Iron Age Landscapes of the Benue River Valley,Cameroon

The Iron Age settlements of northern Cameroon were dispersed across the landscape, taking advantage of different eco-climatic zones to exploit a variety of natural resources. Situated at the interface of the upper and lower terraces of the Benue River, mound sites in the area around Garoua have occupation histories spanning multiple centuries. The site of Langui-Tchéboua displays evidence for rapid accumulation of sediments approximately 700 years ago, which may have been a deliberate construction strategy that would have allowed the site’s inhabitants to exploit resources in both floodplain and dryland contexts. The combined use of multiple dating methods and micromorphology provide novel insights into both the mechanisms of anthropogenic landscape change and possible motivations governing those choices.     

Mississippian Habitation Components at Dickson Mounds in the Central Illinois River Valley

The Myer-Dickson area is a habitation component of the well-known Spoon River Mississippian mortuary site Dickson Mounds. About 20 domestic and public buildings were excavated at the site in the 1960s and 1970s, including the second-largest Mississippian building known in Illinois. Though sometimes characterized as a nucleated village, detailed analysis of material remains and their spatial distribution suggests two and possibly three periods of use during the Larson phase between A.D. 1200 and 1300. The large public building is one of several structures bordering a plaza, all of which are almost totally devoid of Mississippian artifacts. Domestic use of other sections of the site during the late Larson phase is part of a broader pattern of dispersed settlement on valley-edge ridges, a pattern that indicates at least some periods when fears of raiding were lessened despite the presence of contemporaneous palisaded towns.     

REVISITING PLATFORM MOUNDS AND TOWNHOUSES IN THE CHEROKEE HEARTLAND: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Abstract

This article describes the development and initial results of the Western North Carolina Mounds and Towns Project, a collaborative endeavor initiated by the Tribal Historic Preservation Office of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research Program at the University of Georgia. The goal of this project is to generate new information about the distribution of late prehistoric mounds and historic period townhouses in western North Carolina. This ongoing research has produced updated location and chronological data for 15 Mississippian period mounds and historic Cherokee townhouses, and led to the discovery of a possible location for the Jasper Allen mound. Using these new data, I suggest that David Hally's model for the territorial size of Mississippian polities provides a useful framework for generating new research questions about social and political change in western North Carolina. I also posit that the cultural practice of rebuilding townhouses in place and on top of Mississippian period platform mounds, a process that Christopher Rodning describes as “emplacement,” was common across western North Carolina. In terms of broader impacts, this project contributes positively to the development of indigenous archaeology in the Cherokee heartland.     

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.     

Botanical Remains from the Baumer Component at Kincaid Mounds

The Baumer construct defines the Early and Middle Woodland periods in the lower Ohio Valley in the confluence region of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers. Originally defined by University of Chicago investigations in the 1930s, Baumer remains a poorly understood cultural unit. This paper reports the botanical and environmental data from Baumer features excavated in recent work at Kincaid Mounds. These data demonstrate a stable plant food regime highlighted by a major emphasis on nut harvests as well as the cultivation of Eastern Complex seed crops. The Kincaid data show that Baumer and related Crab Orchard groups inhabiting large stream floodplains are more strongly committed to horticulture than their relatives living in small interior stream drainages in southern Illinois. Maize was also recovered but it is clearly of Mississippian origin.