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Vernon J. Knight

Jim Knight (PhD Florida, 1981) is an archaeologist who specializes in Southeastern North America and the Caribbean. He has conducted field research in several regions, and is currently involved in research in eastern Cuba. Knight's interests include the origin and development of complex societies, the archaeology of social organization and religion, and archaeological approaches to iconography. His work particularly concerns the late prehistoric, early historic, and colonial periods of the Southeast and Caribbean, with emphasis on ethnohistorical reconstruction. Knight believes that graduates of a course of study in anthropological archaeology should be at home in the field, in the laboratory, in the classroom, and in the museum. He views his role in graduate training as primarily one of developing the student's research competence, both through guiding their mastery of published scholarship and through providing opportunities for practical experience. He serves with the Museum of Natural History as Curator of Southeastern Archaeology.

Progress reports and preprints, Cuban archaeology:

Contact Dr. Knight at: vknight@as.ua.edu
Office: 24-C ten Hoor Hall
Phone: (205) 348-2026

Selected Publications

2009

Knight, Vernon J. (editor) The Search for Mabila: The Decisive Battle between Hernando de Soto and Chief Tascalusa. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

2009

Knight, Vernon J. Discovery and Excavation of the Moundville Earth Lodge. Bulletin of the Alabama Museum of Natural History 27:20-28.

2007

Knight, Vernon J., Jr. An Assessment of Moundville Engraved “Cult” Designs from Potsherds. In The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Chronology, Content, Context, edited by Adam King. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

2007

Knight, Vernon James, Jr., and Judith Franke. Identification of a Moth/Butterfly Supernatural in Mississippian Art. In Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography, edited by F. K. Reilly III and J. F. Garber, pp. 136-151. University of Texas Press, Austin.

2006

Knight, Vernon J., Jr. Farewell to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Southeastern Archaeology 25:1-5.

2004

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Ceremonialism until A.D.1500. In Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast, edited by R. Fogelson, pp. 734-741. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

2004

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Characterizing Elite Midden Deposits at Moundville. American Antiquity 69(1):304-321.

2004

Knight, Vernon James, Jr., and Frank T. Schnell. Silence over Kolomoki: A Curious Episode in the History of Southeastern Archaeology. Southeastern Archaeology 23(1):1-11.

2004

Steponaitis, Vincas P., and Vernon James Knight, Jr. Moundville Art in Historical and Social Context. In Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South, edited by R. F. Townsend and R. V. Sharp, pp. 167-181. Yale University Press, New Haven.

2003

Marquardt, W. H., V. P. Steponaitis, V. J. Knight, Jr., R. P S. Davis, Jr., K. Sassaman, R. C. Mainfort, Jr., and G. A. Waselkov The Editors Speak: Reminiscences of the Editors of Southeastern Archaeology on the Occasion of its Twentieth Anniversary, compiled by V. P. Steponaitis. Southeastern Archaeology 22:1-8.

2002

Walthall, John A., Vernon J. Knight, Jr., and Gregory A. Waselkov Alabama Archaeology in the Twentieth Century. In Histories of Southeastern Archeology, edited by S. Tushingham, J. Hill, and C. McNutt, pp. 194-208. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

2001

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Feasting and the Emergence of Platform Mound Ceremonialism in Eastern North America. In Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power, edited by M. Dietler and B. Hayden, pp. 239-254. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

2001

Knight, Vernon James, Jr., James A. Brown, and George E. Lankford On the Subject Matter of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Art. Southeastern Archaeology 20:129-141.

1998

Knight Vernon James, Jr. Moundville as a Diagrammatic Ceremonial Center. In Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom, edited by V. J. Knight and V. P. Steponaitis, pp. 44-62. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

1998

Knight, Vernon James, Jr., and Vincas P. Steponaitis A New History of Moundville. In Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom, edited by V. J. Knight and V. P. Steponaitis, pp. 1-25. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

1997

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Some Developmental Parallels Between Cahokia and Moundville. In Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World, edited by T. P. Pauketat and T. E. Emerson, pp. 229-268. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

1996

Knight, Vernon James, Jr., editor. The Moundville Expeditions of Clarence Bloomfield Moore, edited with an Introduction by Vernon James Knight. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

1994

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Ocmulgee Fields Culture and the Historical Development of Creek Ceramics. In Ocmulgee Archaeology, edited by David J. Hally, pp. 181-189. University of Georgia Press.

1994

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. The Formation of the Creeks. In The Forgotten Centuries: Indians and Europeans in the American South, 1513-1704, edited by Charles Hudson and Carmen Chaves Tesser, pp. 373-392. University of Georgia Press.

1993

Knight V.J., L.A. Clayton and E.C. Moore, editors. The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando De Soto to North America in 1539-1543. Two vols. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

1990

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Social Organization and the Evolution of Hierarchy in Southeastern Chiefdoms. Journal of Anthropological Research 46(1):1-23.

1989

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Some Speculations on Mississippian Monsters. In The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Artifacts and Analysis, edited by P.K. Galloway, pp. 205-210. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

1989

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. Symbolism of Mississippian Mounds. In Powhatan's Mantle: Essays in Southeastern Ethnohistory, edited by M.T. Hatley, G.A. Waselkov, and P.H. Wood, pp. 279-291. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

1986

Knight, Vernon James, Jr. The Institutional Organization of Mississippian Religion. American Antiquity 51(4):675-687.

1984

Knight VJ. Late Prehistoric Adaptation in the Mobile Bay Region. In Perspectives on Gulf Coast Prehistory, edited by Dave D. Davis, pp. 198-215. University Presses of Florida, Gainesville.

1984

Milanich, J. T., A. S. Cordell, V. J. Knight, Jr., T. A. Kohler, and B.J. Sigler-Lavelle McKeithen Weeden Island: The Culture of Northern Florida, A.D. 200-900. Academic Press, New York.

1981

Schnell, Frank T., Vernon James Knight, Jr., and Gail S. Schnell Cemochechobee: The Archaeology of a Mississippian Ceremonial Center on the Chattahoochee River. University Presses of Florida, Gainesville.