Mississippian Site Research Articles

Furrows Without Ridges: Evidence for an Agricultural Field at Angel Mounds (12Vg1), Southwestern Indiana, USA

ABSTRACT Evidence of precontact agricultural practices demonstrating how and where crops were grown is often scant because of poor preservation and modern land use practices. As a result, relatively few sites have been identified that document farm fields or garden beds. We document remnants of a ridge and furrow agricultural system found at Angel Mounds, an important regional Mississippian site, in Indiana, USA. Researchers have identified many different cultigens from Angel Mounds, but the location, type, and age of fields had not been identified previously. Our research team recovered data indicating that the third terrace of Angel Mounds supported ridge and furrow agriculture where villagers grew maize, beans, and gourds for several centuries. This study suggests that agricultural evidence is extant in buried contexts and that these features are easily overlooked using traditional geophysical and survey techniques.

Rare animals at a Mississippian chiefly compound: the Irene Mound site (9CH1), Georgia, USA

ABSTRACTThe Irene Mound site (9CH1) was a Middle and Late Mississippian site (ca. AD 1150–1450) situated on a bluff overlooking the lower Savannah River, Georgia (USA), a few kilometers upstream from the Atlantic Ocean. The 2.4 ha site consisted of a sequence of superimposed layers referred to as temple mounds, as well as a burial mound, a rotunda, a few residences, and other structures. It is interpreted as the residence of a chiefly lineage. The presence of animals rare or absent in other precolonial coastal assemblages distinguishes the Irene assemblage from others along the coast. Some of the animals exhibit atypical, even dangerous, behavior, others have elaborate feathers or fine fur, and many are notable coastal fishers. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) specimens in the assemblage are dominated by portions from the body. Irene may provide a zooarchaeological standard for assessing evidence of site functions and status in other coastal assemblages.

Foodways and community at the Late Mississippian site of Parchman Place

ABSTRACTCommunal eating events or feasts were important activities associated with the founding and maintenance of Mississippian communities in the southeastern United States. More often than not, however, archaeological deposits of food refuse are interpreted along a spectrum, with household-level consumption at one end and community-wide feasting at the other. Here, we draw attention to the important ways that domestic food practices contributed to social events and processes at the community level. We examine ceramic, botanical, and faunal assemblages from two fourteenth-century contexts at Parchman Place (22CO511), a Late Mississippi period site in the northern Yazoo Basin. For the earlier deposit, everyday ceramics and plant foods combined with high-utility deer portions and exotic birds suggest potluck-style feasting meant to bring people together in the context of establishing a community in place. We interpret the later deposit, with its pure ash matrix, focus on serving wares, and purposeful disposal of edible maize and animal remains, as the result of activities related to maize harvest ceremonialism. Both practices suggest that household contributions in general and disposal of domestic food refuse in particular are critical yet underappreciated venues for creating and maintaining community ties in the Mississippian Southeast.

Assessing subsistence and its relationship to cultural complexity in the late prehistoric upper Midwest: A new perspective provided by dental health.

Previous researchers have assumed that the Late Prehistoric Oneota were less reliant on maize agriculture than their Middle Mississippian neighbors to the south. This assumption is based on the idea that intensive maize agriculture is related to sociopolitical complexity, and that the climate of the Great Lakes region was less conducive to full-scale agriculture than that of the American Bottom. Here, we assess the diet of the Oneota using dental pathology to test the hypothesis that the Oneota in Eastern Wisconsin were highly reliant on maize agriculture. To test our hypothesis, skeletal remains representing 187 individuals and 1,102 teeth were examined from nine Oneota sites from the Middle Fox and Koshkonong Localities, as well as the Late Woodland/Middle Mississippian site of Aztalan. Dental caries, antemortem tooth loss (AMTL), and dental abscesses were assessed for each individual in the sample. Dental pathologies in the Oneota groups were compared to each other based on Locality and to the Aztalan population using chi-squared tests. Dental caries rates for the Oneota, based on the tooth count approach, were observed at 16.8% for the Middle Fox Locality, and 49% for the Koshkonong Locality. Comparatively, the Late Woodland/Middle Mississippian population from Aztalan had a tooth count rate of 19.5%. AMTL rates were similar across samples. Dental abscessing was universally low. The relatively high rate of dental caries among the Oneota is comparable to Middle Mississippian populations from throughout the Midwest, suggesting similar reliance on maize between the groups.

