Plazas as Architecture: An Example from the Raffman Site, Northeast Louisiana

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 514-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristram R. Kidder
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Community Planning ◽  
Spatial Layout ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Open Area ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Planning And Construction

Research at the Raffman site (16MA20), a multi-mound center in the Lower Mississippi Valley of northeast Louisiana, demonstrates that the plaza was purposefully built and extended on its northern end. Construction entailed significant earth-moving and labor effort in addition to the erection of mounds flanking the plaza. At Raffman plaza, building is dated ca. A.D. 700–1000. Like the mounds at the site, the arrangement, shape, and dimensions of the plaza changed through time. The final plan of the plaza was the result of a rapid major reconfiguration of the spatial layout of the site at approximately A.D. 1000. The effort expended on planning and construction of the plaza at Raffman and similar features at contemporary and later sites in the southeastern United States indicates that plazas are not just empty spaces that developed because architecture enclosed an open area; they must be understood as one of the central design elements of community planning and intrasite spatial organization. Further research should be devoted to exploring how southeastern mound-and-plaza groups were constructed with specific efforts devoted to comprehending how plazas were laid out and built.

The Yanomamö of the Mississippi Valley? Some Reflections on Larson (1972), Gibson (1974), and Mississippian Period Warfare in the Southeastern United States

1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 909-916 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Bruce Dickson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South America ◽  
Sandy Loam ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Ontological Argument ◽  
Basic Material ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Mississippian Period ◽  
Material Conditions

Larson's (1972) hypothesis that warfare during the Mississippian period in the Southeast was primarily a struggle over the fertile silt and sandy loam bottomland soils is summarized. This is then contrasted with Gibson's (1974) thesis that, at least in the Lower Mississippi Valley, warfare was caused by the "asymmetrical" nature of the kinship systems found there. Such systems led to status decline over several generations and forced individuals to attempt to offset the decline by achieving success in warfare. The Larson-Gibson dispute is essentially an ontological argument which pits the materialist's view of reality against that of the idealist. This dispute is compared to a similar one between Harris (1971, 1974, 1977, 1979) and Lizot (1977) concerning the explanation of Yamomamo warfare in South America. Following this, the basic material conditions of Mississippian warfare are suggested. The importance of mechanisms such as Gibson has proposed for understanding Mississippian warfare at the "tactical" level is recognized. Finally, primacy is given to Larson"s materialism at the "strategic" level.

2 The Development of Archaeological Knowledge in the Lower Mississippi Valley

1964 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Greengo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
Plausible Argument

Observations having some bearing on the archaeology of the Lower Mississippi Valley are to be found in the writings of the early travelers. As the country became settled, accounts of local and regional historical interest often included remarks or occasional papers devoted to the local antiquities. My purpose here is to sketch the conceptualization of prehistory as it was developed through the most significant writings.A plausible argument may be submitted in support of the contention that Thomas Jefferson was the first scientific archaeologist in the United States. Curiously enough, his archaeological influence extended to the Lower Mississippi Valley. This was through H. M. Brackenridge, who went into the Louisiana Territory soon after it was purchased and wrote a number of descriptive accounts of the country.

Astronomy and U.S. Expansion in the Lower Mississippi Valley

2018 ◽  
pp. 129-161
Author(s):  
Cameron B. Strang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
William Dunbar

U.S. expansion into the lower Mississippi Valley from 1795 to 1810 evinced and inspired many of the ways that officials and experts in the early United States used astronomy to promote territorial growth. Yet Anglo-Americans did not simply export scientific practices to the United States’ new territories. Peaceful and violent encounters among Spaniards and Anglos, masters and slaves, inhabitants and administrators, and whites and Indians all shaped the practice of astronomy in the Gulf South and, moreover, influenced how astronomy and imperialism overlapped in the United States on the whole. Geopolitical competition motivated the work of the Spanish and U.S. commissions of the Florida boundary survey (1798–1800), violence against slaves enabled astronomers like William Dunbar to perform disciplined observations, and interimperial exchanges of data made José Joaquín de Ferrer y Cafranga a prominent figure in the United States’ scientific community.

Personal Empires: Mapping, Local Networks, and the Control of Land in the Lower Mississippi Valley

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e021
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Franco
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spatial Representations ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
Property Ownership ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley

The Louisiana and Florida territories sat at the intersection of empires in the late eighteenth century. Between 1750 and 1820 the area was controlled by the French and Spanish empires, the emerging United States of America, as well as the Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations. While political surveys produced images of the moving borders between sovereign powers, cadastral surveys show the constancy of local landowners. Landowners superseded national distinction and were a constant in an area in the midst of great change. As control of the region shifted, landowning families continued their way of life. The continued circulation of Spanish cadastral surveys after the transfer of the region to the United States of America shows how Spanish spatial representations of property ownership shaped the image of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

Allegiance, Identities, and National Scientific Communities

2018 ◽  
pp. 162-207
Author(s):  
Cameron B. Strang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Scientific Communities ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
William Dunbar

This chapter studies how individuals in the lower Mississippi Valley fashioned identities as men of science. It focuses on the 1790s to the 1810s, an era when several empires and other groups competed for power in the region. Local experts tried to benefit from circulating information among a variety of actual and potential patrons, and, in the process, they manipulated and blurred the boundaries between the United States’ scientific community and those of other polities competing for the borderlands. The chapter includes case studies of the Spanish naturalist and spy Thomas Power, the Scottish planter and astronomer William Dunbar, and the French engineer and slave trader Barthélémy Lafon. Their stories reveal how territorial expansion both added to, and exacerbated deep tensions within, the United States’ scientific community.

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