Characterization of the Mississippian Standard Jar

Summary

The Mississippian standard jar is a specific kind of vessel form that, in tandem with maize agriculture and shell-tempering, was disseminated throughout the Eastern Woodlands during the late prehistory. As previous researchers have noted, the jar appears to be specifically adapted for slow, long-term boiling, especially when compared to earlier Woodland Period jars that are generally better suited for short-term cooking. Following the proposition that pots are tools, I characterize the Mississippian standard jar as expressed during the Moundville I phase (AD 1120-1260) at the Mississippian civic-ceremonial center of Moundville in west-central Alabama. I argue that the particular culinary advantages offered by this form made it a specialized, nixtamalizing tool, and was intimately tied it to an ancestral hominy foodway.

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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