Evaluating the Reliability of Fluoride Dating at Two Prehistoric Mound Sites in Mississippi

Abstract

Ion-selective electrode fluoride dating is used to address chronological problems at two mound sites located in Mississippi. At the Mississippian period (A.D. 900–1520) Lyon's Bluff site, 220K520, the fluoride content of deer and human bone is compared with radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic levels to evaluate the reliability of the fluoride dating method for understanding relative burial chronology. At a second site, Pocahontas Mound A (22HI500), fluoride content of deer bone is used to corroborate radiocarbon dates and to establish the proper chronology of levels associated with two distinct occupations (Archaic and Coles Creek/Plaquemine) identified in a large midden area. Fluoride analysis also is used to date a second midden area at this site. For Lyon's Bluff; fluoride dates did not correspond with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)-dated burials and midden strata. In contrast, fluoride dating proved very useful in determining chronological placement of midden levels and dating other areas at Pocahontas Mound A. Sample age, site location, soil, and bone preservation are considered as possible causes for the negative results at Lyon's Bluff.     

Questioning Craft Production at Angel Mounds Analysis of the 2006–2009 Angel Mounds Field-Schools

Abstract

Seventy years of archaeological investigations at the site of Angel Mounds (12VG1) have led to a broad overall understanding of the cultural practices of the Mississippian people in southwest Indiana nearly 1,000 years ago, but have also raised ever expanding new questions. Recent field-school excavations at Angel Mounds, sponsored by the Glenn A. Black Laboratory (GBL) at Indiana University, explored magnetic anomalies in a previously unexcavated area at Angel Mounds. Analyses of features and artifacts encountered during the excavations at Unit A (the “Potter's House”), including large amounts of Mississippi Plain pottery and craft-production objects, inspired new questions on the organization of craft production at Angel Mounds and other Mississippian archaeological sites. In this article, I test whether a structure at Unit A may have been a craftproduction workshop by reviewing data archaeologists traditionally associate with workshops and examining the standardization of pottery found at the location. Preliminary results demonstrate the variability of Mississippi Plain pottery, even within single locations, and also show the potential analytical utility of such variability for testing important issues in the archaeology of Mississippian societies, including supposed elite-control over craft production and intrasite social organizations.     

Petrographic Analysis of Late Woodland and Middle Mississippian Ceramics at the Iva Site (47Lc42), Onalaska,Wisconsin

The Iva site contained a rare effigy mound and Middle Mississippian (Ramey horizon) component within the Late Woodland Lewis phase territory of the Upper Mississippi River valley. Salvage excavations in 2002–2003 recovered fragments of numerous Angelo Punctated, Powell Plain, and Ramey Incised vessels, including examples of Angelo and Ramey in direct association. Petrographic analysis was conducted on seven grit-tempered and six shell-tempered vessels, eight of which are stylistically Mississippian. The results indicate that four of eight Mississippian vessels were likely manufactured in the American Bottom, with the other half being local imitations of Mississippian styles. These data are compared to contemporaneous Ramey horizon components in the Driftless Area of Cahokia's northern hinterland.     

CHRONOLOGY,SITE FORMATION,AND THE WOODLAND-MISSISSIPPIAN TRANSITION AT BAYSHORE HOMES,FLORIDA

Bayshore Homes (8PI41) is a large mound and midden complex on Florida’s west-central Gulf Coast that was investigated originally by William Sears in the 1950s. From 1999 to 2009, the authors conducted survey, test excavations, and soil coring to address questions regarding site formation, chronology, and cultural affiliation. Radiocarbon dates and ceramic analysis indicate two separate occupations during the Woodland and Mississippi periods, cal. A.D. 140–565 and cal. A.D. 890–1390 (2 sigma). The earlier occupation is associated with the Manasota archaeological culture, sand-tempered plain pottery, burials in midden deposits, and interments in a sand mound accompanied by Weeden Island–related mortuary ceramics. The later occupation is associated with Weeden Island–related decorated and Pinellas Plain ceramics in midden deposits and represents the transition from terminal Weeden Island to the Englewood phase of Early Safety Harbor. A large burial mound and a platform mound are associated with this period of site use. Our results also indicate that the unusual ceramic sequence identified by Sears in the site’s large shoreline shell midden is the result of redeposition, which occurred sometime after cal. A.D. 1220. Possible explanations for the redeposition event include monumental mound construction or the elevation of the midden ridge to serve as a foundation for structures to protect them from rising sea levels or storm surges.     

