UGA anthropology researcher quoted on Mantle site

CBSNews.com ran a story about a very interesting discovery in Ontario - a giant, hitherto unknown 16th century settlement:

Occupied between roughly A.D. 1500 and 1530, the so-called Mantle site was settled by the Wendat (Huron). Excavations at the site, between 2003 and 2005, have uncovered its 98 longhouses, a palisade of three rows (a fence made of heavy wooden stakes and used for defense) and about 200,000 artifacts. Dozens of examples of art have been unearthed showing haunting human faces and depictions of animals, with analysis ongoing.

Now, a scholarly book detailing the discoveries is being prepared and a documentary about the site called "Curse of the Axe" aired this week on the History Channel in Canada.

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 "When you think about a site like Mantle, 2,000 people, massive stockade around a community, a better analogy is that of a medieval town," Jennifer Birch, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Georgia, said in the documentary. "While the cultures are very different, the societal form really isn't."

Despite its massive size, the site remained hidden for hundreds of years, likely escaping detection because its longhouses were primarily made of wood, which doesn't preserve well.

Dr. Jennifer Birch is a post-doctoral fellow in the department of anthropology, whose research is focused on exploring the processes of settlement aggregation - when people have formed larger and larger communities, necessary changes in their social, political and economic organization, of course, accompany these changes to accomodate the new dynamics of the settlement. Birch's work explores how ancient peoples comfitted themselves and their environments to these changes. Her work has been focused primarliy on the Huron-Wendat Mantle site. In addition to her research, which you can learn more about here, she teaches courses in the department, as well.

Image: Rendering of a Wendat palisade village.