The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture (circa 1200 to 1700 CE) centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley. The Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, first published in 1976, is the official publication of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Inc. The overall result was endemic violence, though on a limited scale, and shifting alliances among neighboring towns and villages. There were a number of Mississippian cultures, with most spreading from the Middle Mississippian area. Mississippian culture. These archaeologists suggest that, rather than an intrusion of Mississippian people, there was a more complex interplay between Plaquemine and Mississippian cultures in this area. Plaquemine, Louisiana, about 10 miles south of Baton Rouge on the banks of the Mississippi River, seems an unassuming southern community for which to designate an entire culture. Sites in this area often contain large ceremonial platform mounds, residential complexes and are often encircled by earthen ditches and ramparts or palisades.[10]. The result is a clay that allows the potter to make a thinner, harder vessel, and to create more elaborate vessel forms. The construction of large, truncated earthwork pyramid mounds, or platform mounds. 2006 Prehistoric Caddo. SECC items are found in Mississippian-culture sites fromWisconsin(seeAztalan State Park) to the Gulf Coast, and fromFloridatoArkansasandOklahoma. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The term Middle Mississippian is also used to describe the core of the classic Mississippian culture area. These maintained Mississippian cultural practices into the 18th century.[5]. Native Americans living in Louisiana at this time are associated with Caddo and Plaquemine cultures. Living on the western edge of the Mississippian world, the Caddoans may have faced fewer military threats from their neighbors. Indian Mounds were constructed by deliberately heaping soil, rock, or other materials (such as ash, shell, and the remains of burned buildings) onto natural land surfaces. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The environmental consequences of population concentration and overfarming played some role in these changes. Good examples of this culture are the Medora Site, in West Baton Rouge Parish, La, and the Emerald Mound , Winterville and Holly Bluff (Lake George) sites located in Mississippi. Curated/Reviewed by Matthew A. McIntoshPublic HistorianBrewminate. The Mississippians had no writing system or stone architecture. Only the Natchez Bluffs region and regions to the south withstood the Mississippian cultural influences. Overview: The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture (circa 1200 to 1700 CE) centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley. Early, Ann M. The salt was then packed into smaller vessels for transport. Expedition documentation and archaeological evidence of the fort and Native American culture both exist. Refiguring the Archaeology of Greater Cahokia. The Mississippi period is the chronological stage, while Mississippian culture refers to the cultural similarities that characterize this society. Originally published by Wikipedia, 12.15.2004, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. Although the Mississippian culture was heavily disrupted before a complete understanding of the political landscape was written down, many Mississippian political bodies were documented and others have been discovered by research. Cahokia: The largest and most complex Mississippian site and the largest Pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, Cahokia is considered to have been the most influential of the Mississippian culture centers. The Mississippian Period lasted from approximately 800 to 1540 CE. The roof of the house was made from a steep A shaped framework of wooden poles covered with grass woven into a tight thatch. - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News . Discoveries found at the massive site include evidence of copper working (Mound 34), astronomy (Cahokia Woodhengeand the symbolicmaximum southern moon risealignedRattlesnake Causeway), andritual retainer burials(Mound 72). After the destruction and flight of the de Soto expedition, the Mississippian peoples continued their way of life with little direct European influence. Each period is an arbitrary historical distinction varying regionally. Fayetteville, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. These elements were delicately engraved, embossed, carved, and molded. The Mississippi stage is usually divided into three or more chronological periods. These connections made it possible for many late prehistoric communities, regardless of their size and location, to participate in pan-regional religious systems and other widespread traditions of Mississippian culture. Mississippian ceremony, by Dan Kerlin. The Coles Creek culture was a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley emerging from Troyville around A.D. 700. [19]Political structures collapsed in many places. It seems, based on the traditional trait list, that Mississippian cultures were different in degree, not kind, from Woodland cultures in the In the western Ozark Highlands, for example, Marvin Kay and George Sabo studied mound centers constructed by local Mississippian communities. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Some of the mounds are low, simple cone shapes. (They killed soldiers stationed at five other forts as well; only one man of 120 survived.) These changes reverberated throughout much of eastern North America. They grew much of their food in small gardens using simple tools like stone axes, digging . The deceased leaps into the hand and through the portal to connect with the Path of Souls (the Milky Way). The economic opportunities that 17th and 18th century European explorers and settlers found in the Arkansas region were very much the product of the long term adaptations of earlier Indian communities. The adoption of the paraphernalia of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), also called the Southern Cult. The Mississippian period is the chronological stage, while Mississippian culture refers to the cultural similarities that characterize this society. Smaller satellite villages surrounded these towns. Other items, possibly used as badges by the elite, show individuals engaged in games or at war (games were called little wars by historic American Indian groups, so these can be difficult to distinguish in prehistoric imagery). Chiefdoms are unstable forms of society, given the inherent competition between communities and their leaders. The best evidence for determining cultural occupations is a combination of cultural artifacts and settlement patterns. They engraved shell pendants with animal and human figures, and carved ceremonial objects out of flint. [14], The Caddoan Mississippian area, a regional variant of the Mississippian culture, covered a large territory, including what is now eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, northeastern Texas, and northwestern Louisiana. The people buried in one of America's most famously ornate prehistoric graves are not who we thought they were, researchers say. The list Plaquemine Mississippian culture includes Plaquemine culture, Natchez people, Glass Site, Atchafalaya Basin Mounds and Sims Site. These items, especially the pottery, were also copied by local artists. Payne, Claudine (They killed soldiers stationed at five other forts as well; only one man of 120 survived.) A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one. The soldiers were at the fort about 18 months (15671568) before the natives killed them and destroyed the fort. This area covers the central Mississippi River Valley, the lower Ohio River Valley, and most of the Mid-South area, including western and central Kentucky, western Tennessee, and northern Alabama and Mississippi. The Spread of Shell-Tempered Ceramics along the Northern Coast of the Gulf of Mexico.Southeastern Archaeology27, no. Villages with single platform mounds were more typical of the river valley settlements throughout the mountainous area of southwest North and South Carolina, and southeastern Tennessee that were known as the historic Cherokee homelands. https://www.boundless.com/world-history/textbooks/boundless-world-history-textbook/, Describe the economies of Mississippian cultures. In general, Mississippian culture is divided chronologically into emergent, early, and late periods. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one. Structures (domestic houses, temples, burial buildings, or other) were usually constructed atop such mounds. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions Sites in this area often contain large ceremonial platform mounds, residential complexes and are often encircled by earthen ditches and ramparts orpalisades.[10]. While other tempers like grog (the traditional temper in Louisiana) and sand also improve clay workability, the chemicals released by the shell during firing reduce the temperature at which fine silicates in the clay vitrify (turn glassy), and they also reduce shrinkage. In some cases, de Soto seems to have been used as a tool or ally in long-standing native feuds. Mississippian people were horticulturalists. David Stahles studies of tree ring data collected from across the Southeast indicate an extensive drought in the late 15th century, which added to the stress on an agricultural system lacking large-scale irrigation. De Sotos later encounters left about half of the Spaniards and perhaps many hundreds of Native Americans dead. [1][2] It was composed of a series of urban settlements and satellite villages linked together by loose trading networks. They contend that, as in most other parts of Louisiana, Plaquemine culture ideals ultimately held sway. The Creek people in Georgia practiced slavery, forcing prisoners of war to work their fields. The historic and modern day American Indian nations believed to have descended from the overarching Mississippian culture include: the Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Chickasaw, Catawba,[citation needed] Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Guale, Hitchiti, Ho-Chunk, Houma, Kansa, Missouria, Mobilian, Natchez, Osage, Quapaw, Seminole, Tunica-Biloxi, Yamasee, and Yuchi. Across much of the Ozark and Ouachita mountain regions, other small scale hunting, gathering, and gardening communities persisted throughout the Mississippian era. Salt is an important nutrient that must be added to diets based mainly on agricultural produce. Since the natives lacked immunity to new infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, epidemics caused so many fatalities that they undermined the social order of many chiefdoms. The SECC was frequently tied in to ritual game-playing. Communities from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to the edge of the Great Plains to as far north as the Great Lakes took part in this ceremonial complex, which originated around A.D. 900 near the Cahokia site. Many parts of Arkansas and the mid-South were unsuitable for intensive field agriculture. [21]Other Native American groups, having migrated many hundreds of miles and lost their elders to diseases, did not know their ancestors had built the mounds dotting the landscape. Mississippian cultures lived in the Mississippi valley, Ohio, Oklahoma, and surrounding areas. Metallurgical