ABSTRACT
This research uses a combination of traditional settlement pattern and more recent settlement ecology methods to create and explain a model of settlement change among Piedmont Village Tradition communities in the Southeast region of North America during ad 800-1600. Settlement ecology studiesthose that attempt to explain settlement patterns through quantitative methods or ethnographic/ethnohistoric analogy-are not as prevalent in the interior Southeast as in other regions of North America (e.g. Haas and Creamer 1993; Allen 1996; Hasenstab 1996; Maschner 1996; Jones 2006, 2010; Sakaguchi et al. 2010). Settlement pattern research-that which focuses on descriptions of settlement patterns-on the other hand, has been as popular in this region as in any other, particularly studies of sociopolitically complex Mississippian societies (e.g. Dickens 1978; Anderson 1994; Jefferies et al. 1996; Pluckhahn and McKivergan 2002). Starting in the 1970s, studies of the settlement patterns of Piedmont Village Tradition societies established them as a viable archaeological culture and produced a wealth of information (Simpkins 1985; Dickens et al. 1987; Woodall 1990; Davis and Ward 1991; Ward and Davis 1993). Some of these studies, particularly Simpkins (1985), began the process of moving beyond describing patterns to explaining them, setting the stage for empirical testing aimed at generating evidence-based explanations for settlement behaviors. To date, settlement ecology research in the Southeast has largely examined regional scales and has not explored change over time (see Jones et al. 2012; Jones and Ellis 2016; Jones 2015). In fairness, most settlement ecology research in North America in general has remained synchronic and on a regional level, my own work included. The research I describe in this chapter is an attempt to address these current limitations.
