Late Woodland and Mississippian societies

This  book is an introduction and guidebook to stone and pottery artifacts found in Mississippi that were made by pre-colonial American Indians. There is a focus on temporally diagnostic projectile points and pottery. T
he intended audience is the archaeological novice, though information presented is data-based, and fully cited. In addition to text by Johnson, sections are written by archaeologists and geologists (Ashley Dumas, Steven Meredith, Sam Brookes, and James Starnes) with expertise on pertinent topics.
ISBN 979-8985228670
https://www.handbookseries.org/mpia

Cultural interaction has been shown to be important in the (re)organization of social relationships in pre-contact North America and an important causal factor in Mississippian origins throughout the U.S. Southeast and Midwest. Indeed, recent research has documented the significance of migration and other forms of far-flung interactions in the spread of Mississippian lifeways. The Mississippian period (CE 1000-1550) in the Southern Appalachian region of the US Southeast was a dynamic period of profound sociopolitical and ideological transformations that are associated with an increase in social complexity. Scholars have argued that interregional interactions during the 11th and 12th centuries established important relationships among Native American groups from Southern Appalachia. These connections have been poorly understood but appear to have been largely centered at the Etowah site in northwestern Georgia where engagements between potential diverse populations were instrumental in the spread of Mississippian practices and beliefs, eventually leading to the development of hierarchical regional polities. The functional and stylistic analysis of Etowah pottery (CE 1000-1100/1200) and a comparative and multivariate statistical analysis of ceramic assemblages from three adjacent regions of the interior Southeast, indicate that the earliest populations at Etowah were pluralistic and composed of disparate groups from northwestern Georgia and eastern Tennessee. However, unlike many communities, the diverse population at Etowah maintained distinct traditions of ceramic production and consumption, while simultaneously engaging in communal ceremonial activities. This unique perspective on Etowah's origins deviates from typical Mississippian beginnings contexts and offers valuable insights into how cultural interactions occurred in pre-contact North America.

Circular shell rings along the South Atlantic Coast of the United States are vestiges of the earliest sedentary villages in North America, dating to 4500-3000 BP. However, little is known about when Indigenous communities began constructing these shell ring villages. This paper presents data from the Hokfv-Mocvse Shell Ring on Ossabaw Island, Georgia. While shell rings are often associated with the earliest ceramics in North America, no ceramics were encountered in our excavations at Hokfv-Mocvse and the only materials recovered were projectile points similar to points found over 300 kilometers inland. Bayesian modeling of radiocarbon dates indicate the ring was occupied between 5090-4735 cal. BP (95% confidence), making it the earliest dated shell ring in the region. Additionally, shell geochemistry and oyster paleobiology data suggest inhabitants were living at the ring year-round and had at that time established institutions to sustainably manage oyster fisheries. Hokfv-Mocvse thus provides evidence for Indigenous people settling in year-round villages and adapting to coastal environments in the region centuries before the adoption of pottery. The establishment of villages marks a visible archaeological shift towards settling down and occupying island ecosystems on a more permanent basis and in larger numbers than ever before in the region

Different economic strategies were practiced at the site ranging from highly mobile hunting and gathering in the Middle Archaic (5,000-2,500 B.C.) to sedentary horticulture/agriculture in Spiroan times (A.D. 950-1450).

Biface breakage patterns indicate lithic tools were produced, used, and thermally altered at School Land I with production making up the majority.

I have inferred that these activities are indicative of the purpose of the site changing over time, with School Land I being a persistent place over the course of several generations.

Lithic technologies at the site are not limited to hunting and butchering with there being representatives of plant cultivation and processing along with possible symbolic referents.

Non-local materials were only brought into the site at later points in time. Sharper and more fragile materials were selected for projectile points while more hardy but dull materials were selected for informal bifaces and ground stone tools.

I used a life history approach to articulate how some tools had labor-intensive and time-consuming manufacturing processes as well as long use lives after which they fell into disuse only when a breakage was so traumatic that the tool’s potential utility was expended. Other tools required much less investment in production and entered their disuse stage after only a single breakage. I added ethnohistoric and artistic lines of evidence to discuss possible gendered divisions of tool use and non-utilitarian purposes for some stone tools.

