A Micromorphological Study of a Cahokian Outpost

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cahokia rose as a city around 1050 AD, and during the early years of its founding, Cahokian people, practices, and objects were sent to distant locations, often engaging with important landscapes. The Carson site in northwest Mississippi is one such location that shows clear signs of connections with Cahokia, approximately 375 miles away. The site includes Cahokian artifacts as well as unique American Bottom-style architecture. This Cahokian outpost and others like it were important not only locally, but to Cahokia’s understanding of itself as well. This study uses micromorphological analysis to investigate very fine-scale construction processes used in the building of these Cahokian houses. Understanding how these Cahokian houses were made, used, and terminated are important parts of understanding the role of these distant locations in the rise of Cahokia itself. These fine-grained geoarchaeological data will be used to address broad-scale historical and cultural questions about how a Cahokian outpost came to be and what these distant places and landscapes meant to early Cahokia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Method, Theory, and History in the Mississippian World: Papers in Honor of Timothy R. Pauketat

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50923