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

Table 3.1. Intra- and Intercomponent Distances (meters) at Fort Hill.
OCCUPATION I OCCUPATION II
Location Village Plaza Ceremonial Village Plaza Ceremonial
Center Center Post Center Center Post
Occupation I Village Center 0 11.83 3.66 20.24 14.23 12.16
Plaza Center 11.83 0 14.72 8.41 4.48 5.03
Ceremonial Post 3.66 14.72 0 23.10 17.59 15.67
Occupation II Village Center 20.24 8.41 23.10 0 7.59 10.21
Plaza Center 14.23 4.48 17.59 7.59 0 2.65
Ceremonial Post 12.16 5.03 15.67 10.21 2.65 0
of a men’s house within what was once a larger plaza
area would have been consistent with the plaza functioning
as a largely male domain, as has been recorded
in Central Brazilian ring-shaped villages (Maybury-
Lewis 1989:101). If the men’s house also functioned as
a council house, it would have represented the formal
development of a level of suprahousehold organization
between the heads of households within the
village. This level of decision making may have developed
in part as a response to scalar stresses caused by
increases in population and corresponding increases in
crowding. Following from Gummerman (1994:9), a
viable village community could only have been maintained
as population size and density grew if social
organizations were modified or developed to accommodate
increased interaction by larger numbers of
people. Otherwise, cooperation and decision making
within a village community would have degenerated.
Two areas within Fort Hill I each account for approximately
5 percent of the total settlement area. Both are
located adjacent to House 16 and may have been related
to its function as a men’s/council house. One area to
the southwest of House 16 represented a space whose
access was restricted to the dwellings that surrounded
it on all sides. This area resembles a potential courtyard
group recognized at Peck No. 2, another village site in
Somerset County (Means 1998a:58-59). It would have
been created as dwellings encroached onto the original
space set aside for the plaza within Fort Hill I. A second
area located to the east of House 16 may have been set
aside for specialized, possibly ritual activities during
the entire period that Fort Hill I was occupied. This is
suggested by the fact that (1) no dwellings were constructed
here during the initial planning of the village
or at any subsequent time in its occupational history;
and, (2) the area is devoid of features except for three
hearths that form a tight cluster. This is a somewhat
tentative scenario, as no ritual or ceremonial items are
known to have been found in this area and it is not
clear if the three hearths were contemporaneous. This
cluster of hearths is due east of the central post and
may have been used in ceremonies to celebrate and
acknowledge the vernal or autumnal equinox. Such
ceremonies would have acted to reinforce the social
order which, at least initially, may have been arrayed
within the village according to geometric models that
had a cosmological basis (Means 2001).
The remaining 43 percent of total settlement space in
Fort Hill I was largely distributed unevenly and as fairly
small spaces between adjacent dwellings or between
dwellings and the surrounding palisade. These spaces
are difficult to define and quantify, so the spacing
60 Means