Late Woodland/Mississippian
Sedentary Period
Mississippian
Middle Sedentary Period
• Poverty Point culture eclipses around between
500-300 B.C. and is replaced by cultures lacking
indicators of centralized ranked societies.
• Middle Sedentary Period:
– Dates: 300 B.C.-A.D. 300
– Following the decentralization of Poverty Point,
there appears a re-growth of social complexity
during this period.
– Cultural orientation points toward northern
cultural affiliations with Hopewell peoples.
– Two prominent examples of these trends can be
found in the Marksville site and in the Santa
Rosa/ Swift Creek "complex."
Marksville Site
• Located in Louisiana
– Suggested as a significant Hopewell cultural inroad into the Southeast
– Maybe the result of a migration of Illinois Hopewell into Louisiana! (?)
– The Marksville Site exhibits marked similarities with those of their
"Yankee neighbors" to the north.
• Marksville Site description (after W. N. Morgan 1980:37-38):
– 16 hectares enclosed within a semicircular moat and embankment
enclosure (1,000 meters long)
– Eastern side of site is a bluff of the "Old River”
– Three openings exist to the south and west
– A central plaza is bounded by:
•
•
•
•
Two conical-mound-topped truncated platforms (north and south) and
Sunken plaza (to the east)
Conical mound (to the west) that contained a log-tomb burial)
To the south, by two entrances and just outside the "defenses," was a large
circular enclosure (measuring 91 meters in diameter by 61 centimeters
high).
Marksville Mound
Santa Rosa/Swift Creek
• Located in Florida
• At this site it appears that we might be dealing with
something more analogous to egalitarianredistributive economy chiefdoms.
• "Big-Men" model chiefdoms
– "Big Men" derived from Melanesian ethnographic work
– "Big Men" receive goods and services through their
achievement (rather than having their power ascribed
through birth)
– Santa Rosa/Swift Creek Complex may have led into the
succeeding Late Sedentary culture typified by Weeden
Island
Swift
Creek
Pottery
http://www.nps.gov/history/seac/benni
ng-book/ch05/f038.jpg
The Miami Circle
• The Miami Circle is situated on a 2.2 acre
parcel that is located along the southern
bank of the Miami River where the river
meets Biscayne Bay.
• The Miami Circle consists of a series of 24
large holes or basins, and many smaller
holes, which have been cut into the oolitic
limestone bedrock.
• Together these holes form a circle
approximately 38 feet in diameter. Other
arrangements of holes are apparent as well.
The Miami Circle
http://www.flheritage.com/brickellpoint/facts.html
Web site on Miami Circle
• http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/proj
ects/miamicircle/
Late Sedentary Period
• Dates: A.D. 300-700
• Following the Marksville Phase.
• Weeden Island Complex:
– During this time in the Hopewell Heartland in the
north (i.e. in the Ohio River Valley) things were in
decline.
– Weeden Island sites, such as Kolomoki in south
Georgia, show that post-Hopewellian decline was
not a factor here!
– Weeden Island is more impressive than the previous
Marksville Phase, and may have emerged out of the
earlier Santa Rosa/Swift Creek cultures
– Kolomoki site will provide an example of Weeden
Island cultures.
Kolomoki Site
• Site location:
– On a small tributary of the Chattahoochee River
– Area of diverse local environment
• Site area:
– 1.2 million square meters (1.2 km2)
• Site characteristics:
– Numerous small mounds, some with burials
– Large rectangular mound with a flat summit
• 17 meters high by 61 meters by 99 meters
• No ramp (as in later Mississippian temple mounds), but the excavator
Sears suggests log or clay steps once led to the summit
– Mounds were finished (i.e., capped) with colored clays:
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Red clay from the site
Yellow clay from the creek
Thin layers of white sand
Final cap was 2 meters thick
Thus: We are dealing with truncated platforms, with or without
stairways
Kolomoki Society
• Burials:
– Elaborate ceramics accompanied burials
– "Retainers" may be indicated as part of elite burials
– Thus: Burials, equipped with grave goods placed in large mounds,
implies at least a ranked society (if not formally stratified society)
• Population:
– Using village area, some have suggested maybe 1,000 persons
– Population size, plus mound size, plus organizational layout, plus
elaborate burials (with grave goods and retainers) implies probably
a chiefdom-level of social complexity.
