6. Walls As Symbols of Political, Economic, and Military Might Sissel Schroeder Abstract: During the eleventh century A.D., the frequency with which stout - walls were constructed around settlements began to increase across the East- ern Woodlands. While some of the large Mississippian mound sites in the Southeast and southern Midwest were protected with substantial enclosures studded with bastions, other mound sites lacked these features. Typically associated with warfare, such walls reflect vertical integration involving re- .. gional elites as they vied for adherents, struggled to establish and maintain alliances, cultivated and enhanced the sanctity of chiefly office, and attempt- ed to augment their prestige and expand their spheres of influence through the use of coercive force and the construction of monuments; the walls also manifest horizontal forms of integration involving followers and allies who weighed the benefits and costs associateawith a loss of autonomy in such CJ contentious social landscape. The implications of village fortification for the ascent, attrition, transformation, and eventual dissolution of chiefly power are explored using a case example from the lower Tennessee River valley in western Kentucky. I One of the most enduring topics of anthropological inquiry has been the emergence and evol.ution of chiefdoms (e.g., Drennan and Uribe 1987; Earle 1991; Redmond 1998; Service 1962). Archaeologists recently have been exploring . the many pathways along which such societies developed and the diverse, mul- tiple, and shifting ideological, economic, political, and military strategies used by chiefs as they continuously negotiated with their potential followers, allies, and competitors to achieve, maintain, and advance their positions of author- ity (Anderson 1994a; Blanton et ale 1996; Earle 1997; Feinman and Neitzel 1984; Mann 1986; Sanders and Webster 1978; Trubitt 2000, 2003; see the other chapters Leadership and Polity in Mississippian Society, edited by Brian M. Butler and Paul D. Welch. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 33. © 2006 by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-88104-090-8. 115