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Edmond A. Boudreaux - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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University Press of Florida - Early Mississippian in the North Carolina Piedmont
Mississippian Beginnings, 2017Co-Authors: Edmond A. BoudreauxAbstract:The topic of Mississippian origins in the North Carolina Piedmont has received very little attention from archaeologists since the 1950s. This chapter pulls together information from multiple sites, especially the extensively excavated Town Creek site, to present an overview of Early Mississippian in the North Carolina Piedmont. The presence of Mississippian lifeways in the region is indicated by the appearance of complicated-stamped ceramics by around A.D. 1150-1200. Associated social changes include the appearance of archaeologically visible households and the development of a civic-ceremonial center at the Town Creek site. Public and domestic architecture as well as evidence for ritual activities suggests that social groups interacted and were integrated at multiple scales within the Early Mississippian community at Town Creek.
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Community and Ritual Within the Mississippian Center at Town Creek
American Antiquity, 2013Co-Authors: Edmond A. BoudreauxAbstract:AbstractThis article evaluates aspects of an occupational history that was developed for the Town Creek site, a small Mississippian center in the North Carolina Piedmont that was occupied sometime between A.D. 1150–1400. Town Creek’s occupational history suggests that its Mississippian community consisted of multiple, discrete household groups, and that these groups were important throughout the center’s existence. Analyses of architectural, mortuary, and ceramic data indicate that Town Creek began as a town with a substantial domestic population, but it evolved into more of a vacant center later in time. This decline in domestic population coincided with significant evidence for site-wide ritual activity that included the construetion of a platform mound and the use of cemeteries in former house locations. Parallels between the small center at Town Creek and some of the largest Mississippian centers, especially the persistence of household-group spaces and an emphasis on ritual activities later in time, suggest that interaction among discrete social groups within a ritual context was a salient part of being Mississippian.
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A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF Mississippian CERAMIC VESSELS FROM TOWN CREEK
Southeastern Archaeology, 2010Co-Authors: Edmond A. BoudreauxAbstract:Vessel shape, size, and use-alterations are used to identify vessel types and vessel functions among Mississippian ceramics from the Town Creek site in central North Carolina. Possible functions are discussed for vessel types, and broad distinctions are made regarding vessels that possibly were used for cooking, serving and eating, or storage. The composition of the overall vessel assemblage at Town Creek indicates that it is generally comparable with other Mississippian assemblages. A consideration of the distribution of vessel types by context allows some insights into the association of different activities with different parts of the Mississippian community at Town Creek, namely, that the mound area was associated with distinctive vessel assemblages.
Frederika A Kaestle - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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ancient dna from the schild site in illinois implications for the Mississippian transition in the lower illinois river valley
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2015Co-Authors: Austin W Reynolds, Jennifer Raff, Deborah A Bolnick, Della Collins Cook, Frederika A KaestleAbstract:Archaeologists have long debated whether rapid cultural change in the archaeological record is due to in situ developments, migration of a new group into the region, or the spread of new cultural practices into an area through existing social networks, with the local peoples adopting and adapting practices from elsewhere as they see fit (acculturation). Research- ers have suggested each of these explanations for the major cultural transition that occurred at the beginning of the Mississippian period (AD 1050) across eastern North America. In this study, we used ancient DNA to test competing hypotheses of migration and accultura- tion for the culture change that occurred between the Late Woodland (AD 400-1050) and Mississippian (AD 1050-1500) periods in the Lower Illinois River Valley. We obtained sequences of the first hypervariable seg- ment of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) from 39 individuals (17 Late Woodland, 22 Mississippian) interred in the Schild cemetery in western Illinois, and compared these lineages to ancient mtDNA lineages present at other sites in the region. Computer simula- tions were used to test a null hypothesis of population continuity from Late Woodland to Mississippian times at the Schild site and to investigate the possibility of gene flow from elsewhere in the region. Our results suggest that the Late Woodland to Mississippian cultural transi- tion at Schild was not due to an influx of people from elsewhere. Instead, it is more likely that the transition to Mississippian cultural practices at this site was due to a process of acculturation. Am J Phys Anthropol
