The origins and histories of mounds are perennial topics of investigation in the American Southeast, underscoring the centrality of these monuments to the social lives and cosmologies of Indigenous southeastern peoples. Drawing upon theories of persistent place and path dependence, we argue that a focus on the pre-mound histories of mound sites can elucidate emplacement at these monumental locales. Our focus is the Johnston site (40MD3) in what is now known as West Tennessee, one of three sites along the South Fork of the Forked Deer River that witnessed unprecedented monumentalization in the early centuries AD. Geophysical survey, targeted excavations, and AMS dating at Johnston have revealed a 6000-year history that predates Middle Woodland mound building. By contextualizing this evidence against the cultural and environmental backdrop of the Middle Archaic through Middle Woodland Midsouth, we propose that formal emplacement – the creation and reinforcement of connections between people and place – transpired nearly four millennia after Johnston was first occupied, but possibly centuries before mounds were erected there. These findings underscore the complexity of processes of emplacement, and the importance of considering mounds within the larger spatial and temporal extents of monumental sites, and monumental sites within wider regional landscapes and histories.

土丘的起源和历史是美国东南部常年调查的话题，强调了这些纪念碑在东南部土著人民的社会生活和宇宙学中的中心地位。借鉴持久位置和路径依赖的理论，我们认为关注土墩遗址的前土墩历史可以阐明这些具有纪念意义的地点的就位。我们的重点是现在被称为西田纳西州的约翰斯顿遗址 (40MD3)，它是分叉鹿河南叉沿线的三个遗址之一，在公元早期几个世纪见证了前所未有的纪念性建设。约翰斯顿的地球物理调查、有针对性的挖掘和 AMS 测年揭示了中部林地土墩建造之前的 6000 年历史。通过将这些证据与中古到中南地区的中古时代的文化和环境背景相结合，我们提出正式就位——建立和加强人与地方之间的联系——发生在约翰斯顿首次被占领近四千年后，但可能在此之前的几个世纪土堆在那里竖立起来。这些发现强调了就位过程的复杂性，以及在纪念性遗址的更大空间和时间范围内考虑土丘的重要性，以及在更广泛的区域景观和历史中考虑纪念性遗址的重要性。但可能在几个世纪前在那里竖立了土堆。这些发现强调了就位过程的复杂性，以及在纪念性遗址的更大空间和时间范围内考虑土丘的重要性，以及在更广泛的区域景观和历史中考虑纪念性遗址的重要性。但可能在几个世纪前在那里竖立了土堆。这些发现强调了就位过程的复杂性，以及在纪念性遗址的更大空间和时间范围内考虑土丘的重要性，以及在更广泛的区域景观和历史中考虑纪念性遗址的重要性。