• Subsistence:
– No suggestion of heavy dependence on squash or maize cultigens
– Thus, we may still be dealing with a case of "Primary Forest
Efficiency"—or intensive foragers.
Kolomoki site: Artifacts
http://www.georgiaplanning.com/history/kolomoki/pots2.htm
Web site on Kolomoki Mounds
• http://www.lostworlds.org/kolomoki_moun
ds.html
Concluding observations on the
Sedentary Period
• Cultigens appear present there was no evidence of
primary dependence upon them
• Period when several chiefdoms emerged:
– Poverty Point (Early Sedentary)
– Marksville (Middle Sedentary)
– Kolomoki (Weeden Island Culture—Late Sedentary)
• Architectural emergence of flat-topped mounds that
may imply an autochthonous origin for later
Mississippian mounds.
Mississippian
• The archaeologist Jon Muller (1978) prefers to
use the term "Late Prehistoric" to cover this
period of cultural development because it is less
of a geography-laden term and reflects a
variety of locations of sites.
• Still, we are basically going to be discussing
those cultures that appeared to have been
autochthonous developments out of earlier
local Late Sedentary societies—in other words,
Mississippian Cultures.
Major changes
• Major changes characterizing the Late
Prehistoric cultures of the Southeast include:
– An increasing dependence upon agriculture for livelihood
– The development of highly organized and ranked societies
(something that apparently was largely contemporaneous
throughout the Southeast)
– Increasing emphasis upon warfare with Late Prehistoric sites
often well fortified
– Increasing population growth
– Increase in the widespread exchange of goods
– Characteristic artifacts and iconography
– Widespread occurrence of the "Southern Cult" or the
"Southeastern Ceremonial Complex”
– Truncated earthen temple-mound construction surmounted
by temple/elite residential structures
Major
Mississippian
Sites
http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/outli
ne/05-mississippian/sites.htm
Mississippian (or Late Prehistoric)
cultural complexes
• Oneota Complex:
– Upper Mississippi drainage
– Major sites: Bryan Site (by Red Wing, Minnesota)
• Fort Ancient Complex:
– Southwest Ohio, Southeast Indiana, Northern
Kentucky
• Caddoan Complex:
– Arkansas River Drainage
– Westernmost "Mississippian" culture
– Most famous site was Spiro in Oklahoma
Complexes Continued
• Central Mississippi Complex:
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–
–
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Mississippi River and Illinois River drainages
The Mississippi Bottoms
Most significant site Cahokia
Other sites: Pulcher Site, Mitchell Site
• Kinkaid Complex:
– Ohio River mouth west to where the Ohio enters the
Mississippi
– Southern Indiana and Illinois
– Major sites: Kinkaid, Angel
• Dalles Complex:
– Tennessee and Cumberland River drainages:
– Major sites: Etowah, Hiwassee
Complexes Continued
• Moundville Complex:
– Alabama and Mississippi area
– Major site: Moundville
• Plaquemine Complex:
– Lower Mississippi River
– Major sites: Coles Creek, Lake George
• South Appalachian Complex:
– South Georgia and Northeast Florida
– Seat of the Sedentary Period Santa Rosa/Swift Creek
and subsequent Weeden Island cultures
• Fort Walton Complex:
– Northwest Florida
– Major site: Fort Walton
Late Prehistoric Subsistence
• Subsistence was based on agricultural
crops:
– Maize, Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris),Squash,
Sunflower, Marsh elder, Gourds
– Secondary wild food sources: Chenopods &
Nuts: Hickory, Walnut, Acorn
– Fruits
– Fish
– Waterfowl
– Mammals: Deer, Raccoon, Turkey
Late Prehistoric Settlement
• Found mostly riverine
– Settlement location most probably reflected considerations
for:
• Local subsistence resources
• Alluvial soils
• Transportation and communication
• Upland settlement exists, but most probably reflects
seasonal hunting activities.
• Varieties of settlement types suggested to reflect
– Specialized activities
– Responses for functioning for the broader society.
