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.

Mississippian Origins as Viewed from the Shiloh Indian Mound Group, Western Tennessee

2020 ◽  
pp. 303-313
Author(s):  
David G. Anderson ◽  
Thaddeus G. Bissett ◽  
John E. Cornelison
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Tl Dating ◽  
American Bottom ◽  
Prior Use ◽  
Construction Activity

The Shiloh Indian Mound Group has produced a number of artifacts that appear to derive from the American Bottom area. Radiocarbon and TL dating indicates the site was occupied from the late tenth through early 14th centuries AD, with construction activity at Mound A occurring between approximately AD 1100 and 1340, with major stages erected during the early and mid-13th century. The Shiloh center was thus emerging during Cahokia’s Stirling phase, from ca. AD 1100–1200, and reached its peak during the subsequent Morehead Phase, from AD 1200–1300. Shiloh, like Cahokia itself, was abandoned sometime around AD 1300. Shiloh’s Mississippian center apparently emerged amid local Late Woodland peoples who apparently made little prior use of the location, suggesting an amalgamation of differing populations or social groups, much as Cahokia itself was likely formed.

Cucurbita pepo from King Coulee, Southeastern Minnesota

1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley E. Perkl
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Cucurbita Pepo ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Upper Midwest ◽  
Plant Use ◽  
The People ◽  
Habitation Site

Domesticated squash (Cucurbita pepo) was recovered from King Coulee, a multicomponent habitation site. Recent accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon determinations on two seeds indicate that Cucurbita was used as early as 2530±60 B.P, during the Late Archaic. This marks the earliest occurrence of domesticated plant use in the upper Midwest. Another seed dated to the Late Woodland (1170±40 B.P.) is consistent with an inferred pattern of greater plant use throughout the area. The use of Cucurbita played an important role in the long transition from foraging to farming. These new data provide valuable insights into the economies of the people inhabiting the region.

New Evidence in the Upper Mississippi Valley for Premississippian Cultural Interaction with the American Bottom

2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B. Stoltman ◽  
Danielle M. Benden ◽  
Robert F. Boszhardt
Keyword(s):  
Late Woodland ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
American Bottom ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
New Evidence

The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites in the Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) prompted a petrographic analysis of thin sections of 21 vessels from these sites. The goal was to evaluate their possible derivation from the American Bottom, the nearest locality where such pottery commonly occurs. Among the 12 UMV vessels tempered with shell (nine red slipped), ten were determined, based on comparisons to thin sections of stylistically similar pottery from the American Bottom, to have essentially identical physical compositions. Additionally, four vessels suspected of being limestone-tempered were determined to have been tempered with a type of sandstone that out-crops only farther south in Illinois and Iowa. Of the three UMV sites, only the Fisher Mounds Site Complex (FMSC) produced the presumed exotic pottery in undisturbed, dated contexts. The petrographic evidence is consistent with the C-14 age and lithic assemblage at FMSC in suggesting an actual influx of people from the American Bottom into the UMV. The time of this influx, the Edelhardt phase of the Emergent Mississippian/Terminal Late Woodland period, ca. cal A.D. 1000-1050, is earlier than previously believed, i.e., precedes the main Mississippian period in the American Bottom.

Effigy mounds and rock art of midcontinental North America: Shared iconography, shared stories

2021 ◽  
pp. 019769312199672
Author(s):  
Bradley T Lepper ◽  
Robert F Boszhardt ◽  
James R Duncan ◽  
Carol Diaz-Granados
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Ohio River ◽  
Upper Midwest ◽  
Effigy Mound ◽  
Shared Stories ◽  
Cultural Connections ◽  
River Valleys

The effigy mounds of the Upper Midwest and the Ohio Valley long have been regarded as distinct and independent cultural developments. A review of effigy mound iconography in both regions reveals similarities suggesting that they are elements of a shared cultural tradition. Comparisons with rock art imagery from the Upper Midwest and Missouri, the inferred centers of this artistic and ceremonial florescence, reveal co-occurrences of specific motifs and provide additional evidence of cultural connections among the Late Woodland to early Late Precontact societies inhabiting the lower Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio river valleys. Oral traditions of Native American groups with documented connections to these regions allow this rich corpus of imagery to be understood as key episodes in their genesis stories.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document