Early New World Monumentality

2. Early Mounds in the Lower Mississippi Valley

2 Early Mounds in the Lower Mississippi Valley Joe Saunders The rich and diverse environment in north Louisiana provided the economic foundation for establishing and maintaining a sedentary settlement pattern that eventually transformed preferred camp locales into residential sites. Mound construction began shortly thereafter, ca. 3700 cal. bc, and ended 1,000 years later. Limited excavations at many of these residential/ mound sites identified little evidence of significant differences in the economy and society of the pre-mound and mound occupations. The earthworks (Connaway, Brookes, and McGahey 1977; Gagliano 1967; Gibson 2000; Gibson and Shenkel 1988; Peacock et al. 2010); Saunders et al. 1997, Saunders et al. 2005; Saunders, Jones, and Allen 2010) and shellworks (Sassaman 2008; Sassaman and Randall, this volume) in the Lower Mississippi Valley are among the oldest in North America. Earthwork construction began around 3700 cal. bc, and perhaps as early as ca. 5000 cal. bc, although the evidence for an earlier origin is tenuous (Gibson 1996; R. Saunders 1994). The adaptation of local populations to the abundant riparian resources preceded this monumental achievement. Residential sites and a fisher-hunter-gatherer economy were well established by 5000 bc (Girard 2000; Girard et al. 2005). Once established in the Early Archaic, the riparian mode of production sustained mound-building cultures during the Middle Archaic (3700–2700 cal. bc), the Late Archaic (ca. 2700–700 cal. bc), and into the early Woodland (ca. 700 bc). Then monumental architecture in the Lower Mississippi Valley ended abruptly ca. 2700 cal. bc (Gibson 1996; Saunders 2010) and did not resume until 1,000 years later with the Poverty Point Period (1700–1200 cal. bc; Connolly 2000; Gibson 2000, 2007; Kidder 2006; Ortmann 2010). 26 · Joe Saunders The Middle Archaic monumental architecture in the southeast is not as complex or elaborate (see Sassaman and Randall this volume) as their Meso- and South American counterparts in this volume. The builders appear to have been egalitarian, localized fisher- or hunter-gatherers who did not engage in trade, and they built mounds while others in the same region did not. A comparable degree of complexity in both architecture and economy was later achieved at Poverty Point, approximately 1,000 years after the last Middle Archaic mound was completed (Kidder and Sassaman 2009). The Middle Archaic societies were part of the panarchaic culture, perhaps reminiscent of Caldwell’s (1958) primary forest efficiency, which shared fundamental technologies such as hot-rock cooking (Thoms 2008) and stone bead production (Crawford 2003). Within that backdrop, mound building and other stylistic attributes became localized in their distribution to the point that mound building was an autonomous act for each community. We know a great deal about the early mound builders of the Lower Mississippi Valley, including the size, shape, construction sequence, and configuration of their monumental earthworks. We know the mounds were the residential base for foragers tethered to ecotonal settings with aquatic, riparian, upland, and lithic resources. We know that trade was rare and we know when monumental architecture started and when it ceased, but we don’t know why. Statistics To date, 16 mound sites have been radiometrically dated to the Middle Archaic period (Figure 2.1). The summary statistics of the sites are extremely sparse. Middle Archaic research has focused on establishing the age and stratigraphy of the mounds, and fortunately that can be accomplished with coring and test-unit excavations. The unfortunate consequence is that beyond site chronology, site layout, and mound stratigraphy, very little is known about activities that occurred at the mound sites. In 1994 (1994a, Table 2:92), Russo listed 60 possible Archaic mound sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley (5000 bc–1200 cal. bc). R. Saunders (1994, Table 1:120, 122) compiled data on 25 of the possible Middle Archaic mound sites in southeast Louisiana. Only four of the 25 sites had been radiometrically dated to >2700 bc, but the chronometric data from these sites were inconsistent (Brown and Lambert-Brown 1978; Gagliano 1967; Manuel 1979; Neuman 1985; and R. Saunders 1994), leaving only a few voices accepting Table 2.1. Descriptive statistics for Middle Archaic mounds Site Mound Shape Mound Stages Height Length Width Rank ID Banana Bayou Dome A 2 2 30 30 1,800 Belmont Conical A 1 11 50 53 29,150 Caney Mounds Dome A 1 1.8 25 20 900 Caney Mounds Conical B 2 2 45 30 2700 Caney Mounds Dome C 2...