This townscape archaeological study investigates the manner in which a large prehistoric urban settlement became organized, flourished and declined, using new and legacy data from the Mississippian town of Angel Mounds (ca. 1100-1400 AD) on the Ohio River near present day Evansville, Indiana. The attributes and distribution of architecture including plaza, earthen mounds, palisades, houses and sacred or civic architecture are identified via a large scale subsurface imaging survey and then placed into a chronological framework. Associated economic data are also investigated as evidence for patterns of local craft production and regional trade in exotics. The developmental narrative is then tested against various models of foundational processes. The data suggest that Angel was established at its fullest spatial extent as a new town, and that palisades then contracted while populations apparently increased. With the apparent increase in population, ceramic production and the occurrence of exotics did not proportionately change, while textile production appears to have significantly increased. These factors are considered in light of Angel as a prehistoric urban settlement.

Prior knowledge of the developmental trajectory of Angel has been limited. This project provides fifteen new radiocarbon dates, a whole-town geophysical map, new demographic estimates and new excavation data. These data are integrated with the existing record in a digital gazetteer in order to investigate comprehensive townscape level survey of architecture and associated artifact assemblages. This new spatially informed chronology expands upon the existing ceramic seriation which had established a more general model of Angel’s growth and development.