Arky 303- Mississippian

What is the Mississippian World?

In many ways, the Mississippian climax represents a peak in the developments in relation to Adena and Hopewell two earlier cultures - namely a) burial ceremonialism (earth works), b) trade and exchange, c) the emergence of sociopolitical complexity in the form of chiefdoms), and d) an increasing reliance on food production

SETTLEMENT

• Large, complex, geometric earthworks

• Plane geometry and a basic unit of measure 1.053 feet

• Sacred roadway connecting earthworks 100km apart

• Earthen embankments up to 5 m high; moat on inside; domestic debris, very large structures based on post mold patterns

• Effigy mounds

• Earthworks constructed in the form of animals

• Burial mounds

• Conical tumuli but some are elongated and very large

Settlement- adena and hopewell

The Adena and Hopewell were prehistoric Indigenous cultures in the Midwestern United States that built large earth mounds and geometric earthworks. The Adena culture (c. 500 BCE – 100 CE) preceded the Hopewell tradition (c. 100 BCE – 500 CE) and both flourished during the Woodland period, though the Hopewell are distinguished by greater social stratification, more complex trade networks, and a wider variety of mound-building styles.

Over a period of 500 years, Adena societies transformed into the Hopewell tradition. They are sometimes referred to collectively as the "Adena-Hopewell" because of their deep historical and cultural connection, and because both were groups of interrelated societies rather than a single monolithic culture.

It seems as though many features of the Mississippian Climax evolved out of earlier Archaic and Woodland cultures, but what really separates the two periods is the introduction of maize agriculture.

We also see the emergence of settlement hierarchies, as some sites become more important than other sites in matters of trade, exchange, and ceremony.

During the Late Woodland Period, peoples in many areas of Eastern North America began to intensify the production of this new domesticate until it became a principle feature of their subsistence base

Population levels rose as a result, thereby creating larger labor forces, and this may explain why we see the emergence of truly spectacular mound architecture at such sites as Cahokia.

Like Adena and Hopewell, the Mississippian Climax is perhaps best viewed as a single political and ceremonial complex that served to unify the various cultural groups that participated in it.

Let's begin our discussion of the Mississippian Climax by examining a Late Woodland culture in the American Southeast known as Weeden Island Culture.

We believe that local forms of Mississippian culture in the southeast developed more or less in situ and out of Weeden Island Culture.

As a result, it is often referred to as “Proto- Mississippian”.

The Weeden Island Culture (AD 200 to 1000)

Weeden Island culture is located in the deciduous and mixed pine forests, lakes, and rivers of the Gulf coast area of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.

• Gordon Willey defined Weeden Island 1 (AD 200-700) and Weeden Island II (AD 900 to 1000) Using two distinctive pottery types. The Weeden Island I period lasted between AD. 200 and 700, while Weeden Island II lasted from AD.900 to 1000

• Strong division between secular life and ceremonial life. Besides different pottery styles, the Weeden Island II period also seems to be associated with an increase in population levels caused by the introduction of maize agriculture. In many areas of the southeast, we believe that Weeden II period cultures lasted into the 15th century. Weeden II peoples liven along side of other Late Woodland cultures, and there does appear to be many similarities in the ceremonies and cultural customs of these groups and historically known groups such as the Natchez. Weeden Island Culture represents a long continuum of development that likely stretches back as early as PaleoIndian times. During the Late Archaic and Early Woodland Periods, population levels rose, trade and exchange systems became more and more important, and burial ceremonialism emerged and flourished.

• Emphasis placed on construction of low platform mounds for supporting charnel houses, elite residences, and preparation of burials. the ceremonial aspects of Weeden Island Culture appear very homogeneous. Thus, we see similar ceremonial paraphernalia, techniques of mound construction, and in settlement hierarchies. I referred to this division of secular and sacred as “heterogeneity exiting within homogeneity”. So, a great deal of emphasis was placed on the construction of low platform mounds for supporting charnel houses, the residences of important men, and for the preparation of bones for burial

• McKeithen site, northern Florida. The McKeithen site in northern Florida provides a good example of the sacred aspects of Late Woodland Period Lifeways in the Southeast.

McKeithen site, northern Florida.

