Above and below the Green Line: a social history of divergent Mississippian cultures

Abstract

ABSTRACT A cultural boundary between Late Mississippi period groups has long been observed in the Yazoo Basin corresponding with the mouth of the Arkansas River. However, similarities in mound site structure, settlement location, and processes associated with Mississippianization have sometimes led researchers to downplay these differences, effectively treating the Yazoo Basin as a single physiographic and cultural unit. We examine the idea that subtle differences in physiography within the Yazoo Basin can account for observed differences in material culture. We find that while physiography explains site location and may have influenced how Mississippian people interacted, it does not explain residential patterns, mound site use, or interactions with people from the American Bottom during the “Cahokia horizon.” Instead, we argue that Mississippi period mound sites in the northern and southern Yazoo Basin differed fundamentally in their functions, and that these differences are rooted in Late Woodland Coles Creek and Baytown notions of dwelling and ceremonial practice.