Late prehistoric Florida: archaeology at the edge of the Mississippian world / Life among the tides: recent archaeology on the Georgia Bight / New histories of pre-Columbian Florida

Abstract

Mississippian mound groups. Owl Creek, Thelma, and Bessemer all have rectangular flat-topped temple mounds and chronologies spanning the eleventh through early fourteenth centuries. Grog and shell tempered ceramics are found at all three sites indicating Mississippian settlement in the same locales as Late Woodland populations or adaptation of Mississippian shell tempered pottery by Woodland groups, scenarios similar to that of the Ackerman Unit (Chapter 10). Ian Brown analyzes Plaquemine pottery from the “Great Ravine at the Anna Site (22AD500)” south of the Mississippi Delta in Chapter 12. Initial finds in the ravine led Brown on a series of ventures for three decades, including analysis of a large sample of Mississippian ceramics. The assemblage is probably the result of ritual breaking during religious ceremonies and includes sherds from the northern Mississippi Delta and Moundville. The ravine wares are not typical of ceramics recovered from middens or mounds in the area, and the exotics were probably transported to Anna by individuals participating in festivities from early Mississippian to the protohistoric period. Chapter 13 by Jay Johnson and Edward Henry adds significant information to Colonial era Chickasaw occupation of northeast Mississippi. The small (140 m) South Thomas Street site produced early (Colonial) period Chickasaw pottery along with lithics. The Colonial lithics include small thumb nail scrapers along with British, French, and native made gun spalls (gunflints). None of the 83 glass beads predate 1700. Chapter 14 by Maria Schleidt covers the “Symbiotic Relationship between National Forests of Mississippi and the Civilian Conservation Corps.” It contributes to twentieth century activities in eastern Mississippi as it discusses the federally owned forest and the development of Civilian Conservation Corps within. A primary task of the Forest Service was to grow trees and prevent soil erosion. Due to economic recovery and looming prospects of war, the CCC was disbanded in June 1942. Honor is due to Sam Brookes who was a prime mover in recording the CCC camps as archaeological sites. Chapter 15 “Logging out the Delta” by Mary Evelyn Starr continues the timber story in western Mississippi. The Delta was thickly forested until 1880 when logging began on a small scale. Logs were moved by steam boat until railroads were constructed in 1902. Starr, who conducted test excavations at the saw mill town of Mish in Covington County, is a long-time friend of Sam Brookes, a connection that may have forged her career. The concluding paper (Chapter 16) by Patricia Galloway is “Brookes@Forest: Building Epistemic Community for Archaeological Research-In-Action.” Galloway presents Brookes’ accomplishments as a government archaeologist who developed a high degree of professionalism in the US Forest Service cultural resources program where he increased the data base and furthered careers of Forest archaeologists and those who moved to academic fields. In 1987 when Brookes became the new Heritage Program Manager, he was the sole archaeologist in the Mississippi Forest Service. By 1992 he had hired four archaeologists to manage cultural resources in the forest districts while taking responsibility himself for the fifth National Forest. Forest archaeologists not only practiced in their discipline but aided in controlled burns, pest control, and firefighting. They became not only part of the archaeology community but the Forest community as well. The Appendix is National recognition by the US Forest Service of “Samuel Brookes, Forest Archaeologist [sic], National Forest in Mississippi” for his accomplishments, many of which were detailed in this well-deserved festschrift.