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Plazas as Architecture: An Example from the Raffman Site, Northeast Louisiana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Tristram R. Kidder
Tristram R. Kidder*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130
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Abstract

Research at the Raffman site (16MA20), a multi-mound center in the Lower Mississippi Valley of northeast Louisiana, demonstrates that the plaza was purposefully built and extended on its northern end. Construction entailed significant earth-moving and labor effort in addition to the erection of mounds flanking the plaza. At Raffman plaza, building is dated ca. A.D. 700–1000. Like the mounds at the site, the arrangement, shape, and dimensions of the plaza changed through time. The final plan of the plaza was the result of a rapid major reconfiguration of the spatial layout of the site at approximately A.D. 1000. The effort expended on planning and construction of the plaza at Raffman and similar features at contemporary and later sites in the southeastern United States indicates that plazas are not just empty spaces that developed because architecture enclosed an open area; they must be understood as one of the central design elements of community planning and intrasite spatial organization. Further research should be devoted to exploring how southeastern mound-and-plaza groups were constructed with specific efforts devoted to comprehending how plazas were laid out and built.

Resumen

Resumen

Las investigaciones en el sitio Raffman (16MA20), un centro de múltiples montículos en el valle bajo del Mississippi de Luisiana nororiental, demuestran que la plaza se construyó y extendió con un propósito determinado en su extremo norte. La construcción supuso un significativo desplazamiento de tierra y esfuerzo laboral, además del levantamiento de los montículos al lado de la plaza. La construcción de la plaza de Raffman data de los años 700–1000 d. C. Al igual que los montículos del sitio, la disposición, la forma y las dimensiones de la plaza fueron cambiando con el paso del tiempo. El piano final de la plaza fue el resultado de una rápida e importante reconfiguración de la distribución espacial del sitio en el año 1000 d.C., aproximadamente. El esfuerzo invertido en el diseño y la construcción de la plaza de Raffman, y características similares a las de otros sitios contemporáneos y posteriores en el sudeste de los Estados Unidos indican que las plazas no fueron sólo espacios vacíos que surgieron al construirse alrededor de áreas abiertas. Las plazas deben ser entendidas, en cambio, como uno de los elementos de diseño centrales en la planificación de la comunidad y en la organización espacial dentro de los sitios (intrasite). Las investigaciones futuras deben dedicarse a explorar cómo los grupos de plazas y montículos del sudeste se construyeron con propósitos específicos, y orientados a entender cómo se trazaron y construyeron las plazas.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , July 2004 , pp. 514 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2004

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