analysis of copper artifacts from Cahokia. Archaeologists trace the spread of Mississippian culture using many different attributes, but among the most commonly used are the presence of pottery with shell added as temper (temper improves pottery quality); pots and other items bearing a special set of symbols; and the spread of maize (corn) as a dietary staple. Engraving by Lambert A. Wilmer (1858). Emerald Mound: APlaquemine Mississippianperiod archaeological site located on theNatchez Trace ParkwaynearStanton, Mississippi. Can you list the top facts and stats about Plaquemine Mississippian? At its height, the population of Moundville is estimated to have been around 1000 people within the main settlement, with 10,000 additional people living in villages and farmsteads in the surrounding countryside. Proceeds are donated to charity. In the best-studied Plaquemine culture village in south Louisiana, the Discovery site, corn was present but was not a staple even as late as circa 1500 CE. Cultures in the tributary Tennessee River Valley may have also begun to develop Mississippian characteristics at this point. Updates? [5], Archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley, United States. [3] The Natchez and related Taensa peoples were their historic period descendants. Many funerary items from the Spiro site were decorated with motifs representing the local expression of a ceremonial complex that drew participants from a wide area. [16]The sites generally lacked woodenpalisadefortifications often found in the major Middle Mississippian towns. Mississippian and Related Cultures. At Joara, near Morganton, North Carolina, Native Americans of the Mississippian culture interacted with Spanish colonizers of the Juan Pardo expedition, who built a base there in 1567 called Fort San Juan. He visited many villages, in some cases staying for a month or longer. The beginnings of asettlement hierarchy, in which one major center (withmounds) has clear influence or control over a number of lesser communities, which may or may not possess a smaller number of mounds. Request Permissions, Published By: University of Illinois Press. Typical settlements were located on riverine floodplains and included villages with defensive palisades enclosing platform mounds and residential areas. [4] The type site for the culture is the Medora site in Louisiana; while other examples include the Anna, Emerald, Holly Bluff, and Winterville sites in Mississippi. Middle Mississippian cultures, especially the Cahokia polity located nearEast St. Louis, Illinois, were very influential on neighboring societies. The climate in this area was drier than areas in the eastern woodlands, hindering maize production, and the lower population on the plains to the west may have meant fewer neighboring competing chiefdoms to contend with. Good examples of this culture are the Medora site (the type site for the culture and period) in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and the Anna, Emerald Mound, Winterville and Holly Bluff sites located in Mississippi. Archeologists believe the Plaquemine people were the ancestors of historic Tunica Indians. This was true, for example, in the lower Mississippi Valley region (extending into Southeastern Arkansas), where a civilization called the Plaquemine culture thrived mainly by hunting, gathering, and fishing. Almost all dated Mississippian sites predate 15391540 (when Hernando de Soto explored the area),[4] with notable exceptions being Natchez communities. Somewhere between four and six mounds (three of which remain) defined a single plaza at Sims. 1996 Mounds, Embankments, and Ceremonialism in the Trans-Mississippi South. The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. [3] The largest city was Cahokia, believed to be a major religious center located in what is present-day southern Illinois. It was known for building large, earthen platform mounds, and often other shaped mounds as well. Pauketat, Timothy R. (2003). The only mound site to be used and maintained into historic times. Still others are shaped like huge animals. Keyes, Charles R.Prehistoric Man in Iowa. Hernando de Soto led an expedition into the area in the early 1540s, he encountered several native groups now thought to have been Caddoan. [21] Other Native American groups, having migrated many hundreds of miles and lost their elders to diseases, did not know their ancestors had built the mounds dotting the landscape. Among the more popular misconceptions were those holding that the first residents of the continent had been members of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel or refugees from the lost island of Atlantis, that . These ideas were manifested in beautiful objects of stone, copper, clay, shell, and other materials. The game kicked off when a player rolled a stone disk across the smooth surface of the . The SECC was frequently tied into ritual game-playing, as withchunkey. Not all Mississippian people relied on corn, beans, and squash. There were once many temple and burial mounds in Nashville, especially along the Cumberland River. [19] Political structures collapsed in many places. Archeologists use the term "Mississippian" to refer to cultural developments in the Southeast between A.D. 900 and the 1539-1543 Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto. Corn, squash, and beans. Kincaid Site: A major Mississippian mound center in southernIllinoisacross theOhio RiverfromPaducah, Kentucky. By the time more documentary accounts were being written, the Mississippian way of life had changed irrevocably. Cahokia was a large city complex, founded around AD 1050 in what is now western Illinois. It is believed that the peoples of this area adopted Mississippian traits from their northwestern neighbors.