Abstract

Platform mounds during the Woodland period (ca. 200 BCE to 600 CE) of the American Southeast were integrative structures that included elevated stages for communal food consumption (feasting). While this pattern appears consistent across inland mound sites, food remains from contemporaneous coastal platform mounds have not been adequately studied and the activities associated with these monuments are poorly understood. To address this lacuna, we present results of zooarchaeological analysis of assemblages from a platform (Mound II) and contemporaneous domestic midden at the Garden Patch site, a civic-ceremonial center on the northern Gulf coast of peninsular Florida. One difficulty arising from the coastal context comes from the building material used to construct mounds, which often included redeposited midden originally associated with daily refuse. Our study navigates this difficulty through multiple lines of evidence showing that mound constituents include remains from special events that occurred mostly during the winter. The faunal assemblage from the platform mound is broadly similar to the midden except in the prevalence of toadfish (Opsanus sp.) and in the high diversity of migratory birds. Different proportions of these fauna in each context may reflect seasonal availability, preferences for particular taxa at feasts, or both. Ultimately, the feasts at coastal platform mounds appear to have been the maritime version of their inland counterparts, supplied with local foods at particular times of the year.

摘要

美国东南部林地时期（约公元前 200 年至公元 600 年）的平台土墩是综合结构，包括公共食物消费（盛宴）的升高阶段。虽然这种模式在内陆土丘遗址中似乎是一致的，但来自同时代沿海平台土丘的食物残留物尚未得到充分研究，与这些纪念碑相关的活动也知之甚少。为了解决这个漏洞，我们展示了来自佛罗里达半岛北部墨西哥湾沿岸的一个公民仪式中心 Garden Patch 遗址的平台（Mound II）和同时代的国内中庭的动物考古学分析结果。沿海环境带来的一个困难来自用于建造土丘的建筑材料，这通常包括最初与日常垃圾相关的重新沉积的midden。我们的研究通过多条证据来解决这一困难，这些证据表明土丘成分包括主要发生在冬季的特殊事件的遗骸。平台土丘上的动物群与土丘大体相似，除了蟾鱼的普遍存在（Opsanus sp。）和候鸟的高度多样性。在每种情况下，这些动物群的不同比例可能反映了季节性可用性、节日对特定分类群的偏好，或两者兼而有之。最终，沿海平台丘的盛宴似乎是其内陆同行的海上版本，在一年中的特定时间提供当地食物。