Chronology for Mississippian and Oneota Occupations at Aztalan and the Lake Koshkonong Locality

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Anthony M. Krus ◽  
John D. Richards ◽  
Robert J. Jeske
Keyword(s):  
Late Woodland ◽  
Small Cluster ◽  
River Drainage ◽  
Middle Mississippian

The Middle Mississippian component at Aztalan was a mixed, Late Woodland / Mississippian occupation sited within a heavily fortified habitation and mound center that is located on a tributary of the Rock River in Wisconsin. It represents the northernmost large Cahokian-related village recorded. The Oneota Lake Koshkonong Locality of the Rock River drainage is located approximately 20 km south of Aztalan, and it consists of a 25 km2 area along the northwest shore with a small cluster of habitation settlements. Sixty-eight radiocarbon measurements have been obtained from Aztalan, and 52 from Oneota settlements in the Lake Koshkonong Locality. We discuss how to best interpret this dataset, and we use Bayesian chronological modeling to analyze these dates. The results suggest that (1) Aztalan's Late Woodland (Kekoskee phase) occupation began in the AD 900s or early AD 1000s, (2) Aztalan's Mississippian occupation ceased in the AD 1200s, (3) Oneota occupations at Lake Koshkonong began after AD 1050 and were established by the AD 1200s, and (4) Oneota occupations at Lake Koshkonong continued after Aztalan's Mississippian abandonment until at least the late AD 1300s. Additionally, the results demonstrate that Aztalan was fortified with a palisade with bastions for much of the Mississippian occupation, suggesting a contested presence in a multiethnic landscape.

Collapse of Crucial Resources and Culture Change: A Model for the Woodland to Oneota Transformation in the Upper Midwest

2006 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Theler ◽  
Robert F. Boszhardt
Keyword(s):  
Community Organization ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Upper Midwest ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
American Bottom ◽  
Driftless Area ◽  
Middle Mississippian ◽  
Effigy Mound ◽  
Northward Expansion ◽  
Hunting Technology

The Driftless Area of the Upper Midwestern United States offers a case study for the transition from hunter-gatherer (Late Woodland Effigy Mound) to agricultural (Oneota) societies between ca. A.D. 950 and 1150, a period that coincided with northward expansion of Middle Mississippian cultures from the American Bottom. Previous studies have not adequately explained the regional disappearance of Effigy Mound cultures, the appearance of Oneota cultures, or the cultural changes that occurred during this period. Our analysis considers ecological (deer and firewood) and cultural (population packing, community organization, hunting technology, and warfare) factors to develop a testable model applicable to broader regions. We propose that increasing Late Woodland populations reached the region's “packing threshold,” disrupting a flexible seasonal round based on residential mobility and triggering shortages of two essential resources, white-tailed deer and firewood, which in turn led Late Woodland groups to abandon vast portions of the Driftless Area. The intrusion of Middle Mississippian peoples from the south created additional disruption and conflict. Remnant Woodland and Mississippian peoples amalgamated briefly in the region's first villages, which were palisaded. After A.D. 1150, Oneota cultures emerged, reoccupying specific localities in clustered settlements.

scholarly journals Patterns of Antemortem Tooth Loss in Late Prehistoric West-central Tennessee

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Ostendorf Smith ◽  
Tracy Betsinger
Keyword(s):  
Tooth Loss ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Middle Mississippian ◽  
West Central ◽  
Kentucky Lake ◽  
Antemortem Tooth Loss ◽  
Tooth Type

The later prehistoric subsistence-settlement pattern in the Kentucky Lake Reservoir (KLR) of northern west-central Tennessee is of interest as human occupation inexplicably terminates by AD 1450 as part of a larger regional depopulation. Antemortem tooth loss (ATL) collectively and by tooth type was identified in four site samples from the KLR. These are a Late Woodland (AD 600-900) sample (Hobbs) and three Middle Mississippian period (AD 1100- 1400) hierarchically organized and presumptively maize agriculturalist samples (Link/Slayden, Gray Farm , Thompson Village). ATL prevalence in the Hobbs sample is consistent with a native crop and seasonal foraging economy. The ATL in the Link sample is more congruent with the pre-maize Late Woodland sample than the essentially contemporaneous Gray Farm site sample. Thompson Village, a later-dated satellite community of the Gray Farm polity, exhibits significantly fewer ATL than the Gray Farm sample. This may flag climate-influenced agricultural shortfall of dietary carbohydrates later in the occupation sequence. Additionally, males in the Gray Farm site sample have significantly more ATL than males in the other two Mississippian samples. The patterns suggest regional, possibly shortfall mitigated, differences in maize intensification with a polity-specific male-focused maize consumption in the Gray Site.  

First record of the crystal darter (Crystallaria asprella) from Big River, Missouri, since 1963

2010 ◽  
Vol 44-45 (2010-2011) ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Jeffery M. Ray
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Species ◽  
First Record ◽  
Main Stem ◽  
Jefferson County ◽  
River Drainage

Abstract The capture of a crystal darter Crystallaria asprella, a state endangered species in Missouri, from the main stem of Big River (Meramec River drainage) in August 2009 represented the first documentation of the species in nearly 50 years from Big River, Jefferson County, and only the second record ever reported from this river.

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