Southeastern archaic mounds: Examples of elaboration in a temporally fluctuating environment?

Mounds dating to the mid-Holocene in the southeastern United States have ch allenged traditional ideas about conditions under which elaboration tends t o occur. A hypothesis of wasteful behavior based on Dunnell's (1989) waste scenario and bet hedging from evolutionary ecology (Seger and Brockmann 198 7) may-provide a viable account for the selection of elaboration, including early mounds. Some of the variables required to formulate a satisfactory t est of this and alternative explanations are examined. Paleoenvironental da ta suggestive of a temporally variable environment in the Southeast during the mid-Holocene are examined. More detailed flooding histories will be an essential part of future research concerned with testing these types of hyp otheses. (C) 1999 Academic Press.