G E Gehrels - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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uppermost devonian famennian to lower Mississippian events of the western u s stratigraphy sedimentology chemostratigraphy and detrital zircon geochronology
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2015Co-Authors: D Cole, Paul M Myrow, David A Fike, A Hakim, G E GehrelsAbstract:Abstract Upper Devonian to Lower Mississippian strata in Utah and Montana record global events through this important interval in Earth history. Late Famennian strata of the Beirdneau, Leatham, and Pilot Shale formations in Utah, and Three Forks and Sappington formations in Montana, record widespread deposition of generally fine-grained siliciclastic and carbonate strata. Integration of sedimentology, physical stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy, and published biostratigraphy allows for the recognition of important disconformities and regional stratigraphic patterns. These enable the reconstruction of uppermost Devonian to lowermost Mississippian depositional, tectonic, and eustatic history of the region. Carbon isotopic data allows for stratigraphic evaluation of the presence and absence of global bioevents of the Late Devonian, including the Annulata, Dasberg, and Hangenberg events, some of which are clearly recorded in hinterland deposits to the east in Colorado. While the Devonian–Mississippian boundary is also missing in our sections, a significant positive shift in δ13Ccarb in Lower Mississippian strata in Utah and Montana represents one of the largest positive δ13Ccarb isotope excursions of the Phanerozoic, linked to drawdown of atmospheric CO2 and glaciation in the Kinderhookian. Detrital zircon spectra from latest Devonian to Early Mississippian strata of Utah and Colorado include populations representing derivation from the Mazatzal and Yavapai provinces, Middle Proterozoic anorogenic granite bodies, and a small influx of Grenville and presumed Appalachian–Caledonian grains. Minor Paleoproterozoic and Late Archean peaks in Utah are likely multiple generation grains originally derived from the Peace River Arch of northwestern Canada and recycled in Ordovician rocks of Nevada. These patterns in detrital zircon geochronological data reflect, in part, changes in sediment dispersal patterns due to tectonic and eustastic variability within the Antler foreland basin during the Devonian–Mississippian boundary interval. This variability also led to irregular spatial patterns of unconformity development, as well as complicated physical stratigraphic and chemostratigraphic architecture.
Scott W. Hammerstedt - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Mississippian Status in Western Kentucky: Evidence from the Annis Mound
Southeastern Archaeology, 2005Co-Authors: Scott W. HammerstedtAbstract:Models of Mississippian sociopolitical complexity depend heavily on data derived from large sites such as Cahokia, Moundville, and Etowah. This "top-down" approach has led to a masking of the variation within Mississippian societies. Results of an analysis of WPA collections from excavations at Annis Mound (15BT2), a small Mississippian mound site in western Kentucky, show that, apart from large summit architecture, there is little evidence for the differentiation of elites that is seen at larger sites. Artifacts found in summit features and mound fill do not reflect typical "elite" patterns. Archaeologists typically describe Mississippian societies of the pre-Columbian southeastern United States as possessing elements of social ranking and permanent offices of political and ritual importance. Platform mounds and their contents are critical elements in arguments characterizing Mississippian societies as chiefdoms, and social differentiation relates to the residence of elites on these mounds. What is less clear is the extent of the social distinctions between the elite and the non-elite. While markers of social differentiation often are readily apparent, the ways in which individuals of high status are separated economically from those of lower status are unclear and the subject of much debate (e.g., Cobb 2003; Milner 1998; Muller 1997; Pauketat 1994; Schroeder 2002). There is general agreement among Mississippian researchers about the kin-based nature of chiefly power, and that chiefs had some control over the labor and resources of their followers (Cobb 2003; Schroeder 2002). A limited number of individuals was somehow set apart from the general population and exercised influence and authority. This elevation of certain individuals is most notable in residence on platform mounds and in rich burials such as those at Mound C at Moundville (Moore 1996:162-166; Knight and Steponaitis 1998; Peebles 1971), Mound C at Etowah (King 2003; Larson 1971), Mound 72 at Cahokia (Fowler et al. 1999), the Craig Mound at Spiro (Brown 1971, 1996), and many lesser known sites (e.g., Jenkins and Krause 1986; Milner et al. 1984). The higher social standing of elites, the prestige and privilege that goes with high status, and the central importance of platform mounds in Mississippian societies (see also Knight 1986, 1989; Krause 1990; Lindauer and Blitz 1997) are suggested by the archaeological features of these mounds, although the social implications of overall mound volume are debated (e.g., Blitz and Livingood 2004). Disagreement exists, however, about the degree of control elites had over the basic necessities of life. While evidence indicates that elites had some preferential access to prestige items, it is less clear that they enjoyed an advantage with respect to foodstuffs and the more mundane artifacts associated with daily life. Most studies of status