A Proposition to Extend the Kings Crossing Phase in the Lower Mississippi Valley to 1200 CE

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.

Ceramic data and radiocarbon dates from site 22Wr814, a newly recorded precontact lithic and ceramic artifact scatter along Mint Spring Bayou within Vicksburg National Military Park, show that the Kings Crossing phase (1000–1100 CE) extended to the end of the twelfth century CE in the loess uplands of the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). An analysis of the ceramic artifacts determined the ceramics are dominated by the Vicksburg set, the diagnostic set for the Kings Crossing phase. Shovel testing across the site identified a buried midden deposit with ceramics, lithics, faunal remains, fish scales, hickory nut shells, acorn shells, corn kernels, squash rinds, and floral remains. AMS dates on a hickory nutshell fragment and a corn kernel fragment provided a pooled mean of 905±16 rcy BP, yielding a 2-sigma calibration range of 1050–1210 CE. These data along with other investigations in the LMV provide the context for proposing an extension of the Kings Crossing phase from 1100 CE to 1200 CE. By determining the actual termination of the Kings Crossing phase we can better understand culture change during the Coles Creek period in the LMV.

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): 39191.0