Abstract

It can be shown that Mississippian agricultural systems were limited by a finite number of behavioral and technological choices. These limitations can be used to define the boundary conditions for an unstable economic system capable of existing precariously far from equilibrium as soil and nutrient resources become depleted. Using this basic stability model, the "chiefdom of Coosa" is here redefined as the endpoint of a series of responses (phases?) to fluctuating agricultural and climatic potentials. The implications of this "modeled Coosa" are then contrasted against the "archaeological/historical Coosa" with specific emphasis on uncovering probable sociopolitical and settlement solutions.

Later, a longer version of the paper's arguments will be cross-linked to the hypertext version, above.

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