The Mississippian Site of Origin for the So-Called Moundville Spider

Abstract For 60 years, the origin of an iconographically significant example of Southeastern Mississippian symbolic art has been enmeshed in error and ambiguity. A trail of sleuthing over 25 years provides information used to assess museum curation records and published clues from 1887 to the present, contextualizing the mystery and finally allowing identification of a specific Mississippian period cemetery of origin for the so-called Moundville spider.

Shell beads from Mississippian sites in the northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi

ABSTRACTIn this paper, which focuses on the Mississippian period in the northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi, I present some interesting findings from research done over the past century. In this area, most shell beads come from surface collections, or from excavated burials in cemeteries or ossuaries. Burial styles include extended, flexed, semi-flexed, and bundles, with very few cremations having been encountered. Bead burials also seem to reflect both common and elite people, and there are some interesting discoveries concerning association of shell beads. I will use 33 archaeologically investigated major sites as examples to illustrate an unexpected paucity of shell beads and other shell ornaments at some of the most heavily populated Mississippian sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Two other sites with shell beads in the uplands will be used for comparison.

The Mississippian Site of Origin for the So-Called Moundville Spider

ABSTRACTFor 60 years, the origin of an iconographically significant example of Southeastern Mississippian symbolic art has been enmeshed in error and ambiguity. A trail of sleuthing over 25 years provides information used to assess museum curation records and published clues from 1887 to the present, contextualizing the mystery and finally allowing identification of a specific Mississippian period cemetery of origin for the so-called Moundville spider.

Social integration at a frontier and the creation of Mississippian social identity in southwestern Virginia

ABSTRACTFrontier areas are poor in labor but rich in land. To be successful, frontiers must attract people and socially integrate them using both low- and high-level social integrative mechanisms, which can range from basic work groups to elaborate feasts. Craft production can be a useful means of accomplishing low and high levels of social integration because it can be done as part of a work group but for special purposes, such as exchange. In the process of social integration, social identity specific to the types of crafts produced and their uses emerges. This paper examines a Mississippian frontier site, Carter Robinson, and discusses evidence for the production and use of ceramics and shell beads as integrative mechanisms at the Southern Appalachian Mississippian frontier area. Through the use of these types of mechanisms I argue that both a communal social identity and an identity of social inequality were created at Carter Robinson which resulted in the production and reproduction of Mississippian identity.

Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma: Dental Evidence for Subsistence Strategies

AbstractSpiro Mounds was a ceremonial complex located on the Arkansas River, situated in a natural corridor between the Southeast, the Plains, and the Southwestern United States. Considered a quintessential Mississippian site (ad 1000–ad 1450), Spiro was strategically placed as a cultural gateway. Here, dental evidence is presented to aid in the determination of dietary regime and overall population health. The hypothesis regarding the delayed transition to maize agriculture in the Arkansas River Valley will be tested through population comparisons of dental remains. This study will expand the bioarchaeological investigation of a region that has had limited systematic examination.Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between Alluvial, Upland, and Plains environmental zones, and the pattern of dental pathology. Assaults on the dentition at Spiro are moderate. Caries and hypoplasia rates fall just under but approaching those expected for agricultural populations (57% and 49%, respectively). The high number of occlusal caries indicates slower cariogenic destruction and a slower attrition rate. Ante mortem tooth loss was low (18%), with moderate dental attrition (61%). The dental analysis of Spiro Mounds reveals a population with little generalised stress resulting from environmental or sociocultural influences.Comparisons of Spiro to other larger sites in the Mississippian sphere is revealing regarding widespread cultural traditions and their affect on population health; Spiro's unique circumstances give evidence of a population in transition to maize agriculture, but not fully committed to it. Higher status individuals were slower to change from the subsistence strategies that had made them biologically successful. Recent isotope data support this conclusion. The delayed role of maize agriculture at Spiro Mounds, as well as its ideal location within the Mississippian sphere, indicates a different social evolution than other influential Mississippian centres. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Civil Cooking Pot: Hominy and the Mississippian Standard Jar in the Black Warrior Valley, Alabama