[10]. Mississippian culture, which originated at the great urban center of Cahokia (near St. Louis), involved new social hierarchies and political structures that are reflected not only in rituals and symbols but also in pots and food items. Herb Roe. Shell-tempered pottery is arguably the most pervasive artifact of Mississippian culture. Shell tempering may have been widely adopted because it was functional. The agricultural boom of the Mississippian culture concentrated wealth at the top. Maize agriculture did not become the dietary staple that it was for Mississippian peoples elsewhere. Hernando de Soto. The second largest pre-Columbian structure in the USA and is the type site for the Emerald Phase (1350 to 1500 CE) of the Natchez Bluffs region. Additional information about the Nodena site is available at the Hampson Archeological Museum State Park. In most places, the development of Mississippian culture coincided with adoption of comparatively large-scale, intensive maize agriculture, which supported larger populations and craft specialization. The site consists of 120 raised platform mounds, with the largest being Monks Mound rising to a height of 290 metres. | Indians Before Europeans | First Encounters | Historic Arkansas Indians | Indians After Europeans | Current Research | Writing Prompts | Learning Exercises | Project Background and History |, The Mississippi Period: Southeastern Chiefdoms, Last Updated: February 17, 2013 at 10:58:45 PM Central Time, The Daughters and the Serpent Monster (Caddo), Lightning Defeats the Underground Monster (Caddo), The Calumet Ceremony in the Mississippi Valley, Gentleman of Elvas: Chapter XXXII and XXXIII, Smoking Ceremony from the Songs of the Wa-Xo'-Be (Osage). Potters molded their clay into many shapes, sometimes decorating them with painted designs. In Handbook of American Indians, Vol. Almost all dated Mississippian sites predate 15391540 (whenHernando de Sotoexplored the area),[4]with notable exceptions beingNatchezcommunities. Palimpsest 8(6):185229. By AD 1450, the Winterville Mound site was abandoned, with possible migration of the population to areas around the lower Yazoo River basin. 2006 Mortuary Ritual and Winter Solstice Imagery of the Harlan-Style Charnel House. From A.D. 1200 on, corn, beans, and squash were the staple crops in many areas. Living on the western edge of the Mississippian world, the Caddoans may have faced fewer military threats from their neighbors. Shell is a particularly good temper for backswamp clays like those in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. It is thought by some archaeologists that the Late MississippianCaborn-Welborn culturedeveloped from theAngel Phasepeople around 1400 CE and lasted to around 1700 CE. Some encounters were violent, while others were relatively peaceful. It is clear that through time there are increasingly greater structural similarities between the Natchez Bluffs and regions to the south, perhaps reflective of greater contact in other realms of life. During times of warfare or strife, the regional population took shelter in the fortified towns. The soldiers were at the fort about 18 months (15671568) before the natives killed them and destroyed the fort. The chronicles of de Soto are among the first documents written about Mississippian peoples and are an invaluable source of information on their cultural practices. Privacy Policy. Washington, Smithsonian Institution. Cultural traditions at Cahokia involved dramatic changes in subsistence, artifacts, architecture, organization of space, settlement locations, public feasts, and mortuary rituals. 2004 Prehistory of the Western Interior after 500 B.C. Cahokia, in the following centuries, became the largest city and ceremonial center north of Mexico. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology Mississippian peoples were almost certainly ancestral to the majority of the American Indian nations living in this region in the historic era. They worked naturally occurring metal deposits, such as hammering and annealing copper for ritual objects such as Mississippian copper plates and other decorations,[6] but did not smelt iron or practice bronze metallurgy. Resettled Farmers and the Making of a Mississippian Polity. The incomplete remains of several individuals were laid to rest on cedar pole litters, covered with countless shell beads, embossed copper plates, engraved conch shells, well made and elaborately decorated pottery vessels, bows and quivers of arrows, polished monolithic (i.e., blade and handle all of one piece) stone axes and maces, and other offerings indicative of high devotional value. It is considered ancestral to the Natchez and Taensa Peoples.[18]. [2] A prominent feature of Plaquemine sites are large ceremonial centers with two or more large mounds facing an open plaza.The flat-topped, pyramidal mounds were constructed in several stages. Here, artesian springs bring briny water to the surface from salt deposits deep below the ground. This distinct cultural name is derived from its development in the central part of the Mississippi River valley. Through the selective adoption of new forms of subsistence, settlement, and socio-political organization, Coles Creek culture was succeeded by Plaquemine culture. The final occupation at Transylvania may represent a late migration of Mississippian people down the Mississippi River into Louisiana. High-status artifacts, including stone statuary and elite pottery associated with Cahokia, have been found far outside of the Middle Mississippian area. Hopewell culture. Winterville is a ceremonial centre built by the Plaquemine culture (a regional variation of the Mississippian culture), near the Mississippi River in the