Many anthropologists have now adopted a relational view of the culture concept. Much research has shown that, far from being bounded or self-replicating, cultures emerge through interactions between social Others. These findings are particularly important to research on borderlands and peripheries, where communities routinely encounter wide-ranging social and political diversity. We present ceramic frequencies alongside petrographic analysis from the Late Woodland component at Esseneca (38OC20) to illustrate two main points: (1) pottery types previously understood as culture historical isolates co-occur in parts of Upstate South Carolina, and (2) potters collected clays from two main geologic formations near the site. This research shows that communities in the region traveled freely, crossing cultural boundaries while acquiring potting clays. We suggest that this level of interaction between disparate social groups laid the foundation for some aspects of Mississippianization in the region. Resumen Muchos antropólogos ahora han adoptado una visión relacional del concepto de cultura. Numerosas investigaciones han demostrado que, lejos de estar encerradas o replicarse a si mismas, las culturas surgen a través de las interacciones entre "Otros" sociales. Estos hallazgos son particularmente importantes para la investigación en las zonas fronterizas y periféricas, donde las comunidades se encuentran comunmente con una gran diversidad social y política. En esta línea, introducimos frecuencias de cerámicas junto con análises petrográficos del componente Late Woodland en Esseneca (38OC20) para ilustrar dos puntos principales: (1) los tipos de cerámica previamente considerados como componentes histórico-culturales aisladoes coexisten en partes del norte del estado de Carolina del Sur, y (2) los alfareros recolectaron arcillas de dos formaciones geológicas principales cerca del sitio. Esta investigación muestra que las comunidades de la región viajaban libremente, cruzando fronteras culturales mientras adquirían arcilla para macetas. En última instancia, sugerimos que este nivel de interacción entre grupos sociales dispares sentó las bases para algunos aspectos de la Mississippianización en la región.

Call for Papers: The Mississippi—Soundings on America’s Arterial River

Seeking papers on the Mississippi’s influence on geography, culture, and ecology. Topics include water systems, Blue Humanities, delta regions, and environmental challenges. Comparative studies with global rivers like the Nile and Amazon are welcome. This long-gestating project invites thoughtful, multidisciplinary perspectives.

https://rb.gy/ovllwc

Abstracts due: Dec. 1, 2024

This paper employs concepts from Bourdieu's theory of social fields and contemporary research on transnationalism to explore the complicated history of population movement, culture contact, and interaction that fueled the origins of Mississippian society in the greater Cahokia area and closely related socio-political developments in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV) of west-central Illinois. We offer a new take on Mississippian origins and the history of culture contact in the CIRV, arguing that interregional simultaneity and inter-group collaboration played an important part of the early processes of Mississippianization in the North American Midwest. By decentering Cahokia in our explanation of Mississippian origins in the greater Midwest, we argue for a long-term persistence of traditional pre-Mississippian practices in the CIRV region, beginning with the first documented engagement among Cahokians and Illinois Valley groups in the early eleventh century until the beginning of the thirteenth century AD.

Esarey, Sampson, and Suchy: Due to very infrequent episodes cultivation, an Early Late Woodland Weaver Phase ring midden retained much of its structural integrity and escaped long-term collecting pressure.  Aerial photographs provide a strikingly clear circular village plan complete with house depressions and a central plaza. Observations on Weaver phase settlements and the terminal Havana to Weaver period transition are offered.

Popular format: Short overview of Illinois during the period from A.D. 1300 to 1650, discussing the changing distribution of late Mississippians and Oneota peoples.  Describes the apparent situation between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1600 as notable sparsely populated.  Near Chicago, Huber Phase Oneota settlements maintain a large population, but all of northwestern and cen­tral Illinois appears to have been uninhabited. In all of eastern Illinois between the Kankakee River and the Lower Wabash River, where the Caborn-Wellborn people lived, there are also no recorded sites later than A.D. 1400. The former Mississippian and Oneota occupants of the central and lower Illinois River Valley moved elsewhere by A.D. 1450.

In August 1995, a controlled surface collection (CSC) was undertaken by Dickson Mounds Museum archaeologists on the Eveland Site, supplementing a CSC completed for the entire site in 1985. The Eveland Site has yet to be the subject of a basic descriptive and interpretive archaeological report, so this report is an interpretive guide and a preservation management tool.