differentiation in the archaeological literature focus on large multiple mound sites, leaving archaeologists with a "top-down" view of political economy. While this approach has resulted in the recognition of a social elite at the largest Mississippian sites, comparatively little is known about the nature of status distinctions within the much more numerous and smaller mound sites that dot the Southeast. Knowledge of Mississippian status and elite privileges is therefore hampered by the bias toward large mound centers (see Clay 1997). Further, models that appear plausible at the larger sites do not necessarily work for mid-sized and small mound sites. In order to address these issues, I evaluate the evidence for status differentiation at a small mound site, the Annis Mound (15BT2), located along the Green River in Butler County, Kentucky (Figure 1), on the fringe of the Mississippian world. Models of Mississippian Differentiation Researchers marshal both historical and archaeological evidence to delimit the extent of differentiation within Mississippian societies. …
Robert A Cook - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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climate change and migration along a Mississippian periphery a fort ancient example
American Antiquity, 2018Co-Authors: Aaron R Comstock, Robert A CookAbstract:Archaeologists have long recognized an important relationship between climate change and the trajectory of the Mississippian polity at Cahokia, with twelfth- and thirteenth-century droughts playing a key role in transforming social relationships and the pace of monument construction. This environmental transition may have spurred emigration from Cahokia and surrounding farming communities. This raises the questions: What was the nature of environmental change and cultural transformations on the Mississippian peripheries and where did these Mississippian emigrants go? This paper provides a case study from the Middle Ohio Valley that brings together spatiotemporal patterns in moisture availability between AD 1000 and AD 1300 and new archaeological data from Fort Ancient villages located in southeast Indiana and southwest Ohio that were occupied during this same temporal interval. We suggest that droughts in the American Bottom region pushed Mississippians to less drought-stricken areas such as the Middle Ohio Valley, which experienced concurrent periods of wetness. This pattern builds on a growing body of data suggesting that the movement of individuals and communities played a large role in the process of Mississippianization throughout the midcontinental and southeastern United States.
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University Press of Florida - Mississippian Processes and Histories
Mississippian Beginnings, 2017Co-Authors: Robert A CookAbstract:The spread of Mississippian culture throughout much of the Eastern US has long been of interest to archaeologists. Interpretations of this spread have oscillated widely over the development of the discipline between what are generally referred to as historical and processual approaches. This chapter briefly summarizes these approaches and then directly examines some key aspects of each. Integration of mortuary data with biodistance and chemical analyses from human burials with environmental data provides a key to unlock both the processes and histories at play in the development of one area on which Mississippian culture developed. The central argument is that the basic structure of the Fort Ancient village developed in close connection with early interactions with Mississippian migrants. Village origins are linked to a series of general processes and specific historical developments involving exploitation of a particular type of environmental niche, reuse of ancient monuments, and referencing mythic Mississippian events. The basic conclusion is that it is much better to seek a model that incorporates elements of both culture process and culture history if we are to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the past.
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maize mounds and the movement of people isotope analysis of a Mississippian fort ancient region
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2015Co-Authors: Robert A Cook, Douglas T PriceAbstract:Abstract The development of farming traditions has long interested archaeologists worldwide. The relationship between this process and human movement has become increasingly well defined in recent years. Here we examine this issue in a case study concerning the longstanding question of the spread of maize agriculture and Mississippian cultural traditions throughout much of the Eastern U.S. Although it has long been common to interpret the spread of Mississippian maize agriculture partially as a result of human migration, there have been very few direct studies of the question. We do so here by analyzing human tooth enamel from burials for 87Sr/86Sr and δ13C. Our results suggest that Fort Ancient societies adopted maize agriculture quickly with high levels of consumption at early sites. The intensity of maize consumption declined over time, however, in contrast to the current model. There is evidence for the presence of non-local individuals at early Fort Ancient sites, particularly Turpin, with the majority likely attributable to neighboring Mississippian regions. These developments occurred at some of the larger Fort Ancient sites by the mouths of the Great and Little Miami Rivers in Ohio where the most abundant evidence for Mississippian house styles and objects is concentrated.
