The Pisgah Culture and Mississippian Adaptation on the Appalachian Periphery

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.