Alluvial geoarchaeology of a Middle Archaic Mound complex in the lower Mississippi Valley, U.S.A.

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 591-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee J. Arco ◽  
Katherine A. Adelsberger ◽  
Ling-yu Hung ◽  
Tristram R. Kidder
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Middle Archaic

Watson Brake, a Middle Archaic Mound Complex in Northeast Louisiana

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe W. Saunders ◽  
Rolfe D. Mandel ◽  
C. Garth Sampson ◽  
Charles M. Allen ◽  
E. Thurman Allen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Clay Loam ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Full Extent ◽  
Ritual Space ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Poverty Point

Middle Archaic earthen mound complexes in the lower Mississippi valley are remote antecedents of the famous but much younger Poverty Point earthworks. Watson Brake is the largest and most complex of these early mound sites. Very extensive coring and stratigraphic studies, aided by 25 radiocarbon dates and six luminescence dates, show that minor earthworks were begun here at ca. 3500 B.C. in association with an oval arrangement of burned rock middens at the edge of a stream terrace. The full extent of the first earthworks is not yet known. Substantial moundraising began ca. 3350 B.C. and continued in stages until some time after 3000 B.C. when the site was abandoned. All 11 mounds and their connecting ridges were occupied between building bursts. Soils formed on some of these temporary surfaces, while lithics, fire-cracked rock, and fired clay/loam objects became scattered throughout the mound fills. Faunal and floral remains from a basal midden indicate all-season occupation, supported by broad-spectrum foraging centered on nuts, fish, and deer. All the overlying fills are so acidic that organics have not survived. The area enclosed by the mounds was kept clean of debris, suggesting its use as ritual space. The reasons why such elaborate activities first occurred here remain elusive. However, some building bursts covary with very well-documented increases in El Niño/Southern Oscillation events. During such rapid increases in ENSO frequencies, rainfall becomes extremely erratic and unpredictable. It may be that early moundraising was a communal response to new stresses of droughts and flooding that created a suddenly more unpredictable food base.

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

Basin-scale reconstruction of the geological context of human settlement: an example from the lower Mississippi Valley, USA

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1255-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristram R. Kidder ◽  
Katherine A. Adelsberger ◽  
Lee J. Arco ◽  
Timothy M. Schilling
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Human Settlement ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Geological Context

Interaction of Cottonwood Clones with Site and Planting Year

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Mohn ◽  
W. K. Randall
Keyword(s):  
First Year ◽  
Diameter Growth ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley ◽  
Large Clone ◽  
Over Time

Height and diameter growth to age three and the number of first year branches were analyzed for 25 cottonwood clones grown in six plantations in central Mississippi. Plantations were on two contrasting sites and planted in three consecutive years. Results showed small clone × planting year interactions and large clone × site interactions for all parameters. In the lower Mississippi Valley, therefore, emphasis should be placed on testing over a range of sites rather than replicating over time.

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