Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

Diametric, concentric, and circumferential models
can operate simultaneously or sequentially and on the
same or different levels to influence the layout of a
ring-shaped village from its initial establishment and
throughout its occupational history. A general “huband-spoke”
model has been developed that combines
facets of these three models (Figure 3.6). The model’s
name was inspired by one researcher’s observation
that the Central Brazilian village of Ponto “. . . looks
like a huge wheel, with the plaza at the hub and the
spokes [paths] radiating to the houses which are on
the circumference” (James 1949:27). In the hub-andspoke
model, the hub represents the central and
sacred plaza and the spokes radiate out from the center
to the periphery, which is the profane and domestic
area. The spokes divide the periphery into a number
of “wedges,” thus highlighting the existence of a
circumferential model. The wedges can combine in
different ways and on different levels as groups and
subgroups of differing sizes form, depending on the
strength of social, economic, and political ties. The
operation of a diametric model is evident if two major
wedge groupings are present, which may include a
variable number of subgroupings. The hub-andspoke
model is an heuristic construct designed to
emphasize that the spatial layout of a village site must
be examined in terms of diametric, concentric, and
circumferential patterning.
Villages where households were fairly autonomous
or linked informally are expected to have evenly
spaced dwellings (see Nass 1995) and to have a fairly
even distribution of pit features among the dwellings.
Burial features, when present, will not form discrete
clusters. Such a village would likely not have had a
large enough population to have necessitated the
development of suprahousehold organization. More
formal economic, social, and political links between
groups of households are inferable where dwellings
are unevenly spaced and where dwelling size is more
variable. Dwellings may form clusters within the village
that represent discrete residential corporate
groups that are linked along kin lines, as well as economic
and political considerations. The number of
dwellings, their size, and arrangement within such a
cluster may suggest its social nature and measure its
differential economic success compared to other such
clusters. The presence of permanent, specialized, and
bounded cemeteries within a village would probably
indicate the presence of a corporate group structure in
the form of a lineal descent system (Goldstein
1981:61). If the overall pattern of dwellings around a
house ring is segmented into wedges (Dunnell 1983),
each wedge could represent a different, lineage-based
descent group or clan.
SETTLEMENT AND SUBSISTENCE
OVERVIEW FOR THE ALLEGHENY
MOUNTAINS REGION OF THE LOWER
UPPER OHIO RIVER BASIN
Figure 3.6. “Hub-and-spoke” model of a ringshaped
village settlement.
The majority of archaeological investigations in the
Allegheny Mountains region of the Lower Upper
Ohio River basin have occurred in an area coterminous
with Somerset County, Pennsylvania, that is
drained by the Youghiogheny and Casselman Rivers,
which form a portion of the headwaters of the Ohio
River Drainage system (Augustine 1938a:6; Flint
1965:14; Wall 1981:3). The Raystown Branch of the
Juniata River, which is part of the Susquehanna River
drainage, originates in Somerset County, as do several
headwaters of the Potomac River (Flint 1965:14).
This region’s geographic placement suggests that it
Chapter 3 Modeling Village Community Organization Using Data From the Somerset County Relief Excavations 51