AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE COSMOS AnArchaeology oftheCosmosseeks answerstotwofundamental questionsofhumanity and human history. The first question concerns that which some use as a defining element of humanity: religious beliefs. Why do so many people believe in supreme beings and holy spirits? The second question concerns changes in those beliefs. What causes beliefs to change? Using ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence gathered from ancient America, especially the Great Plains and the pre-Columbian American Indian city of Cahokia, TimothyPauketatexploresthelogicalimplicationsofthesetwofundamentalquestions. He finds that religious beliefs are not more resilient than other aspects of culture and society, and people are not the only causes of historical change. An Archaeology of the Cosmos examines the intimate association of agency and religion by studying how relationships between people, places, and things were bundled together and positioned in ways that constituted the fields of human experience. This rethinking of agency and religion provides readers with challenging and thought-provoking conclusions that will lead them to reassess the way they understand the past. Timothy R. Pauketat is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignandaSurveyAffiliateoftheIllinois StateArchaeologicalSurvey. AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE COSMOS Rethinking Agency and Religion in Ancient America Timothy R. Pauketat Firstpublished2013 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada byRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2013TimothyR.Pauketat TherightofTimothyR.Pauketattobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhas beenassertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe publishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto infringe. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Pauketat,TimothyR. Anarchaeologyofthecosmos:rethinkingagencyandreligionin ancientAmerica/TimothyR.Pauketat. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1.Indiancosmology–NorthAmerica.2.IndiansofNorthAmerica–Religion. 3.Religionandculture–UnitedStates.4.Socialarchaeology–UnitedStates. 5.UnitedStates–Antiquities.6.UnitedStates–Religiouslifeandcustoms.I.Title. E98.C79P382012 970.004’97–dc23 2012014795 ISBN978-0-415-52128-4(hbk) ISBN978-0-415-52129-1(pbk) ISBN978-0-203-08518-9(ebk) TypesetinBembo byTaylor&FrancisBooks In memory of Michael Litchford, for whom the encounter with the temple was an intimate, defining moment. CONTENTS List of Figures viii List of Tables xiii Acknowledgments xiv 1 Beliefs 1 2 Religion from the Top Down 8 3 Agency, Bundling, and Positioning 27 4 Bundles 43 5 Intimate Parallelisms 59 6 Religion from the Ground Up 88 7 Bringing Religion to a Standstill 133 8 Cosmic Deposits 164 9 Positioning Theory 181 Appendix 191 Notes 192 References 195 Index 226 LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Map of ancient North America, showing archaeological complexes and historic-era tribes mentioned in the text 3 2.1 The Cahokia–East St. Louis–St. Louis districts within the central complex 18 2.2 Plan view of the city of Cahokia 1050–1150 CE 19 2.3 Early Mississippian semi-subterranean pole-and-thatch buildings: top, oblique cut-away view of typical wall-trench building shown without thatch (adapted from Alt and Pauketat 2011); bottom, reconstruction of Pfeffer site temple, University of Illinois, 2001 20 2.4 Timeline of select North American regions 21 2.5 Indian burial scene, near Lake Kee-waw-nay, Indiana. Long single file of women in Indian dress following bier carried by four women; led by a single woman. Two men, one mounted on horse, watch from side of path, ca. 1837–38 (Winter 1948: courtesy of the Tippecanoe County Historical Association, Lafayette, Indiana) 26 3.1 Semiotic triad as entangled practically and metaphorically in a web of relations (Morris 1971; Nöth 1990: 90; Ogden and Richards 1946; Peirce 1982–89) 37 3.2 Meshwork of knotted or intersecting lines (following Ingold 2007b: Figure 3.1, top) 38 3.3 Five bundles of citations shown as asterisks or intersections of lines over three phases of time, with dashed lines indicating a bundle transfer prior to the subsequent phase 40 3.4 Space-time field of bundles (dots are bundles, solid lines are current associations, and dashed lines are past associations) 41 4.1 Blackfoot medicine-pipe bundle (from Wissler 1912: Figure 39) 44 ListofFigures ix 4.2 Dance to the medicine-bag of the brave (Catlin 1973: Plate 297, courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC) 46 5.1 Paths of the sun @ latitude N38 degrees over the course of a year 62 5.2 Cahokian embodiment of the cosmos by a Ramey Incised pot (adapted from Pauketat 2012; Pauketat and Emerson 1991: Figure 1.3) 63 5.3 A Pawnee earthlodge (adapted from Weltfish 1977: Figure 8–1) 64 5.4 Ponka Fort, Todd County, Nebraska (from Dorsey 1886: 221) 65 5.5 Chaco Canyon’s Pueblo Bonito, view from the northeast, with arrow indicating north-south masonry wall 66 5.6 Abó, showing continuous cruciform nave, left, and circular kiva, shaded (from Ivey 1988: Figure 3) 68 5.7 The nave of the Pecos Pueblo church, highlighting its alignment with the distant escarpment and the setting sun on the equinoxes 68 5.8 Pictograph in Cliff Palace observatory showing horizon observations (adapted from Malville 2008: Figure 8.10) 71 5.9 Ho-Chunk replica of a traditional calendar stick (courtesy Chloris Lowe, Jr.) 72 5.10 Horizon chart showing solstitial, equinoctial, and lunar maximum and minimum rising setting positions at Cahokia’s Rattlesnake Mound (latitude N38.64 degrees) 74 5.11 Newark and High Bank geometric earthworks, showing lunar alignments (adapted from Hively and