Evidence of small-scale feasting from the Woodland period site of Kolomoki, Georgia

Feasting has emerged within the past 15 years as a topic of great interest in archaeology. By far the greatest share of this attention has been devoted to large-scale public feasting, often interpreted as an avenue for political maneuvering and the negotiation of power between competing factions. Smaller-scale feasting has not been studied as closely, but it is generally assumed to be related to rituals that emphasize solidarity within households and lineages. We present a case study in the identification of small-scale feasting at the Woodland period site of Kolomoki (9ER1) in sw Georgia. Our identification of feasting is based on anomalies in the faunal, macro-botanical, and artifact assemblages from a pit house that appears to have filled rapidly with a midden. Multiple lines of evidence may be necessary to identify smaller-scale feasting, because it is typically an infrequent occurrence conducted primarily in domestic settings, and is usually obscured by ordinary household refuse. As predicted by hypothetical characterizations of small-scale feasts, the assemblage from Kolomoki contains few examples of the type of exotic artifacts associated with individual aggrandizement. We argue that broad descriptions of small-scale feasts as "solidarity" rituals may overlook competition and conflict at the household level.