Phyllis A. Morse

Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley

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Changes in Interpretation in the Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley since 1983

The status of archaeological research is summarized since the publication of Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley in 1983. Extensive research dealing with the Paleoindian period and the Pleistocene-Holocene transition has been completed. Fluted points have been found in association with the remains of megafauna, remains of a Paleolama date the extinction of megafauna in the region, and human bone has been identified from the Dalton cemetery at the Sloan site. Plant domestication is believed to have been initiated between 3000–2000 B.C., although corn agriculture is not seen until the Mississippian developments of the ninth century A.D. The route of the 1541–42 DeSoto expedition through the area and associated archaeology has been refined. Extensive work has also been done with Colonial Period sites, especially those of the seventeenth century. New GIS mapping techniques and microwear analyses are enhancing current interpretations of regional archaeology.

1 – The River

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an overview of the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River is 4100 km (2560 miles) long and drains 3.25 million km2 (1.25 million square miles). It joins the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, halfway between New Orleans and Minneapolis–St. Paul. This location marks the northern limit of the lowland alluvial valley of the Mississippi. The Mississippi River flows within a meander belt. There has been a sequence of meander belts since the cessation of the braided stream nature of the Mississippi River. The loamy natural levees of the meander belt have traditionally been the favorite soil area for cotton and the premium land to own within the valley. An unfavorable interruption for modern farmers is the clayey backswamp, an area of poor drainage along the outer margins of levees. These two regional divisions reflect contemporary historical significance. They also have relevance to an understanding of the prehistoric behavior of human beings. In particular, the Woodland and Mississippian periods may be understandable only in terms of the relationship of phases to this general regional topography.

2 – The Archaeology

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the history of archaeological investigations in Mississippi Valley. The first archaeologists were Indians who speculated about the origin of stone debris concentrated at locations in a stoneless environment. The De Soto expedition accounts provide the first ethnological observations of the aboriginal cultures of the Central Mississippi Valley. The narratives describe flourishing, highly organized societies with large populations, presided over by powerful chiefs. There then was a gap of over 130 years until Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette came down the Mississippi from New France in 1673. They described only two villages in the entire Central Mississippi Valley area. After this, occasional records such as those of fur traders and French and Spanish officials at Arkansas Post refer to the shifting Indian groups in the area. Fewer than 2000 Europeans lived between New Madrid, Missouri, and the Arkansas River before the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In the nineteenth century, the area was explored and described by various travelers and naturalists. People such as Henry Schoolcraft, Thomas Nuttall, and even Sir Charles Lyell, the author of Principles of Geology, visited the wilderness of the Central Valley and published their observations.

The Hypsithermal Archaic Disruption (7000–3000 B.C.)

This chapter presents an overview of the Hypsithermal Archaic disruption (7000–3000 B.C.) in the United States. The Hypsithermal was a warm and dry climatic interval dating from 7000 to 3000 B.C. in the present-day United States. It was a time of maximal warmth and dryness, with corresponding changes in plant and animal species. The incidence of summer drought increased, and this drought stress is evidenced by the types of pollen collected in cores and in the kinds of animal bone present at archaeological sites. Forest types both migrated and decreased in size during this period. Species dependent upon forest products, particularly upon acorns, also migrated, and their food base was decreased. Obvious evidence of this period has been recognized for a long time in the southwestern United States and in the Plains, where it is called the Altithermal. It is only recently that comparable data were collected in the Southeast. Good evidence of this dry period has been found in the Morehouse Lowland area of southeast Missouri.

Mississippian Nucleation (A.D. 1350–1650)

This chapter highlights the Mississippian period from A.D. 1350 to 1650. Artifacts called pipe drills occurred in this period. They are small narrow bifaces that may have functioned as drills. Similar artifacts have been found in earlier contexts and are not unique to the Late period Mississippian. Antler tip points are also characteristic of the Late period. Although they did occur in earlier contexts, they were more common during the late period. Several instances of unfinished point caches are known. Typically, antler tip points exhibit a single basal barb. Presumably, they were adapted for fish spearing. The only known bow and arrow outfit found in the Central Valley contained antler-tipped cane arrow shafts. Late period Mississippian discoidals are very distinctive. They are flat on one face and convex on the opposite face, possibly reflecting an increasing complexity in the chunky game because the two faces are distinct from each other. Astragalus dice were usually made from the bones of white-tailed deer and sometimes of elk.

