Timing and Consequences of the Introduction of Maize Agriculture in the Lower Mississippi Valley

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristram R. Kidder
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Maize Agriculture ◽  
Coles Creek ◽  
Productive Environment

Archaeologists in the Lower Mississippi Valley have generally assumed that corn, beans, and squash provided the subsistence stability and the surpluses necessary for the development of complex, stratified polities which existed during the Coles Creek period. Recent research indicates that maize was probably not an important part of the diet until after this time. Therefore, the introduction of maize-based agriculture had little impact on the formation of chiefdoms in Coles Creek culture. In this regard Coles Creek is different from early Mississippian; it is a distinct adaptation to the highly productive environment of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

Reexamining the Evidence for Bear Ceremonialism in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Bears ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 235-255
Author(s):  
Ashley Peles ◽  
Megan C. Kassabaum
Keyword(s):  
Ursus Americanus ◽  
Black Bear ◽  
Late Woodland ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Late Woodland Period ◽  
Coles Creek

This chapter reexamines the archaeological evidence for black bear (Ursus americanus) ceremonialism in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi). While the environment of the Lower Mississippi Valley was certainly favorable for black bear, we find that not only do ethnohistorical records indicate the importance of black bear but there is a particularly high amount of bear remains at sites dating to the Late Woodland period (AD 700–1200). Feltus, a Coles Creek mound center in southwest Mississippi, is then presented as a case study of black bear ceremonialism. Extensive excavations show that black bear remained a consistent focus throughout the site’s use. Although the specific nature of bear use differs when comparing off-mound and pre-mound contexts to summit-related activities, black bear is consistently found in association with feasting events and ritual activities related to the setting of freestanding posts.

scholarly journals Coles Creek Culture and the Trans-Mississippi South

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank F. Schambach
Keyword(s):  
Full Scale ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Red River ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Red River Valley ◽  
Coles Creek ◽  
Michael Hoffman ◽  
Major Occupation ◽  
Fourche Maline

Certain Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) traits, mostly Coles Creek ceramic traits, but also traits such as temple mounds and certain mortuary patterns, appear at Late Fourche Maline and Early Caddo sites in the Trans-Mississippi South, particularly at sites in the Red River Valley in northwest Louisiana and southwest Arkansas. Explaining how these traits got there and understanding their role in the development of Caddo culture is one of the basic problems in the archaeology of this area. The conventional explanation has long been that they represent a full scale intrusion of Coles Creek culture into the Trans-Mississippi South. Thus Michael Hoffman has created a Crenshaw phase of Coles Creek culture in the Great Bend region of the Red River Valley in southwest Arkansas, and Clarence H. Webb attributed the initial major occupation at the Mounds Plantation site in northwest Louisiana to "Coles Creek peoples" who "laid out the plaza, possibly constructed Mound 2 as a quadrilateral temple substructure, and--at the opposite end of the plaza--established a burial area where Mound 5 sits."

scholarly journals Comparing Caddo and Coles Creek Pottery Using Petrographic Analysis

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffery S. Girard ◽  
Leslie G. Cecil
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Red River ◽  
Petrographic Analysis ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Initial Attempt ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Coles Creek

Pottery classified as “Coles Creek Incised” is common both to the earliest Caddo sites along the Red River and to contemporary sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Although it often is suggested that Coles Creek pottery from the two regions can be distinguished by differences in paste, no detailed comparative studies have been carried out. An initial attempt to identify variation through the use of petrographic analysis was carried out by comparing 50 samples drawn from sites in northwest and central Louisiana. Although no sharp dichotomy was noted between the regions, the study identified distinctions that support the notion that most Coles Creek pottery was made locally and different technological traditions may be represented.

Presumed Trade and Aberrant Pottery

1949 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 130-145
Author(s):  
Alex D. Krieger
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Great Range ◽  
Source Areas ◽  
Site Occupation ◽  
Foreign Origin ◽  
Pronounced Deviation

The pottery in the following sections is not considered to belong to the Alto Focus complex, but to occur with it at different points in the Davis site occupation by trade or other means. If the writer appears to vacillate over what is and what is not trade pottery here, it is due in part to the problem of separating what could have been produced at the site (as extreme variations of resident styles) from what probably was not (because of some distinctive attribute which would mark it as foreign). In certain cases of pronounced deviation, a foreign origin is obvious enough, particularly when the source areas are well known. But where the whole tradition is similar as in the clay-tempered pottery of the lower Mississippi Valley region, and a great range of decorative techniques was employed for long periods of time, the problem is not easy.

Loess stratigraphy of the Lower Mississippi Valley

1996 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 167-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.M. Rutledge ◽  
M.J. Guccione ◽  
H.W. Markewich ◽  
D.A. Wysocki ◽  
L.B. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley

Age, genesis, and paleoclimatic interpretation of the Sangamon/Loveland complex in the Lower Mississippi Valley, U.S.A.

2010 ◽  
Vol 123 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. W. Markewich ◽  
D. A. Wysocki ◽  
M. J. Pavich ◽  
E. M. Rutledge
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley
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