Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi
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Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi
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Overview
A Dan Josselyn Memorial Publication
Specialists from archaeology, ethnohistory, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology bring their varied points of view to this subject in an attempt to answer basic questions about the nature and extent of social change within the time period. The scholars' overriding concerns include presentation of a scientifically accurate depiction of the native cultures in the Central Mississippi Valley prior and immediately subsequent to European contact and the need to document the ensuing social and biological changes that eventually led to the widespread depopulation and cultural reorientation. Their findings lead to three basic hypotheses that will focus the scholarly research for decades to come.
Contributors include:
George J. Armelagos, Ian W. Brown, Chester B. DePratter, George F. Fielder, Jr., James B. Griffin, M. Cassandra Hill, Michael P. Hoffman, Charles Hudson, R. Barry Lewis, Dan F. Morse, Phyllis A. Morse, Mary Lucas Powell, Cynthia R. Price, James F. Price, Gerald P. Smith, Marvin T. Smith, and Stephen Williams
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780817383114 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Alabama Press |
| Publication date: | 09/15/2009 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 306 |
| Lexile: | 1400L (what's this?) |
| File size: | 7 MB |
About the Author
David H. Dye is an Associate Professor of Archaeology in the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Memphis. He received his doctorate in anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis in 1980. Dr. Dye’s recent work has focused on the archaeology of warfare in the Eastern Woodlands. He is coeditor with Cheryl Anne Cox of Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi.
Read an Excerpt
Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi
By David H. Dye, Cheryl Anne Cox
The University of Alabama Press
Copyright © 1990 The University of Alabama PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8173-8311-4
CHAPTER 1
Comments on the Late Prehistoric Societies in the Southeast
James B. Griffin
This paper is a prelude to the more detailed and authoritative presentations in this volume. The information or interpretations in this paper are based on a number of publications as well as on my own participation in archaeological research in the area. This contribution is, of course, a compression of prehistoric and ethnohistoric research and as such is bound to be unsatisfactory in quite a number of ways to various colleagues whose views cannot be precisely followed.
Pre-Mississippian Culture Growth
For at least 10,000 years before the Late Prehistoric and Early Historic periods, the ancestors of the Mississippian societies of about A.D. 700 to 1000 were in the Memphis area and indeed in most of the eastern United States. The earliest inhabitants are identified by archaeologists as Paleoindians who were hunters and gatherers living in small bands of 20 to 40 individuals, interacting with other similar bands at seasonally abundant food resource areas. In this way communication of ideas moved over large areas, producing and maintaining similar lifeways.
From about 8000 to around 1000 B.C., the changes in the recovered material culture, settlement patterns, and other data are referred to as the Archaic period. During this long span of time many behavioral changes took place as the climate moderated, affecting the vegetation and animal life. One of the more important developments in the latter half of the Archaic period was the gradual domestication of a number of plants, the first of which appears to be cucurbits. These may have been introduced from northern Mexico or perhaps from cucurbits native to the eastern United States. In addition, plants such as marsh elder (Iva), erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum), maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana), goosefoot (Chenopodium sp.), and sunflower (Heleanthus) were domesticated.
Settlements were occupied seasonally and at strategic locations for longer periods of time by larger societies. What may loosely be called "tribal" areas are identified. Transport and exchange of nonlocal raw materials bear witness to the development of trails and expanding knowledge by local societies of the resources available over much of the East. For example, marine shells from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coast and copper implements began to appear in areas far distant from their source. Ground and polished stone were produced as utilitarian and ornamental artifacts. The Archaic developments provide the background accomplishments for the succeeding period.