It is argued here that Maples Mills, an initially homogenous Late Woodland culture, was transformed into the Mossville phase at circa A.D. 950.  Mossville shows evidence of interaction with the Cahokia sphere during its Lohmann phase. The Mossville ceramics evolved progressively toward an expression consanguine with many of the remnant Late Woodland traits still present during the Illinois Valley's earliest Mississippian phase (such as at Eveland site). This major chronological reassignment and realignment of the Maples Mills and Mossville phases indicate the necessary dissolution of the previ­ously defined Sepo phase and Sepo tradition allowing us to reshuffle the regional phase sequences from A.D. 600 through A.D. 1100. Consequently, I suggest that the Maples Mills and Mossville phases were ancestral to, and played a central, although not exclusive, role in the emergence of Spoon River Mississippian culture.

Spiro 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.

the Scenic Highway corridor that would beautify it, conserve it, and make it an asset to their community and an attraction for out-of-town visitors. The Pensacola Scenic High-way runs along the Escambia Bay Bluffs over the Escambia Bay. The project team made an initial site visit to Pensacola in May 2011 to assess the site and meet the client, then did site analysis and drafted conceptual designs for the corridor, its major entrance points, and the roadside City-owned properties Mallory Heights, Bay Bluffs Park, and Chimney Park. These designs were presented to the City in October 2011, along with preliminary research on mitigating ecological problems in the highway corridor, specifi-cally invasive species outgrowth and erosion. Final designs based on stakeholder feedback from the October 2011 presentation were prepared for the client and presented in April 2012. The overarching theme of these designs was to build a visual identity for the highway that would resonate with motor-ists...

In the papers assembled here, five scholars focus on shell beads at site, watershed, and regional scales. Themes include manufacturing techniques such as bore size discussions, changes in bead preferences over time and geography, the appearance of beaded regalia, and shell bead meaning. Claassen's paper addresses the beads at Late Archaic Indian Knoll; Connaway discusses

The Fisher Mounds and Village site in northern Illinois was the location of numerous burial mounds and cemeteries, as well as dozens of earth-ringed structure depressions. In the late 1920s, avocational archaeologist George Langford investigated the site, briefly joined by University of Chicago student crews in 1927 and 1928. A Works Project Administration (WPA) crew later revisited the site in 1940-1941. The excavations revealed three distinct archaeological cultural groups representing the Late Woodland Des Plaines phase and the Upper Mississippian Langford and Fisher phases-all of which were first observed and described at this site. Archaeologists at the time had difficulty distinguishing the discrete occupations at the site given the complex stratigraphy, unrefined excavation techniques, and mixing of deposits. The available collection and records had never been completely evaluated until 2005 when the authors began collating and analyzing the documents and materials which, through time, had become dispersed across various institutions. This new analysis defines the occurrence of late precontact contemporaneous ethnic differentiation marked by variation in ceramic and domestic structural evidence, documents violent confrontation, and illustrates the fluid nature of population movements in this period. Furthermore, this research has demonstrated the irreplaceable value of these legacy collections in understanding American Indian history.

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Adalberto, a young woodworker from a remote village in the Amazon rainforest, discovered the legendary Purple Heart wood while gathering wood for his village. The wood, said to be the hardest and most rare, was said to withstand severe weather conditions and repel insects. Despite the challenges, Adalberto and his father worked tirelessly to create a masterpiece. The village prospered, and people from around the world bought the rare wood. The discovery not only brought prosperity to the village but also helped Adalberto discover his own strength and determination. The forest and the Purple Heart wood have shaped Adalberto into the person he is today.

This paper employs concepts from Bourdieu's theory of social fields and contemporary research on transnationalism to explore the complicated history of population movement, culture contact, and interaction that fueled the origins of Mississippian society in the greater Cahokia area and closely related socio-political developments in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV) of west-central Illinois. We offer a new take on Mississippian origins and the history of culture contact in the CIRV, arguing that interregional simultaneity and inter-group collaboration played an important part of the early processes of Mississippianization in the North American Midwest. By decentering Cahokia in our explanation of Mississippian origins in the greater Midwest, we argue for a long-term persistence of traditional pre-Mississippian practices in the CIRV region, beginning with the first documented engagement among Cahokians and Illinois Valley groups in the early eleventh century until the beginning of the thirteenth century AD.