– Residential, Procurement , Administrative
Sites arranged hierarchically
• Types of sites:
– Large centralized sites
• High-ranked administrators, Bureaucrats and priest,
Collection and redistribution of food and materials,
Supervision of ceremonial and ritual celebrations of the
social system
– Small centers
• Low-rank administrators, Farmsteads, Basic unit most
likely a small family group of some type
• Settlement organization:
– Sites of more than one mound appear organized as
follows:
– Central plaza, Large central mound (presumably
elevated toward the sun [i.e., the solar deity]),
Council house on the opposite side, Smaller mounds
graded away from these, Village area surrounded
central precinct, Cornfields surrounded village.
Mississippian Cities: Toqua
Moundville, AL
Etowah Mounds, GA
Etowah mounds
Etowah Reconstruction
Etowah web site
• http://www.lostworlds.org/etowah_mounds.
html
Cahokia
• Site location:
– 16 km east-northeast of Saint Louis (in East Saint
Louis), On Cahokia Creek
– Cahokia was the largest prehistoric city north of
Mexico
– At its peak it may have had some 20,000-30,000
inhabitants
– Appears to have been the center of at least 50
communities in the American Bottom region
Occupation
• This site was first inhabited by Indians of the Late
Woodland culture about AD 700.
• The site grew during the following Mississippian
period, after AD 900, and by AD 1050-1150, the
Cahokia site was the regional center for the
Mississippian culture with many satellite
communities, villages and farmsteads around it.
• After AD 1200, the population began to decline and
the site was abandoned by AD 1400.
http://www.nps.gov/history/worldheritage/cahokia.h
tm
Cahokia Reconstruction
Additional Reconstruction
http://www.nps.gov/history/worldheritage/cahokia.h
tm
City Center
• Site center is basically diamond shaped with an interior
palisaded core
– 4.58 km east-west by 3.67 km north-south and 13.4 km2
– 120 mounds
• City center:
– Monk's Mound plus 16 other mounds
– Basically shaped like a squat boat heading south
– Surrounded by a palisade on three sides (Cahokia Creek defining the
fourth side)
• Majority of mounds lie outside the palisaded inner core
– One small mound yielded the burial of a high-ranking individual buried
with: Caches of arrow heads, Polished stone, Mica, Six sacrificed male
retainers, A separate mass grave containing 53 women
Palisade
• Excavations begun in 1966 uncovered a two-mile-long
stockade surrounding the central portion of Cahokia.
• The wall was started around A.D. 1100 and then rebuilt
three times over a period of 200 years.
• Each construction required 15,000-20,000 oak and hickory
logs, one foot in diameter and twenty feet tall.
• The logs were sunk into a trench four to five feet deep and
were supported with horizontal poles or interwoven with
saplings.
Reconstructed Palisade
“Woodhenge”
• Evidence that there were as many as five
Woodhenges.
• These were built over a period of 200 years
(A.D. 900-1100).
• Fragments of wood were identified as red
cedar and used for the posts.
"Woodhenge“ Functions
• Possible functions of "Woodhenge“:
– Observatory (?): May have functioned like
Stonehenge as a sort of "observatory"
• For astral and horizon alignment observations.
• three posts are crucial as seasonal markers -- those marking the first
days of winter and summer (the solstices), and one halfway between
marking the first days of spring and fall (the equinoxes).
– Sun Dance "Temple" (?)
Woodhenge Reconstruction
Burial & Status: Cahokia Mound 72
The wood dates to approximately 1000 A.D.
272 burials were discovered in mound 72.
Burials without litters
Mound 72
Burials with litters
Mound 72
Female Burial Pit (53 between 15 and 30)
Mound 72
Headless Burials
Reconstruction of “Chief” from
Mound 72
http://www.sacreddestinations.com/usa/images/illinois/cohokia/birdman-burial-ccjefgodsky.jpg
Monk’s Mound
• Largest monument at Cahokia is the famous Monk's
Mound
• Monk's Mound:
– About 100 feet high
– Covers sixteen acres (3 acres more than the great pyramid at Giza!)