From about 1000 B.C. to A.D. 700 the Woodland societies of much of the eastern United States had ceramics and used burial mounds for some or many of the members of local groups. From the study of burial procedures it is evident that some members, particularly adult males, had leadership roles in the society and that some of the strategically located, larger social groups were "superior" to others in local areas. Trade and exchange over a wide area between about A.D. 1 and A.D. 300 represent increased knowledge of contemporary groups in the eastern United States. Large regions, such as southern Ohio, the Illinois Valley, the Lower Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee River in northern Alabama, and many other areas, can be seen as having a cultural integrity that differentiates them. This differentiation does not mean that they were political units, but the regions clearly represent a remarkable cultural complexity for societies that were still primarily hunting and gathering groups with minor dependence on the early domesticates; they did not effectively grow maize.
Mississippian Maize and Mexico
From about A.D. 350 to the early part of the Mississippian period, evidence of broad regional interaction is much less visible. Also, evidence of the emphasis on burial ceremonialism of the preceding period decreases. Some archaeologists have viewed this time period as one of decline in cultural complexity over much of the greater Mississippi Valley, but this interpretation is not unanimous. The appearance of maize in the Mississippi Valley between A.D. 700 and 900 is interpreted here as the primary addition that nurtured the growth of Mississippian societies from the eastern prairies to the Appalachians and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Illinois area and to the Ohio Valley. Maize was domesticated in Mexico by around 5000 B.C. and was a major factor in the gradual development of the later Mexican civilizations. It was introduced into the southwestern United States by 1000 to 500 B.C. and stimulated the growth of Puebloan and other prehistoric cultures in that region. The route by which maize reached the East is probably from the Southwest and not by way of northeastern Mexico. At no time during the development or life span of the Mississippian societies is there any substantive evidence of stimulus from Mexico having any input to these southeastern societies. Again, this view is not universally held because of the longtime view that earlier and more advanced Mexican societies must somehow have stimulated the Mississippian societies, which achieved the most complex levels of any of the Indian groups in the United States. This opinion is held by eastern archaeologists but not, however, by the "unenlightened" southwestern archaeologists.
Some Features of Mississippian Cultures
There are several definitions and descriptions of Mississippian (Griffin 1967, 1985a; Hudson 1976; Smith 1987b), and my characterization is a short introduction to the successive and disparate societies that occupied the Southeast for about 1,000 years in an area about the size of western Europe.
Many of the southeastern prehistoric societies called Mississippian occupied areal units that included a major town and ceremonial center; a number of subsidiary villages; a larger number of farmsteads; and fishing, hunting, and other locations where raw materials were obtained. The larger towns had more or less permanent residents in rectangular wattle and daub houses of varying sizes to accommodate a single family, with food preparation, storage, and other household necessities recognizable from excavation. Larger buildings, which were placed on platform mounds around an open courtyard or plaza, were council houses for the top warriors, shamans, medicine men, and other heads of activities or social units in the community. The top man may certainly be called a "chief." The de Soto narratives state that when major decisions were to be made that affected the whole community, the action to be taken was decided at a meeting of the council, indicating that the "chief" was not an autocratic head of state. Smaller Mississippian societies would differ significantly from the largest ones such as Moundville, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, or the Cahokia site in the Mississippi floodplain opposite St. Louis. None of the Mississippian societies in the Memphis area were as large and complex as those two outstanding examples of American-Indian cultural achievements. Some of the mounds had buildings that were charnel houses and contained the remains of the tribal leaders and ancestors who commanded the respect of the living and were accorded much veneration. The sacred fire was maintained with four logs arranged so that the space between the logs formed a cross representing the four world quarters.
The majority of Mississippian sites are located in major river floodplains, on river levees, or on bluffs overlooking such an environment. The Mississippian Indians were then in an advantageous position to select favorable soils for their crops and to obtain fish, migratory waterfowl, many animal species, the fruits of the bottomland forest and swamps and adjacent upland trees, and tubers and the seeds of plants, including those that were domesticated during the Archaic and Woodland periods. Maize was the primary crop and constituted about 50 percent of the diet. They did not abandon the foods that had been their mainstay for thousands of years. They did not develop an alcoholic beverage.
