UMMAA Brown Bag Lecture Series: Life in the Center: Investigating Residential Contexts at Letchworth Mounds (8JE337)

Letchworth Mounds is among the largest Woodland period ceremonial centers in Florida and includes one of the state’s tallest Pre-Columbian mounds, but has been understudied by archaeologists and omitted from regional syntheses. Despite the massive scale of the site and its primary mound, previous testing has produced little evidence of long-term habitation at Letchworth. Last year, the Letchworth Habitation Area Archaeological Project utilized remote sensing and targeted excavations to assess when and how people lived at the site. In this presentation, I discuss results from last year’s fieldwork, including a new chronology for Letchworth and the remains of a Woodland period building—the first one found at Letchworth and one of only a handful identified in the region. Based on these results, I will present an interpretation of daily life at Letchworth, comparisons with other sites in the region, and models of ceremonial center occupation in the Southeast.