AbstractAlthough the Mississippian standard jar, a specific vessel form found in many parts of the Mississippian cultural world, has long been recognized as a utilitarian cooking pot, the important connection between this ceramic form and maize has largely been overlooked. By focusing on the Mississippian site of Moundville located in the Black Warrior valley of west-central Alabama, I propose that the Mississippian standard jar was not simply a general cooking pot, but instead a specialized culinary tool used to nixtamalize maize. As such, both the vessel and the plant were part of a cohesive ancestral hominy foodway. This relationship is demonstrated in two ways: first, by articulating both the hominy foodway and the antecedent nut foodway practiced between A.D. 1020–1260; and, second, by exploring changes in the morphology and use-alteration patterns of the Moundville Mississippian standard jars recovered from contexts dating to the Moundville I-III phases(A.D. 1120–1520). The relationship between vessel and food demonstrated here suggests a practice- and taste-based model for the synergistic relationship long recognized between maize and the emergence of the Mississippian civic-ceremonial center of Moundville.

Portable x-ray fluorescence in sourcing prehistoric whelk shell artifacts

Portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry was used to chemically source Busycon shell items from three eastern Tennessee Mississippian period sites. Discriminant function analysis of portable x-ray fluorescence data from control shells from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts indicated variation in strontium levels in Busycon provides a statistically significant predictor of shells’ origins, correctly classifying 86.5% of controls to their coasts of origin. Application of the discriminant function to shell items from Mississippian sites in northeastern and southeastern Tennessee indicated significant differences by region in proportions of artifacts classified as deriving from Atlantic or Gulf coast shell. More than 60% of items from southeastern Tennessee exhibited strontium levels similar to Gulf coast control shells; less than 50% of northeastern Tennessee items were classified as deriving from the Gulf. Variation in ratios of Gulf- to Atlantic-sourced shell artifacts by region is consistent with past predictions that late prehistoric inhabitants of southeastern and northeastern Tennessee participated in different long-distance exchange networks.

Microartifact Analysis and Site Formation of a Mississippian House Floor at Wickliffe Mounds, Kentucky

This paper examines the microartifact assemblage from a Mississippian pit-house interior at Wickliffe Mounds, a multiple mound center and town located in western Kentucky. Distributions of microartifacts in the 1–2, 2–4, and 4–6.3 mm fractions are compared. Results indicate that the smaller artifacts do not simply mirror larger artifacts, but rather contain additional information about cultural behavior. Density plots reveal the intensity and location of human activities within the household including distinct areas for cooking/food preparation, tool maintenance, and storage. These distributions differentiate between public and private areas, a result conforming to idealized models of household organization postulated for Dallas-phase Mississippian sites in Tennessee. The identification of copper is particularly noteworthy because only two slivers were recovered during excavations. Found only in the 1–2 mm fraction, the copper is an ore rather than native copper. These remains may represent materials ground to make green pigments, an activity not readily apparent in the macroartifact assemblage. Finally, this paper highlights the nuanced perspective gained by incorporating elemental analyses and examining microartifact composition, emphasizing that it is not just the distribution of microartifacts that help archaeologists interpret human behavior, but also their composition, stability, and fragmentation.

The functional dimensions of earth oven cooking: An analysis of an accidently burned maize roast at the C. W. Cooper site in West-central Illinois

Despite the prevalence of earth ovens, a subclass of pit features used for cooking, there is little consensus regarding how these cooking features were used or about the foodstuffs that were prepared in them. To provide a more detailed understanding of earth oven cooking in the archaeological record, we analyze the archaeobotanical contents, stratigraphy, and morphology of a cooking pit recently excavated at C. W. Cooper, an early Mississippian (a.d. 1150–1200) site in west-central Illinois in order to contribute to research on late Prehistoric foodways. Filled with nearly 100 ears of maize, this earth oven presents the opportunity to document the process of undertaking a maize roast. The volume of maize and its presence within a dense concentration of cooking, processing, and storage facilities allows us to consider the communal nature of outdoor earth oven cooking in the 12th century Central Illinois Valley and the socioeconomic dimensions of commensal politics more broadly during the Precolumbian era.

