A Cycle of Lowland Forest Efficiency: The Late Archaic-Woodland Economy of the Lower Mississippi Valley

Abstract

Long before the innovations of the Mississippian Tradition, inhabitants of the lower Mississippi Valley had devised hunting-and-gathering strategies that had a lasting impact on economic life in the region. By combining wildlife and forest studies with ethnographic evidence, a cycle of food-procuring activities is outlined to illustrate how efficient exploitation of the lowland forest might have occurred from the late Archaic through the Woodland periods. During summer and fall, extensive occupation of levees scattered across the floodplain provided optimal access to the greatest variety of food sources in the region. Along lakes and bayous, winter camps concentrated on fewer resources over smaller areas. As spring flooding began, inhabitants maximized access to upland foods yet maintained proximity to the rich lowland habitat, through intensive occupation of Pleistocene bluffs. A summary of recent site studies and zooarchaeological analyses for the lower Mississippi Valley indicates that this seasonal and geographical pattern accurately characterizes the economic activities of late Archaic-Woodland occupants of the lowland forest and, furthermore, suggests that it contributed dynamically to the evolution of sedentism.