The Pisgah Culture and Mississippian Adaptation on the Appalachian Periphery

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

As recent Mississippian studies have recognized, the processes of integration and adaptation that characterized the expanding Mississippian frontier from A.D. 900 to 1500 was distinctly heterogeneous. The Pisgah culture of the Appalachian Summit in western North Carolina offers a unique opportunity to consider the range of factors that influenced variation in the process of Mississippianization. Pisgah's unusual mountain environment makes it an unlikely candidate for the maize-based surplus economy so often associated with Mississippian societies, and the relatively late adoption of Mississippian practices within some Pisgah communities begs the question: why did local communities in the Appalachian Summit undergo Mississippianization? This session invites participants to present evidence on various archaeological aspects of Pisgah culture. Specifically, by considering how Pisgah compares to its neighbors in the South Appalachian Mississippian tradition, we aim to understand how cultural interactions and the limitations of the natural environment both shaped the prehistoric landscape and paved the way for subsequent colonial encounters.

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Documents
  • Archaeobotanical Analysis from the Cane River Site (31Yc91) (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabrielle Purcell. Ashley Schubert.

    In this paper, we present the results of archaeobotanical analysis from the Cane River Site in Yancey County, NC. Thirty-three samples were collected during the 2013-2014 field season from features associated with different spatial contexts such as household architecture and palisades. Our results show that corn, beans, and squash are ubiquitous in the assemblage, indicating that Cane River has unexpectedly high amounts of domesticates given its higher elevation and lack of lowland floodplains....

  • Big Meat Feasting in the Pisgah Phase of Western North Carolina. (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Whyte.

    Animal remains from three late prehistoric Pisgah phase sites in mountainous western North Carolina are described and compared. The sites include a mound (Garden Creek Mound No.1) and adjacent village, and a village with no mound (the Cane River Middle School site). Deer, black bear, turkey, and box turtle remains dominate all three assemblages. Three large bones from the mound, previously reported as bones of Bison, are definitively Elk. Whole large mammal bones, recovered almost exclusively...

  • Connestee and Pisgah contexts in the Tuckaseegee Valley of Western North Carolina (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jane Eastman.

    This paper considers the stratigraphic evidence for Connestee series and Pisgah series components in the Tuckaseegee Valley of Western North Carolina.

  • Mississippian Occupations at the Ravensford and Iotla Sites (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tasha Benyshek. Paul Webb.

    Recent large-scale excavations at the Ravensford and Iotla sites, and elsewhere in western North Carolina’s Cherokee "heartland", have documented Mississippian components that include architectural remains as well as artifact assemblages. But while Late Mississippian occupations have been found on many sites, Early and Middle Mississippian households and settlements have been difficult to isolate. Increased numbers of systematic surveys and excavations in recent years have uncovered evidence of...

  • Mississippianization in Late Pisgah Communities in the Appalachian Summit of North Carolina (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ashley Schubert.

    Three Mississippian villages from the Pisgah period (AD 1200 – 1600) in western North Carolina are reviewed and discussed – the Cane River Site (31Yc91), the Warren Wilson Site (31Bn29), and the mound and village at the Garden Creek Site (31Hw1). The elements of each community’s built environment, household architecture and domestic practices are evaluated and considered along with new radiocarbon dates from each site. These three Pisgah communities are situated in an unusual mountain...

  • Pisgah Archaeology in the Upper Reaches of the Tennessee Valley (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jay Franklin. S. D. Dean.

    Pisgah in upper East Tennessee appears to represent fluid, adaptable communities of practice in the upper reaches of the Tennessee Valley. It reflects various but limited elements of Mississippianization. Pisgah also appears to have crosscut ethnic boundaries. On the Holston, it was associated with the Dallas archaeological culture, while on the Nolichucky and Watauga, it was associated with Qualla (Cherokee) and also perhaps proto-Catawban wares. Pisgah in the region does not appear to have...

  • Principles of Cherokee Regionalization and Material Practices of the Pisgah Phase in the Trans-Appalachian Area (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tyler Howe. Kathryn Sampeck.

    This paper presents ethnohistoric accounts, ethnographic commentary, early colonial cartography, and archaeological evidence to investigate factors affecting processes of regionalization in the southeastern Appalachians. Returning to ethnohistorical theoretical and methodological roots of multi-sourced data and community co-construction to understand ethnolandscapes, we explore how central tenets of the Kituwah Way, the ethical and cultural principles guiding Cherokee practices, have observable...

  • South Appalachian Mississippian in the Appalachian Summit: The Pisgah and Qualla Phases in Western North Carolina (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Rodning. David Moore.

    Archaeologists have generally characterized the Pisgah phase in western North Carolina as the manifestation of Mississippian culture in the Appalachian Summit province, dating from A.D. 1000 to 1450, and the precursor to the Qualla phase, which dates from the 1400s through 1800s and is associated with historic Cherokee towns. The Appalachian Summit encompasses rugged topography, sprawling mountain ranges, and some of the tallest peaks east of the Mississippi River, and it is an area with some of...