A River Runs through It: Placing Vicksburg in Context through an Analysis of Late Coles Creek Culture (1000–1200 CE) Land Use in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

HDR’s recent investigations in Vicksburg National Military Park (VNMP) identified multiple precontact sites composed of extensive ceramic scatters. A typological analysis of nearly 300 sherds suggests these occupations are associated with the transitional Coles Creek culture of the Late Woodland/Early Mississippian period, specifically the redefined Kings Crossing phase (1000–1200 CE). Coles Creek culture is notable for growing social complexity and intensifying landscape modification, trends which occur alongside increasing population densities during a period of climate stability and greater effective moisture throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). Within VNMP, the newly identified Kings Crossing phase sites are interpreted to represent outlying settlements of Kings Crossing (22Wr537), the multi-mound, monumental center type site for this phase. To better contextualize the precontact occupation of VNMP, this study employs an eco-cultural niche modeling approach to address questions surrounding Late Coles Creek culture settlement organization, monumentality, and land use in the greater LMV. The results of the analysis have the potential to yield new insights into Terminal Woodland occupation of VNMP, the adoption of Mississippian ideas by an essentially Woodland society, how that society perceived and constructed landscapes in the LMV, and the role of outlying settlements in shaping these landscapes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Vicksburg Is the Key: Recent Archaeological Investigations and New Perspectives from the Gibraltar of the South   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39028.0