The View from Mazique (22Ad502): Reconsidering the Coles Creek / Plaquemine Cultural Transition from the Perspective of the Natchez Bluffs Region of the Lower Mississippi Valley

Summary

Around A.D. 1000 Mississippian culture emerged in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. Originating around the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, Mississippian culture rapidly spread south and east, radically transforming Late Woodland societies in its wake. Although Mississippian culture had come to dominate much of the interior of the Southeast by A.D. 1100, its advance into the Lower Mississippi Valley was impeded. Here, Mississippian societies encountered the Late Woodland Coles Creek culture that resisted replacement or transformation for the better part of a century, and it was not until A.D. 1200 that the Lower Mississippi Valley experienced a major reorganization of lifeways. Through the selective adoption of new forms of socio-political organization, settlement, and subsistence, Coles Creek culture gave way to Plaquemine culture. Current perceptions of this transition rely heavily on studies conducted in the Lower Yazoo and Tensas basins, and have produced conflicting interpretations regarding Plaquemine origins. Drawing on the results of excavations conducted during 2012 and 2013, this paper examines how this important transition manifested at the Mazique site and reconsiders Plaquemine culture from the perspective of the Natchez Bluffs region.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage