The Hollywood Site (9RI1) and the Foundations of Mississippian in the Middle Savannah River Valley

In this chapter we explore the role of the Hollywood site in the development of a unique version of Mississippian political culture that emerged along the middle Savannah River Valley. We argue this variant of Mississippian was inspired by the coming together of material culture, belief traditions, and people from the Central Mississippi valley and the middle Savannah valley. Those divergent traditions and practices were entangled through a set of mortuary rituals emplaced within Hollywood’s Mound B. What resulted was a new settlement system, emphasis on monumentality, and ceremonialism that was a unique historical creation.

Quaternary eolian dunes in the Savannah River Valley, Jasper County, South Carolina, USA

Sand hills in the Savannah River valley in Jasper County (South Carolina, USA) are interpreted as the remnants of parabolic eolian dunes composed of sand derived from the Savannah River and stabilized by vegetation under prevailing climate conditions. Optically stimulated luminescence ages reveal that most of the dunes were active ca. 40 to 19 ka ago, coincident with the last glacial maximum (LGM) through early deglaciation. Modern surface winds are not sufficient for sustained eolian sand transport. When the dunes were active, winds blew at velocities of at least 4 m/s from west to east, and some vegetation was present. The ratio of annual precipitation to potential evapotranspiration (P:PE) was less than the modern ratio of 1.23 and may have been < 0.30, caused by stronger winds (which would have resulted in greater evaporation) and/or reduced precipitation. The Savannah River dunes are part of a larger assemblage of eolian dunes that were active in the eastern United States during and immediately after the LGM, suggesting that eolian sediment behavior in this region has been controlled by regional forcing mechanisms during the Quaternary.