A “Little Bang” at the Start of the Little Ice Age? Late Mississippian Mound Center Chronology in the Upper Tombigbee River Drainage

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Mississippian presence in the Upper Tombigbee River (UTR) drainage is represented by dispersed communities and single-mound centers with modest-sized occupations. The artifact sequence for the UTR closely mirrors that of the neighboring Moundville polity and the UTR traditionally has been viewed as having occupations that extended throughout the Mississippian period into the colonial-era. Lubbub Creek and Butler Mound are the only Late Mississippian mound centers in the UTR that have been intensively investigated, with the latter having been subjected to excavations in 2022-2023 by Mississippi State University. We present a robust sample of new radiocarbon measurements that were modeled in Bayesian frameworks to estimate the timing of settlement, mound building, and abandonment at these two sites. The results suggest that both sites were established around the start of the 14th century AD as part of a “little bang” of Mississippian community formation. Both sites then underwent dynamic occupation histories that provide further insight into regional events involving Moundville, how Mississippian communities responded to climate change, and how the initial European exploration of the North American southeast impacted communities in the UTR.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38420.0