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A Council Circle at Etzanoa? Multi-sensor Drone Survey at an Ancestral Wichita Settlement in Southeastern Kansas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2020

Jesse Casana Open the ORCID record for Jesse Casana [Opens in a new window] ,
Elise Jakoby Laugier ,
Austin Chad Hill  and
Donald Blakeslee
Jesse Casana*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, 3 Tuck Drive, Hanover, NH03755, USA
Elise Jakoby Laugier
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, 3 Tuck Drive, Hanover, NH03755, USA
Austin Chad Hill
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, 3 Tuck Drive, Hanover, NH03755, USA
Donald Blakeslee
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount St., Wichita, KS67260, USA
*
(jesse.j.casana@dartmouth.edu, corresponding author)
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Abstract

This article presents results of a multi-sensor drone survey at an ancestral Wichita archaeological site in southeastern Kansas, originally recorded in the 1930s and believed by some scholars to be the location of historical “Etzanoa,” a major settlement reportedly encountered by Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate in 1601. We used high-resolution, drone-acquired thermal and multispectral (color and near-infrared) imagery, alongside publicly available lidar data and satellite imagery, to prospect for archaeological features across a relatively undisturbed 18 ha area of the site. Results reveal a feature that is best interpreted as the remains of a large, circular earthwork, similar to so-called council circles documented at five other contemporary sites of the Great Bend aspect cultural assemblage. We also located several features that may be remains of house basins, the size and configuration of which conform with historical evidence. These findings point to major investment in the construction of large-scale ritual, elite, or defensive structures, lending support to the interpretation of the cluster of Great Bend aspect sites in the lower Walnut River as a single, sprawling population center, as well as demonstrating the potential for thermal and multispectral surveys to reveal archaeological landscape features in the Great Plains and beyond.

Este artículo presenta los resultados de una encuesta de drones con sensores múltiples en un sitio arqueológico ancestral de Wichita en el sureste de Kansas, originalmente registrado en la década de 1930 y que muchos estudiosos creen que es la ubicación del histórico “Etzanoa”, un asentamiento importante que según los informes encontró el conquistador español Juan de Oñate en 1601. Utilizamos imágenes térmicas y multiespectrales de alta resolución, adquiridas por drones (color e infrarrojo cercano), junto con datos lidar disponibles e imágenes satelitales disponibles públicamente, para buscar características arqueológicas en un área relativamente tranquila de 18 hectáreas del sitio. Los resultados revelan una característica que se interpreta mejor como los restos de un gran movimiento de tierra circular, similar a los llamados “círculos de concilios” documentados en otros cinco sitios contemporáneos del conjunto cultural del aspecto Great Bend. También localizamos varias características que pueden ser restos de cuencas domésticas, cuyo tamaño y configuración se ajustan a la evidencia histórica. Estos hallazgos apuntan a una importante inversión en la construcción de estructuras rituales, de élite o defensivas a gran escala, que brindan apoyo a la interpretación del grupo de sitios de aspecto de Great Bend en el bajo río Walnut como un único centro de población en expansión, así como demostrando el potencial de los estudios térmicos y multiespectrales para revelar características del paisaje arqueológico en las Grandes Llanuras y más allá.

Keywords

remote sensingthermographyUAVGreat Bend aspectearthworkancestral Wichitasensores remotostermografíaVANTaspecto de Gran BendterraplénWichita ancestral
Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 761 - 780
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by the Society for American Archaeology

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