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6. The Mississippian Stage
- University Press of Mississippi
- Chapter
- Additional Information
The Mississippian Stage The Mississippian stage began about 700-800 A.D. in the central Mississippi Valley. Dan and Phyllis Morse write (1983) that it was "a new way of life and embraced kinds of technology and a new relationship to the environment. It was undoubtedly the closest that the prehistoric Central Valley came to a cultural revolution, as contrasted with the more gradual evolution experienced before about A.D. 700. Although there was continuity from Baytown to Mississippian, the transition was rapid and the consequences enormous." The new way of life involved a change from the earlier tribal societies to chiefdoms. These larger population centers were less mobile than the tribal villages had been. Whereas a tribe could migrate seasonally to take advantage of changing ecological resources, the chiefdom population centers stayed put. The centers were located within what Bruce D. Smith (1978) calls "floodplain habitat zones." These were the river valleys of the Southeast , where alluvial soils were easily tilled and food resources were concentrated . Smith further states that the Mississippian cultures had a "compromise settlement system" made up of "relatively large, often fortified settlements, located centrally to a Bone fish hooks 71 6 Flint hoe Jack's Reef Pentagonal point Madison point dispersed settlement pattern of small homesteads." The fortified settlements served as ceremonial centers, with "the capability of containing the total local population within its fortifications during periods of hostility with neighboring populations." A significant percentage of the people lived in surrounding dispersed farmsteads, with the center village being the permanent home of only a small number. In Smith's model, With most of the family units distributed in small scattered homesteads , and only occasionally visiting the local center, Mississippian populations during peaceful times could be best characterized as having a partially occupied ceremonial-center-dispersedhomestead settlement pattern. During periods of prolonged hostilities , on the other hand, homesteads would be all but abandoned as the entire population took up residence either in close proximity to, or actually within the fortification walls of, the local center. The Mississippian peoples relied upon the cultivation of corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, marsh elder, gourds, and pumpkins, as well as other local plants. They also collected wild foods such as hickory nuts, acorns, walnuts, berries, persimmons , plums, turtles, and shellfish . Bone and copper hooks as well as traps and weirs were used for catching fish. They hunted with bows and arrows tipped with small, triangular points to bring in waterfowl , turkey, raccoons, and deer (Smith 1978; Walthall 1980; Schambach 1990). Artifacts connected with the cultivation of crops include flint and mollusk shell hoe blades and processing tools such as manos and metates (grinding stones and slabs). As the Mississippian peoples grew to be more dependent upon agriculture, hunting and gathering became supplementary activities, although fish, migratory waterfowl, and shellfish remained important food sources for the riverine cultures . Marine and freshwater shell72 Arrowkeads and Spear Points [54.173.43.215] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:01 GMT) fish also provided materials for making hoe blades, beads, dippers, bowls, and gorgets. In hunting, the emphasis was on efficiency, or what John A. Walthall (1980) calls "maximum meat yields with the minimum of effort." Walthall quotes Bruce Smith: The projected yearly cycle of animal exploitation by Middle Mississippian groups can be divided into two basic seasons: a summer season during which various species of fish were the most intensivelyexploited , with aquatic species of turtles and perhaps rabbits being of secondary importance,and a winter season of exploitation during which a wide variety of terrestrial mammals, migratory waterfowl, beaver, and turkey were taken. The whitetail deer was the most important animal species taken during this winter hunting period. The arrowheads used were primarily triangular in outline. Madison points are straight-sided triangles with straight to slightly concave bases. The Mississippi Triangular point was latter renamed Madison (Williams and Brain 1983). The Fort Ancient point is a small to medium-sized slender triangular point that is usually deeply serrated . The base varies from straight to convex. In cross-sectionthe point is biconvex. Other Late Woodland and Mississippian triangular forms include such regional variations as the Caraway Triangular, the Clarksville Small Triangular, the Fresno, the Pinellas, and the Roanoake Large Triangular. Nodena Elliptical points are not triangular but lanceolate and sometimes serrated. The Nodena Banks points have straight bases and are roughly lanceolate in outline with outward-curving sides. The Scallorn and Sequoyah types described for the Late Woodland continue to be found into the Mississippian...