The author, a carpenter, discovers the enchantment of purple heart wood due to its deep, rich shade and durability. The wood is sourced from Peltogyne trees, native to the Amazon rainforest, which transform into a deep purple when cut. The indigenous communities of the Amazon have used this wood for generations, believing it has magical properties and is used for medicinal purposes. The rarity of the Peltogyne tree and its long maturation time make it expensive. The author's work on the piece reveals the demand for purple heart wood, but also highlights the destruction of the Amazon rainforest due to indiscriminate logging and deforestation. The author pledges to use purple heart wood responsibly and raises awareness about its significance.

Purple heart wood, Peltogyne spp., is a distinctive timber with a striking purple tint due to the concentration of quinones, natural pigments found in other plants and timbers. Originating in tropical Central and South America, it is known for its hardness, durability, and decay resistance, making it popular in fine woodworking, furniture manufacturing, flooring, ornamental veneers, and outdoor decking.

Woodturning involves converting raw wood into beautiful and practical items, with the process of creating wood turning blanks being a crucial step. The process involves selecting and preparing the log, removing bark, cutting the log into sections, and square-offing the log sections. Blanks are prepared by marking the center, cutting the blanks, mounting them to the lathe, turning the blanks, sanding and finishing, and inspecting the piece. Safety precautions are essential, and the satisfaction of converting a raw piece of wood into a beautiful turned object is unrivaled. This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to creating wood turning blanks from logs.

Formal analysis is employed to express symbolically the behavior associated with disposal of the dead in archaeological contexts. Key diagrams are shown to economically express the partitioning of attribute space by a series of variables coded on independently measured dimensions. The attention of this paper is to explicate the analysis of formal-structural relations among archaeological materials from Spiro, a specialized Mississippian period site in eastern Oklahoma, without resort to analogies between cultural-historical configurations. The power of the analysis is extended by direct comparison of the Spiro key with keys made on the same dimensions that are drawn from the ethnohistorical literature of two southeastern societies.

Cocobolo wood is renowned for its exceptional hardness, durability, and beautiful grain patterns, making it ideal for various woodworking applications. It is used in fine furniture, musical instruments, decorative items, knife handles, gun grips, architectural millwork, and craftsmanship, enhancing aesthetic appeal and craftsmanship.

Research Report No. 36, Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reports in this series discuss the findings of archaeological excavations and research projects undertaken by the RLA between 1984 and present.

The study of northwest Florida’s past Indigenous populations is often challenging as they frequently do not fit the anticipated models constructed by researchers whose gazes have been fixed on cultural shifts of the interior. Mississippianization, or the spread of Mississippian cultural identity and practices, remains an understudied topic in much of the region, but especially along the coast where the cultural chronology of Indigenous populations is still undergoing refinement. The physiographic benefits, temperate climate, and abundant resources of marine environments made coastal dwelling favorable throughout history. This liminal space where land meets sea establishes a unique combination of determining factors, setting coastal populations on a different path than those further inland.

During the summer of 2017, one section of the University of West Florida’s archaeological field school investigated a shell midden on the East Pensacola Heights (8ES1) site, overlooking Pensacola Bay. While the ceramic assemblage suggested the midden was deposited during a transitional phase between the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian periods, radiocarbon analyses reveal a complex chronology. Using data from this discrete shell midden, this thesis discusses how and why coastal communities appear to diverge from the practices of their inland contemporaries, and the impact of maritime cultural landscapes in the response to Mississippianization along the northern Gulf Coast.

Shell-bead data recovered from both domestic and mortuary sites in Southwestern Ontario will be examined concerning trends in both style and function during the millennium preceding A.D. 1650. Most information derives from rescue and salvage excavations undertaken by the government of Ontario over the last decade. Special emphasis will be on the florescent period of shell-bead use among the Neutral, from the mid-sixteenth century until the time of their dispersal (Hayes and Ceci 1988: 205).