Epilogue: Historic Archaeology

This chapter focuses on the historic archaeology in the United States. Archaeology in the United States is not simply an investigation of prehistoric Indian remains. There are almost 500 years of the Historic period represented in the Central Valley that can also be studied using archaeological techniques. The Protohistoric is the earliest Historic period. It is restricted to that period of time after initial Spanish artifacts are possible but before the recognition of ethnographically known native groups such as the Quapaw. The date 1650 is used to separate the two earliest Historic periods, although technically the Quapaw were not seen by the French until 1673. After the French contact period, there were several native American Indian groups in the Central Valley; only one, the Quapaw, was indigenous. Around A.D. 1800, there was a period of settlement by Euro-Americans or pioneers. The Central Valley was the hinterland of both St. Louis and New Orleans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The chapter presents an overview of the protohistoric-Spanish period from A.D. 1500 to 1650. The chapter highlights the arrival of the French in the Mississippi Valley. It also discusses the eighteen-century disruption.

Dalton Efflorescence (8500–7500 B.C.)

This chapter focuses on the Dalton Period (8500–7500 B.C.) in Mississippi Valley. Radiocarbon dates in Alabama and Missouri bracket the Dalton period to somewhere between 8500 and 7000 B.C. No direct dating has been achieved in the Central Mississippi Valley, but conservative dating dictates a period from about 8500 to 7500 B.C. Dalton represents a base out of which the Archaic developed in the southeastern United States. The Diet focused on the white-tailed deer, with smaller animals, fish, and birds being included as well. It was once thought that much of the reconstructed behavior did not emerge until the Late Archaic, or even later. This behavior includes cemeteries, the true woodworking adz, artifact caches, exotic artifacts, vegetable-grinding implements, permanent settlement, widespread trade, and other traits not usually attributed to preceramic or nonhorticultural peoples. Dalton points have been found throughout the Central Valley. Extensive surface collections from almost 1000 sites with Dalton components contain much of the total variability within Dalton lithics.

The Hopewellian Period (0–A.D. 400)

This chapter discusses the main features of Hopewellion Period (0–A.D. 400) in the United States. The Hopewellian period, named for the Hopewell Mound Group in Ohio, has provided the fuel for more latitude in scholarly interpretation than probably exists for any other eastern cultural period. Although the major center of Hopewell culture was in Ohio, mounds covering charnel structures and/or log tombs, exotic artifacts of rare materials, true blades, zoned stamped ceramics, and other traits characteristic of Ohio and Illinois Hopewell are recorded for the Central Mississippi Valley. Silver is occasionally found at Hopewellian sites, most often as an applied strip on copper panpipes. Preliminary analysis shows this source most often to be the Cobalt region of northeastern Ontario. Another source of silver is in Michigan. One site in Ontario and one in Michigan were found to have silver processing centers. Artifacts made of conch shell have been turning up in sites in the eastern United States earlier than Middle Woodland.

Woodland Beginnings (500 B.C.–0)

This chapter discusses the beginning of Woodland Period in the United States. Woodland is traditionally defined as that period when agriculture, burial mounds, and pottery first appear. The Woodland period in the Central Valley is most noted for the addition of ceramics to the basic trait list described for the Poverty Point period. These ceramics combine elements found northward in Illinois, southward in Mississippi and Louisiana, and eastward in Alabama. No fiber-tempered pottery has yet been recognized in the Central Valley. The earliest pottery is sophisticated, and both grog- (broken sherd) and/or clay-tempered and sand-tempered wares are present. In the Central Mississippi Valley, this period is called the Tchula period. One radiocarbon date of 230 ± 290 B.C. was derived at the Burkett site (M–438). There was continuation of the shift in the settlement pattern to a basic lowland orientation, which had begun in the Archaic. By this time, all of the modern lowlands were available for permanent occupation.