Horn 2006: Figure 4, 2010: Figure 5.7) 75 5.12 The Chacoan Great House of Kin Kletso, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico 77 5.13 Chaco Canyon’s central organizational axes (adapted from Sofaer 2008a: Figure 9.9) 79 5.14 Chimney Rock spires between which a lunar maximum moon would rise 81 5.15 Dakota cosmogram and its associations (adapted from Dorsey 1894: Figure 194) 84 5.16 Close-up of anthropomorphized post in the Carolinas (portion of an engraving following Theodor de Bry, 1590, published in L’Univers, Firmin Dido frères, Paris, 1843: from the collection of the author) 86 6.1 Schematic plan view of Cahokia’s Woodhenge (from Wittry 1996: Figure 3.1, courtesy of the Wisconsin Archeological Society) 91 6.2 Sunrise angles and burial orientations of 662 burials from the Cahokia-related Spoon River area of west-central Illinois (from Harn 1994: Figure 10, courtesy of the Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois) 92 x ListofFigures 6.3 Public buildings atop the principal pyramid at Hiwassee Island, Tennessee (from Lewis and Kneberg 1946: Plate 18, courtesy of the University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee) 94 6.4 Terminal Late Woodland and Early Mississippian building alignments at Cahokia’s Tracts 15A and 15B (building alignments are adjusted to true north with the azimuth distribution compressed by rotating orthogonal buildings 90 degrees) 97 6.5 Plan map of downtown Cahokia (adapted from Fowler 1997) 98 6.6 Late Mississippian building alignments at Cahokia’s Tracts 15A and 15B (building alignments are adjusted to true north with the azimuth distribution compressed by rotating orthogonal buildings 90 degrees) 100 6.7 Locations of Cahokia’s ridge-top mounds (top) and reconstructed contours of the Rattlesnake Mound (bottom) (adapted from Pauketat 2010a) 102 6.8 Select pit burials of women in Mound 72: top, 22 likely female burials atop former upright post; bottom, four headless and handless men adjacent to 53 women (from Fowler et al. 1999: Figures 6.3 and 6.6, courtesy of the Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois) 105 6.9 Outline of the final stage of Mound 72 (from Fowler et al. 1999: Figure 3.9, courtesy of the Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois) 106 6.10 Causeways and earthen pyramids at the Fitzhugh Place site, Madison Parish, Louisiana (from Squier and Davis 1998: Plate 39) 106 6.11 The largest of two sugarloaf mounds northeast of Cahokia (photo by D. DeJarnette, 1956, original on file in the North American Archaeology lab, University of Illinois, Urbana) 107 6.12 Schematic of paired Sugarloaf-Fox mounds northeast of Cahokia 108 6.13 Cypress post base from the Mitchell site, broken at ca. 1200 CE during the attempted extraction (photograph by James W. Porter, courtesy of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana) 112 6.14 Regional map showing the relationship of Cahokia to Emerald and other upland locations 113 6.15 East St. Louis building alignments, Northside and Southside (azimuth distribution compressed by rotating orthogonal buildings 90 degrees) 114 6.16 Mitchell and Grossmann site building alignments (Grossmann building alignments are adjusted to true north; based on data in Alt 2006a; Porter 1974: Table 3) 115 6.17 Plan map of the Vaughn Branch site (from Jackson and Millhouse 2003: Figure 5.1, courtesy of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana) 116 ListofFigures xi 6.18 Plan map of the core segment of the J. Spraque site (from Holley, Parker, Harper et al. 2001: Figure 20.14, courtesy of the Illinois Department of Transportation, Springfield, Illinois) 117 6.19 Plan map of the John H. Faust #1 site (from Holley, Parker, Scott et al. 2001: Figure 21.1, courtesy of the Illinois Department of Transportation, Springfield, Illinois) 118 6.20 Shotgun Ridge site building and post alignment (adapted from Pauketat et al. 2005) 123 6.21 T-shaped and L-shaped buildings at the Grossmann site, southwestern Illinois 124 7.1 Schematic map of the Pfeffer site 134 7.2 Plan of rebuilt house at the Pfeffer site 135 7.3 Pfeffer site building alignments (angles relative to true north) 135 7.4 A large hoe blade from the Emerald site (recovered by a farmer in the 1960s, photograph by the author) 139 7.5 The Great Mound at Emerald showing 1993 and 1996 profile locations 141 7.6 Composite profile of the Emerald’s Great Mound, 1993 and 1996 excavations 142 7.7 Stacked blanket mantles in the Great Mound at Emerald, 1996 143 7.8 Emerald site showing 1997–98 ISAS excavations and locations of mounds (map produced by Jeffery Kruchten, courtesy of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana) 144 7.9 Emerald Avenue as observed by dark lines on 1940 USDA aerial photograph 145 7.10 LiDAR image of the Emerald site in 2010 (image produced by Michael Farkas, courtesy of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana) 145 7.11 LiDAR image showing locations of mounds and inferred organizational axes 146 7.12 Emerald site building alignments (azimuth distribution compressed by rotating orthogonal buildings 90 degrees) 147 7.13 The Lange site: top, plan map showing possible axis and alignments; bottom, artist’s reconstruction of a lunar minimum observation (images produced by Jason Rein, courtesy of Prairie Archaeology and Research, Ltd., Springfield, Illinois) 149 7.14 Burial scaffolds: top, slot trench feature sets in the Cahokia region (adapted from Alt 2006a; D. K. Jackson, personal communication 2008); bottom, a burial platform – Apsaroke (Edward S. Curtis collection, ca. 1908, image 2764–08, Library of Congress, Washington, DC) 151 7.15 River Bend Estate mortuary buildings (adapted from Harl et al. 2011: 543, citing Henning 1959) 153 7.16 Schematic plan of Emerald landscape 155