Determination of the source of chert artifacts ties past peoples to specific locations on the landscape either through direct or indirect procurement strategies allowing researchers to visualize interactions with both resources and people. However, due to inherent variability accurate provenance data often remains elusive. The reliance upon chert provenance data obtained through macroscopic techniques is problematic and emphasizes the importance of continued research and development of analytical methods whose aim is the objective characterization of source for archaeological materials manufactured from chert. The following thesis is organized around three primary objectives. The first objective is the investigation of the non-destructive provenance application of two reflectance spectroscopy techniques (VNIR, FTIR) in differentiating Dover and Fort Payne chert. The second objective is to test the 'single-source theory' which stipulates that the chert used to manufacture Mississippian sword-form bifaces was solely acquired from deposits of Lower St. Louis "Dover" chert located near the town of Dover, Tennessee. The final objective is to place the sword provenance data into a cultural framework in order to explain the function of the swords within Middle Mississippi Stage polities. The 'single source' theory has implications for the socioeconomic and political reconstruction of Mississippian polities. The presence of 'Dover' chert swords in Mississippian contexts from Oklahoma to Georgia implies long distance procurement, iv acquisition via exchange networks or political alliances. However, the outcropping of visually similar Fort Payne chert over much of the Southeastern and portions of the Midwestern United States makes the single source hypothesis uncertain. The results highlight the significant application of reflectance spectroscopy techniques within chert provenance studies. Provenance data for the sample of Mississippian sword-form bifaces refutes the single source theory by showing that variation in resource selection decisions existed. Ethnographic and iconography data clarifies the role that the sword-form bifaces had in Mississippian societies. The provenance data supports the conclusion that the 'exoticness' of the material was not an important component in the symbolic cultural meaning of the sword-form bifaces. The results contribute to a growing body of research focusing on the acquisition and use of exotic goods in Mississippian polities. v

the loan of materials and access to collections. I would also like to thank David Overstreet for advice as well as loan of comparative materials. He provided valuable insight and recollections from his time at the 1968 field school at the Richter site. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Rochelle Lurie. I met her as a volunteer on an excavation in northeastern Illinois. She encouraged me to pursue the study of archaeology. Working with Rochelle and her staff at MARS I learned about archaeology and the joys and pains of field work. Rochelle Lurie is also dedicated to the advancement of archaeological knowledge and education. She also epitomizes what integrity and professionalism should be in the world of Cultural Resource Management. Table 3.1. Plant Communities and Associated Plant Species. Common Name Taxonomic Name Northern/Boreal Forest

Using qualitative and quantitative data from over 100 farmstead sites excavated over the past 30 years in the American Bottom and neighboring uplands this paper compares the relative degree of diversity and hence integration into a Cahokian political economy, of rural farmsteaders. The material remains including artifacts, botanical remains, and feature data are amassed and compared in terms of presence or absence and density. A GIS was created for the analysis to organize and compare farmsteads in terms of distance from Cahokia and material culture. This analysis reveals that people living in countryside in and near the American Bottom during the Mississippian period were integrated into a region-wide Cahokian order through participation in communal activities at Cahokia and/or nodal farmsteads dispersed throughout the countryside. Changes in the organization and degree of integration are evident when comparing data among phases.

The Forbush Creek site is a major yet poorly understood Woodland village located in the Upper Yadkin River Valley of North Carolina. On the basis of extensive ceramic analysis and radiocarbon dates, this study addresses foundational questions about site chronology and the lives of inhabitants. While multiple occupations are likely present, most of the excavated area of Forbush Creek is re-dated to AD 1200-1400. The site ceramic assemblage is characterized in detail and displays evidence of similarities with Uwharrie and Dan River assemblages. Evidence of interaction, probably in the form of intermarriage, with Pee Dee Mississippians in the Southern Piedmont is documented through analysis of complicated stamped vessels.
On the basis of an improved understanding of the occupation history of Forbush Creek and the lives of its inhabitants, previous theories regarding the sociocultural evolution of communities in the Upper Yadkin are revisited and accounts of frontier interactions between Piedmont Village Tradition communities and Mississippian communities in the area are critiqued and refined. It does not appear that the Lower Great Bend of the Upper Yadkin River Valley was abandoned after AD 1200, and considering many lines of evidence it is suggested that the emergence of agriculture in the Yadkin Valley after AD 1000 may not have been marked by a high degree of territorial behavior and inter/intracommunity conflict.
The uniquely constructed political ecology of Upper Yadkin societies, the relatively decentralized and egalitarian sociopolitical organization of the Pee Dee Mississippians compared to other Mississippian societies further west, and other historical considerations are invoked as some of the major explanatory factors responsible for the slow pace at which Mississippian society and culture spread into the Carolina Piedmont.

figure 1.1. location of aztalan and select Middle Mississippian contact sites. 2 figure 1.2. aztalan site layout. 4 figure 1.3. sketch map of aztalan by nathaniel hyer. 9 materials. Several charcoal-ash deposits were identified near these copper materials, leading to rudimentary suggestions of copper working in the shadow of the northeast mound, at the top of the riverbank (Richards, et al. 2012). CURRENT INTERPRETATIONS Previous research at Aztalan has underlined several baseline facts. Around A.D.