They produced such innovations as shell tempering for their pottery vessels and began making a great variety of vessel forms for everyday use and for burial furniture. A marked increase in population occurred; hamlets grew into villages and villages into towns and ceremonial centers. Many of these sedentary larger aggregates of people were organized into hierarchical, social, political entities with a number of leaders for political and other functions. Many of their villages and towns were palisaded for defense with posts 12 to 14 feet (3.6 to 4.2 m) tall, bastions at regular intervals, and a walkway attached to the inner wall. They built substructures of earth on which their council houses, ancestor shrines, and leaders' buildings were erected. When such buildings deteriorated or were destroyed, the area was leveled and more earth was added on the top and sides. In this way the mound would both rise in height and expand. The larger mounds were built over a period of 300 years. Long-occupied sites would have additional substructure mounds and a plaza or courtyard between the largest mound and smaller ones. The plaza or courtyard was used for games and ceremonies and contained little or no occupational debris. The houses of the inhabitants were arranged in regular rows outside the plaza area, and in some excavated sites there are indications of social groups separated by unoccupied space or by some type of screening. Towns vary in size, but a population of 300–500 would probably be the norm. A population of over 1,000 would have indicated a major town, while sites like Cahokia, Moundville, or Angel in southwestern Indiana are unusual with populations of 2,000–5,000, or perhaps even 10,000 for the central Cahokia area at its peak. Villages had populations of ca. 100–300, while farmsteads, fishing camps, and other such food-harvesting locations would have had few inhabitants for part of the year.
The Powers Fort complex in the Little Black River area of southeastern Missouri had one of the smaller civic ceremonial centers, which was ca. 15 acres (6 ha) in size with a fortification wall and four mounds. Intensive archaeological surveying has identified some 80 villages, farmsteads, and other smaller societal procurement areas in the old braided channel area of the Mississippi River. The Snodgrass village site of the Powers phase had a carefully planned house alignment within the 1-acre (0.4-ha) area enclosed by a palisade. When it was excavated in 1966–74 by the University of Michigan, it was the first Mississippian village to be almost completely excavated (Price and Griffin 1979). It had 90 structures, a population of ca. 350, and an occupation dating to the first half of the fourteenth century. While a strong degree of similarity occurs in the material culture remains, village plans, and site locations, the degree of political control is not known and continues to be a question. The same uncertainty is true of almost all of the cultural units constructed by archaeologists.
The social-political structure of these societies would vary in complexity depending on the size of the society, and many of them are characterized by archaeologists as chiefdoms. The agricultural development, with maize as the main crop, helped to fuel the increase of population and the need for administrative direction and controls. Male members of the major lineages, or hereditary extended families, obtained the primary positions of political leaders, religious leaders who interceded with the forces of nature, magical practitioners, and other such posts. Control of valued exotic goods of religious importance was vested in the "elite." Ceremonial activities would have taken place at fairly regular intervals during the year, almost certainly at new fire observances about New Year's, at the reappearance of vegetation during the spring or Easter, at the first maturing of corn about July 4, and at the main harvest season, which can be likened to Halloween or Thanksgiving. Supervised rituals would occur at such times as planting or harvesting, under the belief that these would ensure bountiful returns. Supernatural forces were thought to affect every phase of their activities. Such beliefs are best known to modern Americans from the written records of Mediterranean and Near Eastern societies, and they still linger in today's world.