DETERMINING THE SEASON OF MISSISSIPPIAN HOUSE CONSTRUCTION FROM PLANT IMPRESSIONS IN DAUB

Abstract

It has been suggested that Mississippian farmsteads in some parts of the Southeast were abandoned in the late fall/early winter, with concomitant population concentration in large, palisaded villages. This assertion is contradicted by published data on plant impressions in daub which indicate farmstead house construction during the fall. Missing from this debate has been information on the season of house construction at mound centers. Plant impressions in daub from a structure at the Lyon’s Bluff site (22OK520) in Mississippi indicate that house construction took place during early to midspring. When coupled with other data, year-round construction at this mound and village complex is suggested. Although these results do not solve the question of the season of house construction at farmsteads, they do suggest that house construction at mound sites was not confined to any particular season of the year, as might be expected with seasonal influxes of farmstead inhabitants.     

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON MISSISSIPPIAN OCCUPATIONS IN WESTERN TENNESSEE AND NORTHWESTERN MISSISSIPPI: RECENT CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT CHUCALISSA (40SY1), SHELBY COUNTY,TENNESSEE

Abstract

Investigations at Chucalissa (40SY1) in Shelby County, Tennessee, have been instrumental in establishing Mississippian period chronology for southwestern Tennessee and much of the surrounding region. Excavations conducted in 2003 produced a suite of new radiocarbon dates that has provided a refined developmental lineage of occupations in West Tennessee and northwestern Mississippi, while geophysical investigations in 2011 have clarified our understanding of the late prehistoric occupation of the site and validated suggestions of distinctive mound architecture in a region extending over a large portion of the Southeast.     

Standing Posts and Special Substances: Gathering and Ritual Deposition at Feltus (22Je500), Jefferson County,Mississippi

Because it immediately precedes the Mississippi period, Coles Creek (A.D. 700–1200) culture is often viewed through the lens of Mississippian social organization. In particular, early platform mound-and-plaza complexes have long been understood as elite compounds due to their physical similarities with later sites. However, evidence regarding the construction and use of the monumental landscape at the Feltus site (22JE500) in Jefferson County, MS, suggests that platform mound construction was but one aspect of a broader ritual sequence aimed at gathering the dispersed Coles Creek community. In addition to mound building, this sequence included the setting and removal of freestanding posts, ritual feasting, and burial of the dead and focused on explicit deposition of meaningful objects and substances. Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic analyses of the objects and substances included in the ritual deposits at Feltus suggest that they helped forge relationships between an extended kin network, including non-human fictive kin and non-living human kin. In this context, we find a metaphor of gathering to be useful in understanding the archaeological remains of a ritual sequence focused on bringing together social, cosmological, and temporal domains. This provides a distinctly different take on the meaning and use of platform mounds based on a review of Native beliefs and practices that looks beyond the traditionally relied upon sources.     

Debating the Age of Serpent Mound: A Reply to Romain and Herrmann’s Rejoinder to Lepper Concerning Serpent Mound

The debate over the age of Serpent Mound (33AD01) is important because without a cultural context it is impossible to make meaningful statements about what this monumental effigy mound might have meant to its builders. In this response to Romain and Herrmann’s rejoinder, we clarify the provenience of the samples, which yielded the radiocarbon dates that contribute to our argument for a post–Late Woodland age for the effigy. In addition, we extend our critique of Romain and colleagues’ arguments to include the results of an independent study of soil cores extracted from the Serpent and surrounding landscape, which fails to corroborate Romain and colleagues’ assertion that a buried A horizon underlies the mound. Finally, we suggest that the construction of Serpent Mound may be historically linked to droughts in the Mississippi Valley that began at around AD 1100, which resulted in an influx of Mississippian refugees into the region.     

Building Monks Mound,Cahokia, Illinois,a.d. 800–1400

Abstract

Cahokia (a.d. 800–1400), located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, was the largest settlement in ancient North America. Monks Mound occupies the center of Cahokia and provides both a modern and ancient focal point for the site. Past investigations of Monks Mound explored issues of mound chronology and use. Recent soil coring around the perimeter clarifies the geological context and degree of preparation necessary before the mound was built. The results suggest that the mound is not optimally positioned for stability and its location may ultimately accelerate deterioration. Moreover, evaluation of the mound features and fill indicates that maximization of the geotechnical potential of sediments was not a primary concern for the Cahokians. Although poorly engineered relative to modern standards, the suitability of the mound as a platform may have been secondary to other design choices made while building the largest single mound in ancient North America.     