Remote Sensing as Community Settlement Analysis at Moundville

AbstractRemote sensing has revolutionized procedures for locating buried features at archaeological sites in eastern North America. However, the potential of instruments such as gradiometers to shape innovative research in ways that move beyond survey and testing is not always realized in practice. At the Mississippian site of Moundville, Alabama, we conducted a landscape-scale geophysical survey to serve as the guiding method of community settlement analysis. First, we mapped the distribution of magnetic anomalies across the site. Next, we defined the variability of anomalies and selected a sample for test excavations to correlate specific anomaly shapes and amplitudes with specific cultural features. Once confirmed as cultural features, we extrapolated sample results to identify unexcavated anomalies as specific building forms and other features with a higher degree of probability than would have been possible without confirmation by test excavation. Results include the identification and mapping of over 450 unexcavated probable buildings, nearly five times the number previously discovered in decades of traditional excavation. Because the buried probable buildings have different forms, sizes, distributions, and chronological spans, the interpreted gradiometer map is transformed through interpretation from a static palimpsest of anomalies to a picture of changing community settlement organization.

Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms by Eric E. Browne (review)

Reviewed by: Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms by Eric E. Browne Kathryn H. Braund Mound Sites of the Ancient South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms. By Eric E. Browne. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2013. 272pp. $29.95 (paper) ISBN: 978-0-8203-4498-0. Mound Sites of the Ancient South: South: A Guide to the Mississippian Chiefdoms is a guidebook for those wishing to visit Native American archaeological sites and museums in the South. The book showcases thirteen major Mississippian sites, with extended discussion of numerous others, including Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (Illinois), Caddo Mounds State Historic Site (Texas), Town Creek Indian Mound (North Carolina), Grand Village of the Natchez Indians (Mississippi), Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site and Ocmulgee National Monument (Georgia) and Moundville Archaeological Park (Alabama). But this is more than a simple guidebook. Bowen has crafted a wonderfully complete and comprehensive survey for non-specialists that is sure to appeal to those frustrated by the lack of a holistic, readable treatment of the “mound builders.” The beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated work begins by taking the reader on a tour of “The Ancient South” with a discussion of the world of the late prehistoric period. Bowen’s easy-to-read narrative provides an all-encompassing synthesis of our current understanding of the period from 900 and 1600 which, generally speaking, predates the arrival of Europeans and written records. Thus, understanding these ancient civilizations depends on an analysis of the archaeological record as well as what can be gleaned from the earliest accounts of surviving chiefdoms, such as those encountered by De Soto and early French explorers and historic tribes. [End Page 131] Following the introductory chapter, he takes readers to the major sites of the Mississippian world, arranged by three broad chronological chapters: the Emergent and Early Mississippian Period (AD 800–122), the Middle Mississippian Period (AD 1200–1400), and the Late Mississippian Period (AD 1400–1600). Each chapter follows a similar layout, including a summary of the various sites, including an account of their location and layout. The major features of the existing sites are described, followed by an account of the their history and significance. Moundville, near modern Tuscaloosa, Alabama, “one of the most spectacular remaining Mississippian sites” (157) according to the author, is highlighted in the chapter on the Middle Mississippian Period (1200–1400). Bowen concludes with an exploration of what happened to these highly complex, stratified mound civilizations, including an account of De Soto’s entrada, the impact of Old World disease. The book contains a glossary as well as a selected bibliography for further reading. Bowen’s work is aimed at the non-specialist and he does a fine job in presenting complex findings and theories about Mississippian chiefdoms and shaping them into an engaging narrative. His writing is clear and free of jargon and he addresses architecture, warfare, subsistence practices, and trade. At the same time, he is careful to point out the limitation of knowledge about these ancient societies. The book will appeal to anyone with an interest in early American history, and would be highly useful in Native American history classes. Although the book is designed for who actually intend to visit various sites and museums, arm-chair travelers will find it just as appealing. The book sports a durable, softbound cover and features 92 color and 23 black-and-white photographs of mound sites, artifacts, or artistic representations of life and activities at various locations. There are 20 maps. The high quality of the color maps and illustrations and photographs of artifacts would make it an ideal gift for those with an interest in the early South and southeastern Indians. [End Page 132] Kathryn H. Braund Auburn University Copyright © 2015 Alabama Historical Association