Trade and Exchange
Trade of raw materials and of manufactured goods was one of the main threads that helped to produce and integrate the southeastern Mississippian societies. While little archaeological evidence exists for trade in salt, the concentration of ceramics used in salt evaporation found around salt springs and the known Early Historic records certify to the probability of this condiment being traded. Large marine gastropods, especially the Busycon whelks found along the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts, furnished cups for the Black Drink purification purgative ceremony before meetings of the "tribal" council. These shells were also fashioned into beads, pendants, and circular cutout sections that were used as gorgets. These latter objects were engraved with designs representing various concepts of their complex ritual and religious belief. The Mill Creek flint quarries in Union County, Illinois, produced the raw material for hundreds of flint hoes in a variety of shapes. The Crescent quarries on the southwestern outskirts of St. Louis furnished an excellent white flint, out of which was made not only projectile points but also flint maces 12 to 14 inches (30 to 36 cm) long that were used as symbols of status and authority. Pottery vessels with distinctive forms made for different functions and embellished with engraved or painted decoration can be recognized as regional products. Engraved shell gorgets of distinctive areal or individual style appear far outside their usual territory. Embossed copper plates with a variety of symbolic meanings represent trade in copper from sources in the Lake Superior Basin and the southern Appalachians, and some trade activity of these finely decorated plates also took place. The large reddish sculptured human figures and human effigy pipes, once thought to have been made of Arkansas bauxite, are now believed to have been made in the Cahokia area perhaps out of Missouri fire clay, which is found a short distance north of Rolla, Missouri. Other pipe forms in Late Mississippian times, such as the catlinite disk pipe or various distinctive styles of Protohistoric Cherokee forms, were extensively traded. It has been suggested that food was traded, but this is difficult to document. For most of the Southeast, trade in food would not have been necessary except in time of local droughts, floods, or other weather vagaries such as tornadoes or hurricanes. We can be sure that the weather patterns were very close to those of today and that agricultural failure and success varied from year to year and decade to decade.
We know from the Early Historic accounts of Europeans who penetrated into the eastern United States that individuals of the several native societies actively engaged in trade and were multilingual. They followed well-established land and water routes, many of which had been followed by similar Indian tradesmen thousands of years earlier. Some of the trails were followed by European and American traders, missionaries, settlers, and our own highways and railroads. It is unlikely that trade and exchange were conducted on any regular weekly, monthly, or yearly basis or that there was a special class of individuals organized as traders. It is also not likely that the trade was controlled or directed by the leaders of a particular society, either to distribute or acquire raw materials or manufactured products. However, trade was one of the activities that served both to reflect and to produce the distinctive "world" view that identifies most of the southeastern Mississippian societies as a large interacting culture area.
The Importance of Games
From archaeological finds as well as Early Historic accounts, we know that Mississippian societies had a wide variety of games of chance and games of skill requiring considerable athletic ability. Their ball game, played by teams from different towns, developed into the game of lacrosse in Canada. It was accompanied by elaborate ceremonies, dances, rigorous training, appeal to the supernatural to affect the outcome, and prizes. Another game was played with a disk-shaped chunkey stone, which was rolled along a prepared field; the two contestants threw a notched pole, trying to land it as close as possible to the place where the stone stopped. There were many games of chance, and Indians gambled on the outcome of all of their games. The supernatural forces, which they attempted to manipulate, were responsible for the outcome.
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Excerpted from Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi by David H. Dye, Cheryl Anne Cox. Copyright © 1990 The University of Alabama Press. Excerpted by permission of The University of Alabama Press.
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Table of Contents
ContentsFigures
Tables
Preface
Introduction
1 Comments on the Late Prehistoric Societies in the Southeast
2 An Evaluation of the Biocultural Consequences of the Mississippian Transformation
3 The Late Prehistory of the Ohio–Mississippi Rivers Confluence Region, Kentucky and Missouri
4 Protohistoric/Early Historic Manifestations in Southeastern Missouri
5 The Nodena Phase
6 Health and Disease at Nodena: A Late Mississippian Community in Northeastern Arkansas
7 The Parkin Site and the Parkin Phase
8 The Walls Phase and Its Neighbors
9 The Vacant Quarter and Other Late Events in the Lower Valley
10 The Hernando de Soto Expedition: From Mabila to the Mississippi River
11 The Terminal Mississippian Period in the Arkansas River Valley and Quapaw Ethnogenesis
12 Historic Indians of the Lower Mississippi Valley: An Archaeologist's View
13 Comprehensive Planning for the Protection and Preservation of Mississippian Sites in Tennessee
References
Contributors
Index