MOUND BUILDING AT LAKE JACKSON (8LE1), TALLAHASSEE,FLORIDA: NEW INSIGHTS FROM GROUND PENETRATING RADAR

Abstract

The Lake Jackson Mounds site (8LE1), located near Tallahassee, Florida, has long been considered to be a frontier Mississippian center. This assertion is primarily based on elaborate burial goods recovered during salvage excavations in the 1970s. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) on the two largest intact mounds at Lake Jackson revealed new information about their morphology and construction histories. These findings demonstrate that mound-building practices at the site were distinct from earlier, local Woodland mound-building traditions, and more similar to those of other Mississippian centers, such as Etowah and Moundville. Lake Jackson revitalized mound building in the Tallahassee area under the influence of external connections with groups in the Mississippian interaction network. These findings show how mound building was an integral practice for expressing and expanding Mississippian ideologies and rituals. This work also shows the utility of GPR in exploring mounds' morphologies and construction histories.     

EARLY WOODLAND SETTLEMENT AND MOUND BUILDING IN THE UPPER TENSAS BASIN,NORTHEAST LOUISIANA

Abstract

Traditionally overlooked because it lacks hallmarks of material and cultural complexity, Early Woodland in the Southeast is an interval of significant transformation in material culture, settlement, and social organization. Investigations at four sites in northeast Louisiana provide insights into changes taking place at this time. These sites are situated on a crevasse splay created by flooding at the end of the Archaic. This flooding is associated with an occupation hiatus ca. 3000–2500 cal B.P. Evidence suggests a rapid colonization of the crevasse splay by people using Tchefuncte pottery, and there is no evidence at these sites of stratigraphic or cultural continuity from Poverty Point. The Early Woodland occupation in the study area dates ca. 2400–2100 cal B.P., which is later than dates associated with Early Woodland in the Pontchartrain Basin and contemporary with Lake Cormorant culture sites farther north. Early Woodland in northeast Louisiana is marked by a diagnostic Tchefuncte ceramic assemblage and the presence of a settlement system composed of small villages or hamlets nucleated around a conical mound that presumably served as a ceremonial/ritual center. This mound was erected very rapidly; radiocarbon dates suggest it was constructed in no more than 10 years. Although mound building has been suspected, this is the first conclusive evidence it was an aspect of Tchefuncte settlement and ceremonial practices. Data from these sites bear on the question of cultural and demographic continuity and change at the Archaic to Woodland transition. Previous models emphasize continuity of populations with ceramic technology and styles diffusing into the lower Mississippi Valley. In contrast, our data support a model of Early Woodland repopulation of the lower Mississippi Valley from the south and east following a prolonged period of regional abandonment.     

THE BILTMORE MOUND AND HOPEWELLIAN MOUND USE IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS

Abstract

Biltmore Mound, located on the Swannanoa River in Asheville, North Carolina, was constructed over a Connestee phase habitation, the earliest evidence dating to about A.D. 300. Mound construction began sometime between A.D. 400 and 550, with the second to last mound stage constructed about A.D. 580–600. Because of the diverse contexts and the excellent preservation of faunal remains, we are able to provide some insights into Connestee ritualism at Biltmore Mound. The Biltmore Mound was a platform used to support large public structures for ritual and ceremonial activities. It was constructed of varying colored and textured soils from a variety of source areas that arguably had symbolic importance. The mound was primarily built out (rather than up) with several mantles that may have comprised a complete ritual cycle of mound construction.     

A Comparative Analysis of the Late Woodland–early Mississippian Settlement Landscape in Northern Georgia

To understand the development of complex socio-political phenomena, we need to study not just the origins of central places, but also their emergence. This can be accomplished by taking an historical perspective where we position ourselves before the occurrence we wish to study. Data from the Georgia Archaeological Site File are presented to explore the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian (ca. A.D. 600–1,100) settlement landscape which contextualized the emergence of two prominent Mississippian mound centers: Macon Plateau (also known as Ocmulgee) and Etowah. Our results suggest that the Etowah River valley supported a denser population who had formed attachments to particular points in the landscape compared to the region surrounding Macon Plateau during the Late Woodland to Early Mississippian transition. These social landscapes provided different contexts for the origins of each Mississippian center and influenced later trajectories of cultural development and settlement in each region.     

