My research focuses on the development of complex societies of the sort that anthropologists have traditionally referred to as “chiefdoms” or “middle-range.” Although most of my field work has been conducted in the southeastern United States, I have also worked in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, Mexico.
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Dissertation Research at the Kolomoki Site
I completed my Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Georgia in 2002 under the direction of Dr. Stephen Kowalewski (committee chair), Dr. David Hally, Dr. Charles Hudson, Dr. Mark Williams, Dr. Elizabeth Reitz, and Dr. Ervan Garrison.
My dissertation, as well as ongoing research described below, has focused on the famous archaeological site of Kolomoki in southwestern Georgia, now preserved and protected by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources as Kolomoki Mounds Historic Park. Kolomoki includes one very large mound (almost 60 feet tall) of uncertain purpose, two large burial mounds, and a number of smaller mounds that appear to have served as stages for ritual performances. Accounts of the site from the late 1800s and early 1900s suggest that several additional mounds and a large ring-shaped earthen embankment were plowed away.
Major excavations were conducted at Kolomoki in the late 1940s and early 1950s by Dr. William Sears. Unfortunately, Sears was convinced that the site dated to the Mississippian period (A.D. 1000-1540), when the construction of large mounds became commonplace in the Southeast. My work at Kolomoki demonstrates that---as at least a few archaeologists had long-suspected---the site dates primarily to the Woodland period. This makes the site all the more important for what it can tell us about the growth of early villages and more complex social formations.
My dissertation research at Kolomoki included the reanalysis of materials from Sears’s excavations and new, systematic investigations in the off-mound areas. I began with the excavation of shovel tests and the taking of controlled surface collections every 20 meters (roughly 60 feet) across the site. The 1300 samples provide important new information about where people were living on the site.
Briefly, the sampling data suggest that there was a large circular or ring-shaped village surrounding an unoccupied plaza area that was probably used for ceremonies. A light scatter of artifacts around the plaza may represent debris that was left by people who camped at the site for brief intervals.
In the next phase of investigation, I and my students excavated a series of test units across the site. The aim here was to collect larger samples of pottery we could use to date various occupation areas.
With the help on Nina Serman, a graduate student in the Department of Geology at the University of Georgia, we also completed ground penetrating radar and gradiometer surveys of selected areas.
In the final phase of my dissertation research at Kolomoki, we did small block excavations to try to locate a house. One of these block excavations was particularly successful. Here, we identified the remains of a well-preserved pit structure dating to the Middle Woodland period. The house was semi-subterranean, meaning that it was placed partly below ground in a shallow pit. There was a ramp leading down into the house. At the center of the house we found a circular fire pit with the remains of a young deer still in place at the bottom—probably the last meal that was eaten in the house before it was abandoned. Click here for a short clip of an animated reconstruction of the house.
For more information on my work at Kolomoki, please buy a copy of my book Kolomoki: Settlement, Ceremony, and Status in the Deep South, A.D. 350 to 750, available from Amazon or directly from the University of Alabama Press.
In 2006, I began a follow-up study at Kolomoki entitled “Examining Household Level Change in the Middle to Late Woodland Transition: The View from Kolomoki.” This study, funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society, seeks to understand changes in household size, structure, and economy in the transition from the Middle to Late Woodland periods, between 350 and 750 A.D.
As noted above, previous excavations at Kolomoki revealed the remains of a well-preserved pit house dating to the Middle Woodland period. The goal of the current study is to excavate a house from the Late Woodland occupation at Kolomoki. If successful, this would be one of the first diachronic studies of household change for the Woodland period in the Southeast and would provide considerable new insight on the development of complex societies in the region.
Excavations will continue in the summer of 2007 with a University of South Florida archaeology field school. For information on participating in the project, please email me at tpluckha@cas.usf.edu
The Swift Creek/Weeden Island Focus Team (SWIFT)
Kolomoki is one of the major sites of the Middle Woodland period, when a distinctive type of pottery known to archaeologists as Swift Creek Complicated Stamped was in use across the lower Southeast (principally in Georgia and Florida). Swift Creek is a type of paddle-stamped pottery, meaning that before the pots were fired the wet clay was impressed with a carved wooden paddle. Swift Creek is perhaps the most elaborate and beautiful of the paddle-stamped pottery traditions in the Southeast. The distinctive curvilinear designs include representations of animals, insects, faces or masks, as well as abstract geometric designs.
Thanks to painstaking work by archaeologists such as Frankie Snow (South Georgia College) and Betty Broyles (now retired), we know have several hundred paddle designs that were in use across the Southeast. In some cases, we see the same paddle designs on different sites, indicating that either the paddles or the pots (or both) were being traded between villages.
I have recently begun collaboration with other researchers interested in Swift Creek pottery to map out the distribution of paddle designs. We hope to eventually publish a synthesis of this work. Our working group, which is known as the Swift Creek/Weeden Island Focus Team (SWIFT), recently had its inaugural meeting. We hope to meet again regularly. For information on participating in the project, please email me at tpluckha@cas.usf.edu
Regional Survey in the Mixteca Alta Region, Oaxaca, Mexico
In 1999, I spent six months on a regional survey in the mountainous Mixteca Alta region of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. This study, which was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, was directed by Drs. Steve Kowalewski and Andy Balkansky. It was one of the largest full-coverage archaeological surveys ever conducted, covering more than 1400 square kilometers and resulting in the identification of more than 1000 archaeological sites.
Many of my colleagues on the Mixteca Alta project have gone on to complete their Ph.D.’s, including Dr. Verónica Pérez Rodríguez (Northern Arizona University), Dr. John Chamblee (currently at the University of Georgia), Dr. Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza (Colegio de Michoacán), Dr. Charlotte A. (Sammy) Smith (Southern Research), and Dr. Dmitri Beliaev (Russian State University for the Humanities).
For more information about the work in the Mixteca Alta, look for our forthcoming book from the University Press of Colorado, entitled Origins of the Ñuu: Archaeology in the Mixteca Alta, Mexico (by Stephen A. Kowalewski, Andrew K. Balkansky, Laura R. Stiver Walsh, Thomas J. Pluckhahn, John F. Chamblee, Verónica Pérez Rodríguez, Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza, and Charlotte A. Smith).
Future Research in the Tampa Bay Area
Having begun my position at the University of South Florida in 2006, I have not had sufficient time to begin a local research project. However, I am currently considering several potential research projects in the area of Tampa Bay, on Florida’s central Gulf Coast. I am interested in the long term history and ecology of the area, and hope to begin applying for funding soon.