The McKeithen site in northern Florida provides a good example of the sacred aspects of Late Woodland Period Lifeways in the Southeast.

The site itself is horseshoe-shaped and consists of three low platform mounds arranged in the shape of an isosceles triangle, and oriented to mark the summer solstice sunrise.

The three mounds surrounded a central plaza, with the village and it’s extensive middens opening to the west-northwest. excavations show that the site was occupied between AD 200 and 700, with the mounds being constructed some time between AD 350 and 475.

After AD 475, the structures sitting on top of the mounds were burned and removed, and the mounds themselves capped.

This event seems to mark its demise as an important center in the Mississippian world because people continued to live there.

Excavations on each of these three mounds reveal that each mound served a specific function.

The first mound appear to have served as the platform for the house of a powerful individual; perhaps a Big Man and full time ritual specialist.

These individuals were likely responsible for supervising the preparation and internment of individuals in the village upon their deaths, and were supported by the members of their clan.

The second mound appears to have served as a platform for a charnel house, and the third as a defleshing and corpse preparation center.

It appears that the corpses themselves would have been prepared on the mound behind a pine screen, and then temporarily stored in the cap of the mound before being taken at some later time over to the charnel house

The internment of bundled burials and separate skulls in the charnel house mound has led some scholars to speculate that slaves were occasionally sacrificed so that they could be buried with high status individuals in death.

Grave goods recovered from the charnel house mound include elaborate effigy vessels make into the shapes of humans birds, and other animals.

As with Hopewell, burials within these earthen mounds likely reflect clan or lineage solidarity - solidarity which in life, ensured control over the circulation of exotic materials.

In terms of social organization, the Weeden Island Periods likely represent something between Egalitarian and a Chiefdom.

With the increasing importance of maize, however, between AD 700 and 1000, religious practitioners became increasingly important as harvest rituals became important features of sacred life.

Eventually, Weeden Island Culture Peoples and their contemporaries evolved into those associated with the Mississippian

Shell tempered pottery and Mesoamerican Domesticates

• Intensification of maize agriculture between AD800 and 1000.

• Introduction of new architecture (rectilinear shaped houses), shell tempered pottery, and sociopolitical complexity (chiefdoms) and sacred ceremonial complexes.

• The use of shell as a “clast” in ceramic manufacture represented an important innovation because it allowed for thinner walled vessels that could be made larger and more durable.

• Early forms of maize: American Pop, makes its appearance in the Southeast at about 170 BC to AD 60 and was likely brought in from the Plains, and Maize de Ocho which was cultivated throughout the Midwest and Eastern Woodlands, and was cultivated intensively after about AD 700 to 750.

• Eevidence from the Koster site suggests that the intensive use of maize occurred rather quickly

• While only a single cob of maize was recovered from levels dating to AD 620, this amount jumps to 24% for botanical remains recovered from levels dating to after AD 700.

• Later introduction of beans

• introduced into Eastern North America slightly later, at about AD 1000. However, they were not in common use until late Mississippian times, after AD 1200. It was this combination of beans and maize that allowed for the large population densities that characterize the Late Woodland Period in many parts of Eastern North America. Many archaeologists feel that this resulted in a positive feedback loop - with population pressure stimulating agricultureintensification, which resulted in increasing populations which resulted in increasing agriculture intensification, etc. It is worth noting that in the Southeast at this time, there was still large amounts of arable land to farm on. The only limiting factor was the amount of time and energy required to clear the land so that it could be utilized for maize agriculture (high start up costs). It would appear then that these costs were offset by the benefits afforded by an increasing commitment to agriculture. Thus, for the first time in North America a new economic pattern emerged.

Defining the Mississippian

By about AD.900 the Mississippian cultural pattern almost simultaneously emerges throughout many areas of the Southeast.

• Mississippian cultural pattern emerges by AD.900.

• Sites located in major river valleys, associated with alluvial flood plains.

• Most Mississippian sites are located in major river valleys - along the flood plains of major rivers and their tributaries. there appears to be a number of good reasons for this.

• First, the alluvial soils associated with flood plains are excellent locations for growing domesticated plants such as maize and beans. As a result, natural vegetation was removed to allow for the planting of fields of maize and beans.