present-day Washington County of Mississippi. The chronicles of the Narvez expedition were written before the de Soto expedition; the Narvez expedition informed the Court of de Soto about the New World. Louisiana [pronunciation 1] (French: La Louisiane ; Spanish: Luisiana) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. Ferguson, Leland G. (October 2526, 1974). After Cahokia's collapse in the mid 14th century they coexisted with Late Mississippian groups centered on eastern Arkansas near Memphis. This settlement pattern was typical of most of Middle America (central and southern Mexico and Guatemala) since as early as 850 bce, but it had not diffused into North America until the advent of the Mississippian culture. Indian fighting generally consisted of skirmishes, in which small groups of warriors struck quick and damaging blows. Although hunting and gathering plants for food was still important, the Mississippians were mainly farmers. Many parts of Arkansas and the mid-South were unsuitable for intensive field agriculture. Archaeological research conducted in the region between 1938 and 1941, however, revealed distinctive cultural materials that provided the basis for . Others are tall, wide hills. [16] The sites generally lacked wooden palisade fortifications often found in the major Middle Mississippian towns. The termSouth Appalachian Provincewas originally used byW. H. Holmesin 1903 to describe a regional ceramic style in the southeast involving surface decorations applied with a carved wooden paddle. The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. This was true, for example, in the lower Mississippi Valley region (extending into Southeastern Arkansas), where a civilization called the Plaquemine culture thrived mainly by hunting, gathering, and fishing. Fayetteville, Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series 43. The Mississippians had nowriting systemor stone architecture. Stahle, David W., Malcomb K. Cleaveland and John G. Hehr Soil nutrients and timber resources were depleted. The modern languages in the Caddoan family include Caddo andPawnee, now spoken mainly by elderly people. Community patterns separated common households from elite residential compounds within the Nodena and Parkin towns. The inhabitants built two earthen mounds, one encircled by a unique spiral ramp, the only one of its kind still known to exist in this country. Mississippian peoples were almost certainly ancestral to the majority of the American Indian nations living in this region in the historic era. Some encounters were violent, while others were relatively peaceful. By 1050 CE, these ingredients coalesced, perhaps around a religious leader of a lunar cult, producing an explosive flashpointmetaphorically described by one archaeologist as a Big Bangof culture change. There is evidence for maize in ritual contextsfor instance at the terminal Coles Creek period Lake Providence Mounds siteby 1150 CE. Discussions of these cultures can be found in their respective essays. This plastered cane matting is called wattle and daub. This essay contains a description of some aspects of Mississippian culture outside of Louisiana, to provide a better background for descriptions of Mississippi-period peoples in Louisiana. At AD 1200, in the wake of the Mississippian florescence, the late Woodland occupants of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) underwent a major reorganization of lifeways. Mississippian culture, the last major prehistoric cultural development in North America, lasting from about 700 ce to the time of the arrival of the first European explorers. Other Native American groups, having migrated many hundreds of miles and lost their elders to diseases, did not know their ancestors had built the mounds dotting the landscape. SECC items are found in Mississippian-culture sites from Wisconsin to the Gulf Coast, and from Florida to Arkansas and Oklahoma. Different groups adopted the new practices to a greater or lesser degree. The Transylvania mound site is in East Carroll Parish. Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. The double-plaza design is shared by some of the Plaquemine culture sites in Mississippi, like Winterville and Lake George in western Mississippi, but these sites are earlier than the Mississippian component at Transylvania, which dates to circa 1500 CE. A new study of 900-year-old human remains originally unearthed in Illinois almost 50 years ago reveals that their burial has been fundamentally misunderstood from the number of people actually buried there, to the sexes of those interred. Highly ranked persons were given special grave sites, such as mortuary buildings on the surfaces of platform mounds. However, some archaeologists argue that the shell-tempered pottery assemblage at Transylvania owes more to Plaquemine culture precedents than Mississippian culture innovations. Many descendants of the Mississippian culture view the mounds as sacred, and some tribes perform ceremonies at the ancient mounds to this day. The site was occupied by the Macon Plateau culture from around AD 950 during the Early Mississippian-culture phase, although archaeological evidence suggests that there has been near continuous occupation by various peoples going back 17,000 years from the Paleo-Indian period. There were large Mississippian centers in Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma. Major sites such asSpiroand theBattle Mound Siteare in theArkansas RiverandRed RiverValleys, the largest and most fertile of the waterways in the Caddoan region, where maize agriculture would have been the most productive. The late prehistoric cultures of the southeastern United States dating from ca.
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