limited test excavations, including 1DS172.
• Chapter III presents fieldwork at 1DS172 (Cedar Creek Mound), interpreted as a strong candidate for “Athahachi,” the town of Chief Tascaluza.
• The study argues that Burial Urn sites of the Alabama River Phase, represent Postcontact Indigenous societies, while Mississippian mound centers (e.g., 1DS172, "Charlotte Thompson Place") represent the polities Soto encountered.
• Finds at 1DS172 include Mississippian ceramics, daub, and mound architecture, alongside historical African American-descendant burials, suggesting later reuse of the site as a cemetery.
• The Choctaw are not named in the report, but the region of study and the cultural phases described are significant for Choctaw-affiliated CRM contexts:
o The authors treat central Alabama Mississippian societies as precursors to later Indigenous groups, suggesting cultural continuity are connected to culturally related western Muskogean groups, including the Choctaw.
o The description of the Charlotte Thompson Place mound and 1DS172 reflects cultural traits present in Indigenous Mississippian societies with linguistic and geographic relevance to ancestral Choctaw territories.
• The regional shift from mound-building to an egalitarian Burial Urn tradition is attributed by the authors in part to disruption following European contact, a process the Choctaw and other groups in the region survived and adapted to.
• The Forks of the Alabama–Tombigbee Rivers (including Matthews Landing and Mobile Delta clusters) are framed as densely populated in the 16th century, later forming the geopolitical core of Choctaw territory in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Site 1DS172
o The focus of Chapter III and a central site in the authors’ reconstruction of the Soto route. Characterized as a rectangular Mississippian mound with adjacent town or public area
o Excavations included five shallow 2-x-2 m test units atop the mound; daub concentrations and ceramic assemblages confirm Mississippian occupation.
o Shell-tempered ceramics, including Moundville Incised, indicating Early to Middle Mississippian affiliation.
o Daub and structural features atop the mound summit interpreted as "elite" or ceremonial architecture.
o No European contact-period artifacts were found, but the site is interpreted as a strong candidate for Tascaluza’s town of Athahachi, based on topography, distances, and settlement hierarchy.
Data Presentation / Decolonizing Commentary
• Although respectful and research-driven for its time, the report is framed entirely through a culture-historical lens:
o Focuses on ceramic typologies, mound functions, and Soto’s route, with Indigenous peoples largely described in passive or reactionary terms.
o Does not engage descendant communities or tribal nations in interpretation or site significance.
• Burial contexts, including those at Charlotte Thompson Place and 1DS172, are analyzed for artifact content and status differentiation, not as culturally sensitive mortuary landscapes.
• A decolonizing critique would:
o Call for Choctaw and other Muskogean descendant involvement in reassessing these mound centers and ceramics.
o Treat the Alabama River Phase and Burial Urn culture not as cultural decline, but as strategic adaptation in the face of colonization.
o Reframe the Mississippian-to-Postcontact transition as a story of persistence and change, not abandonment.
o Findings at 1DS172 do not confirm contact-period materials, but ceramic typologies and mound construction align with broader patterns of Choctaw-relevant heritage.
-
owner
-
sprice@wiregrassarchaeology.com