Episode 51: Building the Ponca Creek Towns: Houses, Migration, and Cultural Connections with Dr. K.C. Carlson and Dr. Doug Bamforth - Plains 51 - The Archaeology Podcast Network Feed

In Episode 51 of the Great Plains Archaeology Podcast, Carlton is joined by new co-host Chris Johnston for his first appearance in the co-host chair, along with Douglas B. Bamforth and KC Carlson to discuss their recent Plains Anthropologist article, “House Structure, Cultural Connections Between Middle Missouri and Central Plains Communities, and Peopling the Ponca Creek Sites.” The episode explores the remarkable Ponca Creek settlements of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including the enormous, rapidly developed 25BD1 site, and asks a fundamental question: who built these communities? Bamforth and Carlson explain how differences in house construction, particularly hip- and gable-roof structures, can provide evidence for migration and cultural connections that complement ceramic evidence, and how the archaeological record points toward communities formed by people with origins across different parts of the Plains. The conversation also considers the roles of environment, architecture, migration, and cultural adaptation in forming these large settlements, and what Ponca Creek can tell us about the complex, multiethnic communities of the precontact Great Plains.

Article Citation:

Douglas B. Bamforth & K. C. (Kristen) Carlson (16 Mar 2026): House
structure, cultural connections between Middle Missouri and Central Plains communities, and peopling the Ponca Creek sites, Plains Anthropologist.