• Second, flood plains are very ecological productive, and are often rich in fish, as well as terrestrial mammals such as deer, racoon, and alike.

• In fact, it would appear that the various species of fish and terrestrial mammals that made their homes on these flood plains formed a significant portion of the diet of Mississippian peoples....supplementing foods produced via agriculture.

• Many Mississippian sites were also located in areas where topographic features provided good drainage for fields. Close proximity to major flyways for migratory birds was also an important benefit of living on a food plain, and Mississippian peoples appear to have made extensive use of waterfowl as a food source. All of this resulted in a unique adaptation which separates the Mississippian from other Late Woodland groups in eastern North America.

• Characterized by a ranked form of social organization.

• Bruce Smith used the term “Mississippian” to refer to prehistoric populations inhabiting the deciduous forests of Eastern North America from AD. 800 to 1500.

• Smith also characterizes Mississippian society as possessing a ranked form of social organization, and a unique linear settlement pattern in which sites were distributed along waterways, thereby allowing for the efficient movement of ideas, goods, and people from one region to the next.

• This, of course, explains the uniformity of the Mississippian pattern

• It is important to note that there was a definite settlement hierarchy among Mississippian sites - with large, important sites such as Cahokia serving as administrative centers, and smaller, satellite communities serving as minor chiefdoms

• Mississippian site hierarchy - administrative centers (Cahokia) and smaller satellite communities.

Mississippian Subsistence

• Mississippian people likely practiced “garden hunting” of agricultural pests like deer. difficult to estimate how much of a contribution hunting made to the economy of Mississippian peoples. Faunal data suggests that deer were important, but these animals, as well as a host of others, were likely pests that fed on maize and beans grown in agricultural fields. therefor possible that Mississippian peoples took advantage of the fact that their maize fields served as bait, and as a result, never had to travel far from home to hunt

• Use of wild nut processing. likely important features of the Mississippian diet, and in bountiful years, nut harvests in the American Bottomlands could have likely fed much larger population levels than actually existed there during Late Woodland Times. Modern agricultural models have been used to estimate the yield of maize during Mississippiantimes, and estimates suggest that good agricultural years would have produced more maize that the 22 bushels an acre average for 19th century America. In fact, many archaeologists speculate that near the famous Kinkaid site in the Lower Ohio Valley, approximately 1482 acres of prime agricultural land were likely under cultivation during Mississippian times

• During good harvest years, this would have produced enough maize to feed some 2000 people....roughly twice the number of people that we expect lived in this region during the Late Woodland Period.

• Mississippian field locations susceptible to flooding. Of course, we are talking about good harvest years here, and archaeological evidence suggests that not all years were good. While flood plain farming provides farmers with alluvial soil that is rich in nutrients, it also posses the risk of flood damage due to the inundation of fields with water. Floods can often occur in late July in many of these river valleys. As a result, farming in these locations can be very risky. In fact, most Mississippian sites are located in high-risk flood areas! Other factors that could result in crop failure include drought, disease, and the build up of weeds and animal pests. As a result, most Mississippian peoples likely lived in constant threat of food shortages and shifted “gears” in response to these shortages - becoming more hunter-gatherers than farmers during bad crop years

• Evidence of nutritional stress suggest periodic food shortages. “Harris Lines” - formed when bone literally stops growing due to the effects of poor nutrition.Harris lines have been found on the limb bones of many Mississippian burials. How did people circumvent these food shortages? We figure that most Mississippian households functioned as the essential socioeconomic unit of production in their society....in other words, they functioned more or less independently of one another.

Low Level Chiefdoms

• Trade and exchange networks. Likely form of reciprocity or gift-giving....with the receiver being obligated to return an item of equal or greater value at some point

• Emergence of elites and “Big Men”- out of exchanges, individuals who were able to control the production, acquisition, and circulation of these types of goods. Archaeologists consider these individuals as indicative of low-level chiefdoms...a form of sociopolitical organization in which communities are grouped into larger sociopolitical units headed by chieftains “Big men”. hard to ID big men in arky record

• Types of items traded: Salt and Chert.

