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Coosa: A Chiefdom in the Sixteenth-Century Southeastern United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles Hudson ,
Marvin Smith ,
David Hally ,
Richard Polhemus  and
Chester DePratter
Charles Hudson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
Marvin Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611
David Hally
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
Richard Polhemus
Affiliation:
Frank McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916
Chester DePratter
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
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Abstract

Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers regarded Coosa as one of the most important chiefdoms in the southeastern United States. Using both documentary and archaeological evidence, we have located the main town of Coosa and several tributary towns, as well as some of the frontiers of the chiefdom. The locations of these towns and frontiers are supported by the archaeological recovery of sixteenth-century European artifacts in the postulated area of the chiefdom.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 1985 , pp. 723 - 737
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1985

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