THE GRAND PARALLEL: A CONSISTENT LATITUDE OF LATE WOODLAND AND CADDO MULTIMOUND CENTERS IN THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND EASTERN TEXAS

During the Late Woodland subperiod between A.D. 400 to 1200, six major multimound centers in eastern Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley were established on a consistent latitude of 31.6 degrees north. The six sites comprising the pattern include, from west to east: George C. Davis and Washington Square in eastern Texas; Troyville, the Elkhorn/Frogmore/Churupa three-mound cluster, and Deprato in Louisiana; and Emerald Mound in Mississippi. Troyville, a major population center during the Baytown period from A.D. 400 to 700, is the earliest of the constituent sites. Emerald, among the latest sites, was apparently founded at the end of the Late Woodland or shortly thereafter. Several lines of evidence suggest the site distribution is not random. Rather, the pattern may reflect an emphasis on cardinal directions as a significant organizing principle in the layout of settlements, structures, burials, and other features in Caddo and Lower Mississippi Valley societies. This principle has rarely been noted on a macro-regional scale. I propose a hypothetical model of the sequence and processes by which the pattern formed. The model postulates that the same organizational principles operating at the site level also operated at the intersite and interregional level as mound centers were abandoned and new ones were established on socially sanctioned axes.     

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

ABSTRACT

In 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.     

A FRESH LOOK AT A LITTLE-KNOWN SOUTHEASTERN COPPER PLATE

Abstract

Chauga (38OC47) is a mound site now under Lake Hartwell at the head of the Savannah River in Oconee County, South Carolina. Excavations in 1958–1959 by the University of Georgia recovered a Mississippian copper plate. Upon comparison to others of its kind, it is clear that this lesser-known plate encompasses some interesting design features, most notably the presence of the only known depiction of a chunkey stone on copper. We have recently created a more accurate representation of its design. The plate appears to portray many similarities to depictions of Birdman dancers: kilted dancers and dancing elders within the “Stack” style. Birdman themes are common in Mississippian iconography. Given the importance that copper plates have for interpreting Mississippian art and belief systems, this updated examination provides useful new information for researchers studying Mississippian iconography.     

The Timing of Angel Mounds Palisade Construction A Search for the Best Chronological Model

Abstract

Angel Mounds was a heavily fortified Mississippian settlement with several discrete palisades. Although the palisades were identified early on, the construction sequence has remained elusive because the construction episodes do not have stratigraphic relationships with one another. Recent work at the site reexamined old test excavations and collected new material for radiocarbon dating. AMS dating yielded a suite of new dates from palisade contexts. To refine the construction sequence, five Bayesian chronological models were constructed for palisade building. These models indicate that palisades were first built at Angel Mounds sometime between A.D. 1278 and A.D. 1410, which precedes or coincides with regional depopulation in the lower Ohio River valley. These results further indicate that palisade building at Angel Mounds may be a consequence of external competition and conflict caused by resource-induced stress resulting from deteriorating climatic conditions.     

土墩墓考古:新收获,新思考——在江苏句容、金坛土墩墓群抢救性发掘考古成果汇报会上的讲话

2005年江苏句容、金坛土墩墓群抢救性发掘考古成果在一墩一墓、一墩多墓、向心结构等土墩墓重大学术问题上取得了突破性进展,并为田野考古科学操作提供了典范。从方法论和考古学理论角度思考,土墩墓的发掘和研究还需进一步深化。     

An Analysis of Textile Fragments from the Janey B. Goode Site

Abstract

Excavations at the Janey B.Goode site (11S1232), located in the American Bottom region of Illinois, yielded carbonized textile remains from two pit features dating to the Terminal Late Woodland period and from one pit feature dating to the Mississippian period. The remains comprise both twisted or braided cordage pieces and actual twined textile fragments ranging in size from 2×3 cm to over 9×9 cm. Four different twining techniques are represented: two types of compact twining and two types of space twining. All textiles appear to be constructed of bast fibers, probably from the outer part of herbaceous plant stems. The textiles are similar to those described from other Midwestern sites dating to the Woodland and Mississippian periods, reflecting the existence of a widespread fiber industry. In this paper, the textiles from the Janey B. Goode site and the production technology used to produce them are described.