McKeithen Weeden Island culture

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The McKeithen Weeden Island culture was a regional variant of early Weeden Island culture in north Florida. The area of the McKeithen Weeden Island culture was north of the Santa Fe River, extending east from the Aucilla River to the western edge of the St. Johns River drainage basin. It was lasted about 500 years, from 200 to 700.^[1]

The McKeithen culture is named after a landowner who invited archaeologists to excavate some mounds on his property before vandals destroyed them. The McKeithen site was a village next to a stream with three mounds. Abundant evidence of occupation was found in a crescent around a presumed plaza, which was essentially bare of artifacts. The three mounds flanked the plaza on three sides. Wood and charcoal found in the village have yielded radiocarbon dates of AD 200 to 750.^[2]

The mounds served different purposes. The one named (arbitrarily) 'B' had a rectangular building on it that has been interpreted to be a temple or the residence of the priest who conducted ceremonies for the dead. The presumed holder of that office was buried inside the building. Evidence of animals chewing on some bones indicate that the body was exposed for a while after death before burial. A tomb of wood and earth was erected over the grave. The tomb and building were then burned, and the ashes scattered. After a ceramic bird head was pushed into the ground at the foot of the grave, a layer of dirt was spread over all of the mound. Three radiocarbon dates for this event average to 354.^[3]

Mound 'A' was a charnel area where bodies were cleaned and buried temporarily. A wall of posts screened a number of burial pits from the village. Posts up to two feet in diameter apparently were used to mark graves. The decomposed bodies were later removed, and bones were bundled and moved to mound 'C'. Numerous potsherds and many small fire pits are interpreted as evidence of ceremonies connected with processing the bodies. In 354 the wall of posts and other posts were piled up over the empty grave pits and burned.^[4]

Mound 'C' held a charnel house were bundled bones, typically a skull and limb bones, were stored. After some period of time, the bundles were buried around the periphery of the mound. In about 475, approximately 36 bone bundles were removed from the charnel house and buried. The charnel house was burned, then a fire was bult of top of it for a feast. A large bowl with animal heads on its rim, which may have been used for serving ceremonial drinks suac as the black drink, was left on the remains of the fire after its bottom was knocked out. At least 17 ceramic vessels, including hollow figurines of animals, were broken and left atop the graves of the bone bundles. The whole mound was then covered with a six foot layer of earth.^[5]

Pottery at the McKeithen site has been classified as secular, prestige, and sacred. Secular pots were undecorated, or had minimal decoration, and were all made with clay from local sources. Prestige ware was decorated with lines and dots and sometimes 'painted' with red clay. This prestige ware was foundmost often in the mounds, but occasionally elsewhere in the village. The sacred vessels, which were found only in the mounds, were elaborately decorated and sometimes were in the shape of animals. Some of the sacred vessels apparently were imported, but the ones with animal shapes usually were made from local clay.^[6]