Abandonment of the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee during the Mississippian period: Temporal and sex differences in survivorship.

Abstract

The current research explores survivorship differences in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee during the Mississippian period (ca. 1000-1500 AD). Using updated paleodemographic methods, this study investigates whether individuals from the Late Mississippian period had lower survivorship compared to individuals from the Early Mississippian period, foreshadowing groups on the brink of abandonment. Additionally, this study examines whether there were sex disparities in survivorship. Adult age-at-death estimates from human skeletal remains (n=545) were calculated using Transition Analysis, a Bayesian maximum likelihood method. Survivorship was reconstructed using Gompertz and Gompertz-Makeham hazards models, with Akaike Information Criterion compared to determine the best fitting model. For individuals surviving into adulthood, mean age-at-death decreased by 7 years from the Early Mississippian to Late Mississippian period. Marked differences between the sexes indicate lower survivorship of females compared to males. Male survivorship decreased sharply from the Early Mississippian to Late Mississippian period, from a mean age-at-death of 57.99 years to 44.45 years. Female survivorship remained constant throughout the Mississippian period (41 years). Temporal differences in male survivorship may be the result of interactions between climate change, decreased maize harvests, and sociopolitical strife. Sustained maternal mortality may have destabilized small-scale communities that characterized the Mississippian MCR, thereby precipitating population decline.