(6.4 hectares)
– 316 by 241 meters(76156 square meters) rising over 30 meters
high
– Contains over 600,000 cubic meters of earth
– Constructed in stages
– This constitutes one of the largest examples of prehistoric
construction in the entire Western Hemisphere
Monk’s Mound
Another View
Late Prehistoric house form
• Wall construction:
– Vertical poles set in trenches covered over with
– Mud plaster (i.e., wattle-and-daub construction)
– Plaster-covered mats
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•
•
•
Roof was thatched
Floor plan generally square
Hearth in the center of the floor
General structural template applied for:
– Farmers' houses, Mortuary temples for the bodies of the
local aristocracy, Palaces of the living chieftains
House construction
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permex/archaeol/xrm-text.htm
Late Prehistoric Sociopolitical Systems
• Hierarchical system implied, ranging from:
• Local Chiefdoms
– Possibly the complex state (in some instances, at least in
emergent form):
– Ramie State, with the capital having been Cahokia
– Possibly others at Moundville, etc.
• Social stratification was documented clearly by the
early French explorers for the ethnohistoric Natchez
– Rulership vested in the "Sun" and "Stinkards"
represented the bottom social stratum
Late Prehistoric Burial Systems
• Pottery and other artifacts buried with the deceased
• Some vessels ceremonially "killed"
• Decorative motifs associated with mortuary furniture:
– Hand, Eye, Bones, Skulls
– Bodies appear to have been placed upon, or wrapped in, mats and/or
skins
• Burial practices varied:
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–
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Mortuary charnel houses
Stretched and flexed burials have been found
Disarticulated (i.e., secondary) burials
Cremated remains often placed in urns
• Still, in virtually all cases, mortuary offerings carrying
symbolism associated with the "Southeastern Ceremonial
Complex" or the "Southern Cult" were placed with the
dead.
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex—
defined
• The aesthetics, iconography, and variety of media
employed make the prehistoric Mississippian Southeast
one of the richest archaeological areas in North
America.
• The three main sites producing such art were:
– Etowah (Georgia)
– Moundville (Alabama)
– Spiro (Oklahoma)
• Much of Mississippian art reflects themes of the
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex in terms of:
– Motifs, God-animal representations, Ceremonial
objects,Costume details
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
Motifs
• Cross
– "Greek" cross
– Swastika
• Sun circles
•
•
•
•
•
•
– Rayed
– Scalloped
Bi-lobed arrow
Forked eye
Open eye
Barred oval
Hand-and-eye
Death motifs: Skull, Femur, Fleshed radius and ulna,
Skeletal hand
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex GodAnimal Representations
• Birds:
– Eagles (both naturalistic and anthropomorphized)
– Woodpeckers: Pileated, Ivory-billed (now extinct)
– Hawk, Falcon, Turkey (always naturalistic)
• Rattlesnake: Horned, Plumed, Winged,
Anthropomorphized
• BobCat (always naturalistic)
• Panther
• Deer
• Spider
Animal Representations
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
Ceremonial Objects
• Often associated with above motifs and God-Animal
Beings.
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Gorgets
Conch pendants (Columella)
Embossed copper plates
Sheet copper hair emblems
Ear spools
Celts
Monolithic axes
Batons or maces
Effigy pipes
Notched stone disks
Discoidal stones (Chunkee)
Conch shell bowls
Ceremonial flints
Bottles: (Possibly for black drink?)
Mississippian Ceramics
Human Effigy
Dog
Owl
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permex/archaeol/xrm-text.htm
Shell Ornaments
Spider Gorget
Shell Mask
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permex/a
rchaeol/xrm-text.htm
Priest/Warrior Gorget
Lithic Artifacts
Monolithic Axe
Duck River Cache, TN
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permex/archaeol/xrm-text.htm
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
Costume Details
• Hair treatment (Occipital hair knot)
• Antlered headdresses
• Ornaments:
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–
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Bi-lobed arrow hair ornament
Copper-plume hair ornament
Hair tablets
Ear (usually tasseled ear spools)
Body: Beaded arm and leg bands, Necklaces, Beaded
choker, Beaded belt.
– Clothing: Knotted sashes, Fringed apron, Carried or
suspended paraphernalia: Baton, Flint knives, Human
heads (trophies?), Hafted celts, Chunkee stones
Human Figures
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permex/archaeol/xrm-text.htm
Mississippian Collapse
• Most Mississippian centers abandoned by
1500s, before contact with Europeans
– Reasons largely unknown.
• Natchez and Coosa still around until
decimated by European disease.
Sources
• http://www.crt.state.la.us/crt/parks/marksvil
/marksvle.htm
• http://www.picturesofrecord.com/Mississip
pian%20Culture%20thumbnail.htm
• http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/cahokia.html