Many anthropologists have now adopted a relational view of the culture concept. Much research has shown that, far from being bounded or self-replicating, cultures emerge through interactions between social Others. These findings are particularly important to research on borderlands and peripheries, where communities routinely encounter wide-ranging social and political diversity. We present ceramic frequencies alongside petrographic analysis from the Late Woodland component at Esseneca (38OC20) to illustrate two main points: (1) pottery types previously understood as culture historical isolates co-occur in parts of Upstate South Carolina, and (2) potters collected clays from two main geologic formations near the site. This research shows that communities in the region traveled freely, crossing cultural boundaries while acquiring potting clays. We suggest that this level of interaction between disparate social groups laid the foundation for some aspects of Mississippianization in the region. Resumen Muchos antropólogos ahora han adoptado una visión relacional del concepto de cultura. Numerosas investigaciones han demostrado que, lejos de estar encerradas o replicarse a si mismas, las culturas surgen a través de las interacciones entre "Otros" sociales. Estos hallazgos son particularmente importantes para la investigación en las zonas fronterizas y periféricas, donde las comunidades se encuentran comunmente con una gran diversidad social y política. En esta línea, introducimos frecuencias de cerámicas junto con análises petrográficos del componente Late Woodland en Esseneca (38OC20) para ilustrar dos puntos principales: (1) los tipos de cerámica previamente considerados como componentes histórico-culturales aisladoes coexisten en partes del norte del estado de Carolina del Sur, y (2) los alfareros recolectaron arcillas de dos formaciones geológicas principales cerca del sitio. Esta investigación muestra que las comunidades de la región viajaban libremente, cruzando fronteras culturales mientras adquirían arcilla para macetas. En última instancia, sugerimos que este nivel de interacción entre grupos sociales dispares sentó las bases para algunos aspectos de la Mississippianización en la región.

Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates to construct detailed chronologies has become a key methodology in North America's ‘historic turn,’ though the Middle Atlantic has seen few efforts to apply these techniques. Drawing from 70 legacy dates and 25 new assays, this study develops Bayesian chronological models for 10 Late Woodland (AD 900-1600) sites in the Potomac Valley. Our goal is to assess how the arrival of Luray communities impacted the region's settlement history. During the Late Woodland period Native communities tied to three cultural traditions established a series of towns in the Potomac Valley, at times close to one another. With evidence of population movements, intergroup violence, and coalescent communities, the Late Woodland Potomac Valley appears to have represented a dynamic borderland during these centuries. The chronology developed in this study points toward a landscape of settlements we have labelled Persistent Places, Unsettled Settlements, and Trans...

The practice of pipe smoking was commonplace among indigenous cultures of the Eastern Woodlands of North America. However, many questions remain concerning what materials were smoked and when tobacco first became a part of this smoking tradition. Chemical analysis of organic residues extracted from archaeological smoking pipes is an encouraging avenue of research into answering questions regarding the development of a smoking complex within indigenous cultures of the Eastern Woodlands. In the right environmental conditions, absorbed organic compounds within artifacts can remain structurally stable for millennia, allowing analyses of organic matter to be performed on relics of advanced age. In this study, organic matter from six pipe fragments derived from the prehistoric Feltus site in Mississippi was extracted and analyzed via GC-MS, a process that allows for the identification of compounds in a complex mixture. Preliminary experiments tested the effects of pH on the efficacy of our extraction solvent to maximize the detectability of alkaloids such as nicotine. Several notable compounds were identified, including nicotine, which serves as a biomarker for tobacco. 1.1. Site and samples Feltus is a prehistoric Native American mound site located in the Lower Mississippi River Valley (see Fig. 1). The site sits on the edge of the aeolian bluffs overlooking the Mississippi alluvial plain and originally consisted of four mounds surrounding an open plaza (Fig. 2). The site was constructed and used during the Late Woodland period. A ring of midden defining a central plaza area indicates that much of the activity at the site took place during Baytown and early Coles Creek times (AD 400-850), before the mounds were built. The mounds were then constructed and used during middle Coles Creek times (AD 850-1100) before the eventual abandonment of the site. Three mounds stand today (A, B, and C), while the fourth (D) is no longer visible. Its location has been reconstructed based on historical documents (Wailes 1852; Steponaitis, 2012). Mounds A and B are flattopped platform mounds that served either as foundations for structures or stages for activity. Mounds C and D were burial mounds. Data from excavations undertaken by the Feltus Archaeological