• The redistribution of community surpluses done largely at level of the household

• As a result, our knowledge of Mississippian society suggests that:

• 1) the simple hand to hand exchange of trade items between communities, and

• 2) the absence of full-time craft specialists under the control of a chief, and supported by the community, indicates that Mississippian society was not organized regionally among highly formal lines.

A Question of Scale: Cahokia and Moundville

What is really interesting about Mississippian society is the fact that while most communities were organized into small chiefdoms, there are several examples of archaeological sites that have forced us to reexamine our interpretation of Mississippian social complexity.

These sites are Moundville in Alabama, and Cahokia in St. Louis on the Mississippi River.

As I stated earlier, elite positions and the alliances they were associated with were likely in a constant state of flux...with rulers dying andbeing replaced, alliances crumbling and being replaced, etc.

However, evidence from the impressive sites of Moundville and Cahokia suggests that not all alliances and positions of authority were so limited, or so fleeting.

Cahokia

• Located along the flood plains of the Mississippi river, it is situated in an ecologically rich setting with abundant aquatic and game resources for exploitation.

• Covered an area of more than 13 sq. km. This, coupled with the high agricultural productivity of the rich flood plain soils allowed for the single largest prehistoric population in North America to live. During the height of its power (AD 1050 to 1250 -Sterling and Moorehead Phases) Cahokia likely covered an area of more than 13 sq. Kilometers. The site itself consisted of two communities of thatched houses and mounds situated along an east west ridge and divided by a large central plaza. These communities of houses appear to have been built and rebuilt over and over, and size differences among dwellings may reflect status differences. Many of these houses were grouped into clusters around a central mound plaza...which may have served to subdivide the community into different areas.

• Monks Mound. considered to be the single largest earthwork in North America ...a huge terraced mound that rises to a height of 100 ft, covers an area of 16 acres, and contains over 21,700,000 cu. meters of earth! The building that stood on its summit must have been a focus for the entire community.

• Elaborate burial mounds indicative of stratified society

Moundville

• Largest Mississippian Site. hierarchies fluctuated throughout the Late Woodland Period. As one city center rose to prominence, other city centers declined in importance. This seems to be the case with Cahokia and Moundville. As Cahokia fell into decline at about AD 1250, Moundville rose to prominence. located in the Black Warrior River in west central Alabama and flourished between 1250 and 1500 AD. Moundville is among the largest of these Mississippian sites, and at its peak likely housed over 3000 people. In the five centuries which followed its abandonment, no other site would reach its size.

• First Excavated by C.B Moore in 1905-6.

• Four distinct occupational phases. Like Cahokia, the site consisted of a central plaza with 20 mounds - all of which served as platforms for public buildings, private residences, and charnel houses. The site appears to have grown gradually, and the history of Moundville is broken up into 4 phases.

• . The general site area likely included up to 3000 people at its peak...with the majority of these individuals living in small hamlets nearby the main ceremonial plazas

Developmental Phases

• West Jefferson Phase: (AD. 999 to 1050)

• Associated with the use of small settlements with only a few larger settlements of which Moundville was one. people relied mainly on hunting and gathering, as well as limited agriculture. each village was more or less a permanent settlement, and society was likely egalitarian.

• Moundville I Phase: (AD. 1050-1250).

• People become much more reliant on maize agriculture. up to 60% of seeds recovered from this occupation are maize. Game meat and fish are still important components of the diet. The first ceremonial mounds are constructed during this phase, and consist of a single flat- topped pyramid shaped mound and associated mortuary area. Sociopolitical complexity likely reflects a low- level chiefdom

• Moundville II and II Phase (AD. 1250-1300).