INSIGHTS FROM THE ANALYSIS OF ANGEL MOUNDS POTTERY TROWELS

Archaeologists have recovered pottery trowels in excavations at numerous historic and pre-Columbian archaeological sites in North America since the late nineteenth century. Despite these facts, pottery trowels have not been the subject of thorough scientific analysis or interpretation. In this study, I define and implement a new method of analysis for pottery trowels, using a sample of 188 pottery trowels from the Mississippian site of Angel Mounds (12VG1). After describing the quantitative and qualitative attributes of pottery trowels, I define categories of frequently occurring pottery trowel bell and handle types. The extensive variability of pottery trowel shapes and sizes discovered at Angel Mounds is then discussed with regard to alternative or multiple uses for the tools and the spatial and temporal distributions of pottery trowel types. As an artifact type that provides opportunities to analyze technology, craft production and specialization, and daily practices in past societies, I argue pottery trowels may hold important future insights into a number of topics of interest to archaeologists.

DISTRIBUTION AND CONTEXT OF WORKED CRYSTALLINE ARTIFACTS FROM THE MIDDLE CUMBERLAND REGION OF TENNESSEE

Antiquarian and modern explorations within the Middle Cumberland region of Tennessee have uncovered vast quantities of ceramic, stone, bone, and shell artifacts. Objects made from mineral resources represent a modest percentage of the overall artifact assemblage. Specimens manufactured from crystals comprise a very small portion of the mineral sample, as only six worked crystalline artifacts are documented to date for the Middle Cumberland region. These specimens of fluorite and calcite consist of four earplugs, one bird effigy pendant, and one bead from four different Mississippian period sites. Fluorite and calcite deposits occur within the study area, but additional research is needed to determine whether these sources were used to make the Middle Cumberland items. The recovery of three earplugs (two of which are very unusual) and raw calcite crystals from the Castalian Springs mound complex comprises intriguing evidence for the production of crystalline objects as a site activity.

CERAMIC SHELL CUP EFFIGIES FROM ILLINOIS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

Ceramic effigies of marine shell cups have long been known from Mississippian sites in Illinois and elsewhere in the Southeast, and have been included in studies of other ceramic effigies, such as animal figures and head pots (Holmes 1886). This paper focuses on 31 known Illinois specimens. I will show that, in Illinois, the geographic range of these effigies is primarily restricted to the American Bottom around Cahokia, and their occurrence is largely limited to Late Mississippian Moorehead and Sand Prairie phases (A.D. 1200 to 1400). I also explore possible meanings of shell cups and, by extension, ceramic effigies of shell cups. Ethnohistoric as well as archaeological evidence show that lightning whelk cups and, by analogy, shell cup effigies functioned in contexts of uncertainty and conflict, consistent with their context in Illinois.

Brief communication: Conjoined twins at angel mounds? an ancient DNA perspective

Conjoined twins are born when a single fertilized egg partially splits into two fetuses. A hypothetical case of infant conjoined twins from Angel Mounds, a Middle Mississippian site (A.D. 1050-1400) on the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana, was discovered in 1941. Morphological analysis does not rule out the field interpretation of this double burial as twins. Ancient mitochondrial DNA recovered from both infants demonstrates that they were not maternal relatives, and hence that they cannot have been conjoined twins.

A REASSESSMENT OF THE CHRONOLOGY OF MOUND A AT TOQUA

The Toqua site (40MR6) is one of the most thoroughly excavated Late Mississippian mound sites in East Tennessee. The site has been a focal point of research on late prehistory in southern Appalachia, but there are issues surrounding its chronological placement. The radiometric dates obtained for the site in the 1970s and the archaeomagnetic dates reported in 1999 have large standard deviations. These dates are too imprecise to be useful for a temporal placement of the site that is clear enough for current discussions of the development of Mississippian culture. A newly obtained Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) date from the large platform mound (Mound A) allows a reevaluation of the occupation sequence of the Toqua site. This date provides an anchor for a refined chronology for Mound A. In addition to the new AMS date, this refined chronology is based on complementary lines of evidence, including architectural evidence, mortuary practices, pottery traditions, and shell gorget styles.