In 2017, the University of West Florida investigated a shell midden on the East Pensacola Heights (8ES1) site, overlooking Pensacola Bay. While the ceramic assemblage suggested the midden was deposited during a transitional phase between the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian periods, radiocarbon analyses reveal a complex chronology. In short, coastal Woodland traditions persisted beyond the traditional “beginning” of the Mississippian period. This paper discusses how and why coastal communities appear to diverge from the practices of their inland contemporaries, and the impact of maritime cultural landscapes in a response to Mississippianization along the northern Gulf Coast.

Study of cultural-heritage objects with embellished realistic and abstract designs made up of connected and intertwined curves crosscuts a number of related disciplines, including archaeology, art history, and heritage management. However, many objects, such as pottery sherds found in the archaeological record, are fragmentary, making the underlying complete designs unknowable at the scale of the sherd fragment. The challenge to reconstruct and study complete designs is stymied because 1) most fragmentary cultural-heritage objects contain only a small portion of the underlying full design, 2) in the case of a stamping application, the same design may be applied multiple times with spatial overlap on one object, and 3) curve patterns detected on an object are usually incomplete and noisy. As a result, traditional curve-pattern matching algorithms, such as Chamfer matching, may perform poorly in identifying the underlying design. In this paper, we develop a new partial-to-global curve matching algorithm to address these challenges and better identify the full design from a fragmented cultural heritage object. Specifically, we develop the algorithm to identify the designs of the carved wooden paddles of the Southeastern Woodlands from unearthed pottery sherds. A set of pottery sherds, curated at Georgia Southern University, are used to test the proposed algorithm, with promising results.

In North America mound research traditionally focuses on how these earthen structures functionedas mortuary facilities, ceremonial platforms, observatories, and the residences of political elites and/or ritual practitioners. This paper acknowledges mound building as the purposeful selection of soils and sediments for specific color, texture, or engineering properties and the organization of deposits suggesting that the building process reflects both shared knowledge and communicates specific information. We present two examples: Late Archaic period Poverty Point site Mound A, and Mississippian period Shiloh site Mound A, in the exploration of structured deposits to identify ritual in contrast to a more mundane or purely practical origin. We argue the building of these earthen monuments was not only architecturally important as a means to serve a subsequent purpose but that the act of construction itself was a ritual process intended to serve its own religious and social purposes. In these contexts, ritual does much more than communicate underlying social relationships; it is instrumental to their production.

This study used geographic information systems, prehistoric archaeological contexts, and historic General Land Office (GLO) maps to conduct a pilot inter-site analysis involving La Crosse, Wisconsin area Oneota sites with reported Bison bison remains as of 2014. Scholars in and around Wisconsin continually discuss the potential reasons why bison remains appear in late prehistoric contexts. This analysis continued that discussion with updated methods and vegetation data and provides a case study showing the strength of using historic GLO maps in conjunction with archaeological studies. This research suggests that creating your own maps in coordination with the GLO's publicly available original surveyor data is more accurate than using the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) vegetation polygon that cites the same data. This article's research attempted to progress and review analytic methods that, if improved, can be used for future hunter catchment analyses.

Prior to the 1559 Luna Expedition, Pensacola Bay was home to many Indigenous communities. While much of the interest has focused on the Luna Settlement itself, a portion of UWF’s 2017 field school examined a large shell midden with a central cooking pit underneath. While the ceramic assemblage suggested the site was deposited during a transitional phase between the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian periods, recent radiocarbon analyses reveal a complex chronology. This research discusses how this humble shell midden’s use and reuse demonstrates the Mississippianization of the northern Gulf Coast.