• The Moundville site itself now assumes a greater importance and consists of 14 platforms mounds. during the Moundville III Phase, Moundville assumes its complete form...consisting of 20 mounds. Population levels grow, and the smaller outside villages become hamlets. elites are buried exclusively in mounds at the main site, while lower status individuals are interred in cemeteries nearby. During this time period, Moundville was the single most important site in the Mississippian world. it likely presided over other regional centers of similar size - each of which would have been surrounded by small clusters of hamlets. This resulted in a three-tiered hierarchy of major and minor centers and residential sites. The smaller hamlets would have been located in areas where several different ecological zones interconnected (ecotones). For example, uplandareas and flood plain meadows. These areas would have been rich in plant and animal resources. Most faunal remains recovered from Mississippian sites dating to this period indicate an economic emphasis on Deer and Turkey. Within the three-tiered settlement hierarchy of the Mississippian Climax, city centers would exact tribute from nearby hamlets and villages. Vincas Steponaitis suggests that the tribute system itself would have been tied to transportation costs - with the sites closest toMoundville paying highest tribute because they were associated with lower transportation costs. Steponaitis assumes that Moundville likelycollected tribute from sites falling within a radius of 14.5 kilometers as this distance would be the maximum for a large scale tribal gathering to occur in a regular basis withoutincurring seriously high transportation costs.

Community Level Inequality and Status

• Local and Supralocal symbolism.

• Axes of Social Patterning.

• Distribution of Grave Goods.

• Clusters 1A, 1B

• Cluster II

• Cluster III

omg read this slide so long cant cope

Mississippian and Mesoamerica?

• Similarities in architecture and site layout. with their large pyramid-shaped mounds surrounding central plazas, it is tempting to link Mississippian architecture to that of Mesoamercian societies such as the Olmec, Toltec, Maya and Aztec

• Similarities in iconography. furthermore, many of the motifs that appear on pottery, mica and copper sheets and alike are very reminiscent of Mesoamerican styles and themes. for example, many Mississippian motifs demonstrate an overt concern with the sun, moon, water, and fire

• Similarities in physical appearance. likewise, depictions of individuals with long broad noses and flat foreheads resemble Mesoamerican depictions of famous rulers. early archaeological ideas on cultural development and evolution often stressed this type of diffusionist rhetoric. if, for example, maize and beans were being traded into Eastern North America from Mexico, why not ideas, or even people!

• Is there a connection? we now know that two aspects of the Southern Cult: namely 1) that it represents a distinctly Mesoamerican influence perhaps derived from Mexican traders called Pochteca and 2) that it represent extreme stylistic and artistic uniformity over a broad area of space, are essentially wrong.

• with respect to the first aspect, the fact that Mississippian sites resemble Mesoamerican sites in their spatial layout and use of pyramids does not necessarily mean that one is derived from the other. in evolutionary biology this is often referred to as the difference between parallel and convergent evolution. the fact that sharks, ichthyosaurs, and dolphins all share a similar body shape is due to an adaptation to fast swimming, and not due to an inherited genetic trait shared by an ancestor common to all three. this is an example of convergent evolution, and I think this is a good analogy for why Mississippian and Mesoamerican architecture looks so similar. with respect to the second point, as with the Adena and Hopewell Complexes, while the Southern Cult expresses a surficial stylistic uniformity, there is actually a lot of regional and local diversity present. as a result, the Southern Cult is more likely a reflection of similar cosmological beliefs and world views over a large area, than it is an expression of authority and power requiring such uniformity.

• Analogy verses homology

The Mississippian and Later Societies: Natchez and Coosa

as I mentioned Cahokia and Moundville had both been abandoned by AD. 1500. However, the practice of constructing mounds, exacting tribute, and ceremonially preparing the dead in charnel houses continued on in several cultures that were observed by early French and Spanish Explorers in the 17th century the Natchez Indians of the Lower Mississippi, for example, were a low level chiefdom society that seems to have practiced burial rituals very similar to those of the Mississippian. in 1720, a French explorer by the name of Le Page du Pratz witnessed the funerary rites of the Natchez chief - Tattooed Serpent. the dead man was interred in a charnel house on a temple mound and buried with his wife and retainers who had been ritually strangled before hand. likewise, the Spanish Entrada Hernando De Soto makes reference to his encounters with several chiefdom societies in the Southeast. one chiefdom in particular, that of the Coosa, is described as containing many villages separated by fertile plots of land. one Coosa site known as Little Egypt contains three mounds, and contains pottery associated with two late phases of the Mississippian...the Dallas and Mouse Creek Phases. the Little Egypt site dates to AD. 1400 to 1600.\ thus, while the Mississippian Climax disappeared from North America at about AD 1500, it’s effects appear to have liven on. 18