Mississippian Community Organization: The Powers Phase in Southeastern Missouri PDF
Preview Mississippian Community Organization: The Powers Phase in Southeastern Missouri
Mississippian Community Organization The Powers Phase in Southeastern Missouri INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCHAEOLOGY Series Editor: MichaelA.Jochim, University ofCaliforniaatSantaBarbara FoundingEditor: RoyS. Dickens,Jr., LateofUniversityofNorthCarolina, ChapelHill Current Volumes inThisSeries: THE ARCHAEOLOGIST’S LABORATORY TheAnalysisof Archaeological Data E. B. Banning AURIGNACIAN LITHIC ECONOMY Ecological Perspectives from Southwestern France BrookeS. Blades DARWINIAN ARCHAEOLOGIES Edited by Herbert Donald Graham Maschner EARLIEST ITALY An Overview of the Italian Paleolithic and Mesolithic Margherita Mussi FAUNAL EXTINCTION IN AN ISLAND SOCIETY Pygmy Hippopotamus Hunters of Cyprus Alan H. Simmons and Associates A HUNTER–GATHERER LANDSCAPE Southwest Germany in the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic MichaelA.Jochim HUNTERS BETWEEN EAST AND WEST The Paleolithic of Moravia Jir∨iSvoboda, Vojen Lož ek, and EmanuelVlc∨ek MISSISSIPPIAN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION The Powers Phase in Southeastern Missouri Michael J. O’Brien MISSISSIPPIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY Jon Muller PROJECTILE TECHNOLOGY Edited by Heidi Knecht VILLAGERS OF THE MAROS A Portrait ofan Early Bronze Age Society JohnM. O’Shea AChronologicalListing of Volumes inthisseriesappearsatthebackof thisvolume. A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. Mississippian Community Organization The Powers Phase in Southeastern Missouri Michael J. O’Brien Universityof Missouri-Columbia Columbia, Missouri with contributions by James W. Cogswell J. Eric Gilland Daniel S. Glover James J.Krakker TimothyK. Pertula KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow eBookISBN: 0-306-47196-5 Print ISBN: 0-306-46480-2 ©2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: http://www.kluweronline.com and Kluwer's eBookstore at: http://www.ebooks.kluweronline.com Contributors JamesW.Cogswell•NorthlandResearch,2510S.RuralRoad,Suite102,Tempe, Arizona 85282 J. Eric Gilliland • Burns and McDonnell, 9400 Ward Parkway, Kansas City, Missouri 64114 DanielS. Glover • College ofArts and Science, Universityof Missouri, Co- lumbia, Missouri 65211 JamesJ. Krakker • DepartmentofAnthropology, NationalMuseumof Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560 Timothy K. Perttula • 10101WoodhavenDrive,Austin,Texas 78753 v Preface The Powers Phase Project was a multiyear archaeological program undertaken in southeastern Missouri by the University of Michigan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The project focused on the occupation of a large Pleistocene-age terrace in the Little Black River Lowland—a large expanse of lowlying land just east of the Ozark Highland—between roughlyA.D. 1250 and A.D. 1400. The largest site in the region is Powers Fort—a palisaded mound center that re- ceived archaeological attention as early as the late nineteenth century. Archaeo- logicalsurveysconductedsouthof PowersFortinthe 1960srevealedthepres- ence of numerous smaller sites of varying size that contained artifact assemblages similar to those from the largercenter. Collectively the settlementaggregation became known as the Powers phase. Test excavations indicated that at least some of the smaller sites contained burned structures and that the burning had sealed household items on the floors below the collapsed architectural ele- ments. Thus there appeared to be an opportunity to examine a late prehistoric settlement system to a degree not possible previously. Not only could the spa- tial relation of communities in the system be ascertained, but the fact that struc- tures within the communities had burned appeared to provide a unique oppor- tunity to examine such things as differences in household items between and among structures and where various activities had occurred within a house. With these ideas in mind, James B. Griffin and James E. Price launched the Powers Phase Project in 1967. In terms of what it accomplished, the project was an unqualified success. Over the course of the 7 years or so of its operation, dozens of students from the University of Michigan and other institutions received excellent field train- ing, and numerous research papers and dissertations emanated from the work. Suffice it to say, without mentioning names, that some of the most well-known individuals in Americanist archaeology today cut their professional teeth work- ing in the horribly hot and humid summer climate of southeastern Missouri. vii viii PREFACE Key project personnel saw to it that the basic research results were published in visible outlets. For example, Price and Griffin (1979) published an analysis of the Snodgrass site, one of the burned villages, which had earlier formed the basis of Price’s (1973) dissertation. Similarly, Thomas Black (1979) published an analysis of human skeletal materials from the Turner site, another burned village, and Bruce D. Smith (1978b) reported on his excavation of the Gypsy Joint site, a small, two-house settlement. Additionally, Price (1978) provided an overview of the Powers phase settlement system in a lengthy review article. Data from the Powers Phase Project have figured prominently in several overviews of the late prehistory of the Mississippi River valley (e.g., Morse and Morse, 1983), in some cases (e.g., Chapman, 1980) serving as a proxy for how prehistoric groups outside the Little Black River Lowland organized themselves socially and politically. There are obvious dangers involved in using the Pow- ers phase settlement system as an analogue for what was happening elsewhere during the time span known as the Mississippian period (ca. A.D. 900-1600), but given the unparalleled nature of the data base it is not difficult to see why archaeologists would find it alluring. Despite what has been published on the Powers phase, there are large segments of the data base that have not been reported. For example, analysis of the houses at Snodgrass, the largest settlement excavated during the course of the project, was restricted to select material classes, and only the burials from Turner were analyzed. The original goal of this volume was to add to the Pow- ers phase data base through analysis of additional material classes from exca- vated houses at Turner and Snodgrass, but as analysis progressed it became evident that certain assumptions originally made about the occupational his- tory of the two settlements were incorrect. The archaeological signatures were much more complicated than presumed originally, and thus some published statements about not only the two sites but also the settlement system gener- ally are in need of revision. Asignificant component of this volume is a presen- tation of the archaeological evidence for why older, published interpretations should be changed. This should in no way undermine the prominent position of either the Powers Phase Project or the data set it produced. Rather, it places the data on a firmer footing, thus enhancing their usefulness for archaeologists interested in the late prehistory of the Mississippi River valley. Acknowledgments Igratefullyacknowledgetheadviceandassistanceof myeditorat KluwerAca- demic/Plenum, EliotWerner, andtheassistanceof productioneditorRosemary Sheridan and copyeditor David Bahr. All figures were created or modified by DanGlover, andtheartifactswerephotographedby Cliff White. LeeNewsom providedallof thewoodidentificationsusedinthediscussionof Powersphase structures and answeredinnumerable questions about treegrowthina swampy environment. Lee Lyman read the manuscript in its entirety and made numer- ous suggestions for improvement, but his most significant contribution to the project was his constant willingness to provide advice on and assistance with analytical procedures. MichaelJochim, series editor, and Carol Morrow also reviewed the manuscript and provided helpful advice. E.J. O’Brien also read the manuscriptinits entirety andediteditfor content as wellas forstyle. This is theeleventhbookof mine onwhichhehasworked, andasalways, Igreatly appreciate thehelp andadvice hehasprovidedovertheyears. Finally, I grate- fully acknowledge the advice and constructive criticism provided by Bruce Smith,whospent5 yearsreanalyzingthematerialsfromTurnerandSnodgrass and creating a significant portion ofthe massive data base discussed here. He was supposed to be my coauthor, but his first love-the origins of tropical domesticates—got in the way, much to the detriment of this project. ix Contents Chapter 1 • The Powers Phase: An Introduction................. 1 Michael J.O’Brien The Powers Phase Project ......................................... 4 ThePresentVolume ............................................... 15 Chapter2 • The GeneralPhysical andCultural Environment ...... 19 MichaelJ. O’Brien ThePhysicalSetting ............................................... 24 The CulturalSetting ............................................... 30 Summary ......................................................... 52 Chapter3 • ThePhysical-EnvironmentalContextof Powers Phase Settlements .................................... 55 James J. Krakker TheStudy Area ................................................... 58 Summary ......................................................... 72 Chapter4 • Powers Phase Settlement in the Western Lowlands ..... 77 Michael J. O’Brien and James J. Krakker The Pattern ofPowers PhaseSettlement ............................ 85 Summary ......................................................... 97 xi xii CONTENTS Chapter 5 • Community Organization and Dates of Occupation . . . . 99 Michael J . O’Brien and Timothy K . Perttula Powers Fort: The Civic-CeremonialCenter .......................... 99 The Villages ........................................................ 110 The Hamlets..................................... .................... 132 The Farmsteads....................................................... 133 Summary ........................................................... 135 Chapter 6 • The Construction and Abandonment of PowersPhaseStructures........................... 141 Michael J. O’Brien and James W. Cogswell Construction ........................................................ 143 The Use of Structures................................................ 163 Structure Abandonment andBurning................................... 164 Postburning Use of Structure Basins ................................... 167 Summary............................................................ 179 Chapter 7 • The Artifactual Content of Selected House Floors at Turner and Snodgrass................................ 181 James W. Cogswell, Michael J . O’Brien, and Daniel S . Glover Turner Structures.................................................... 187 SnodgrassStructures................................................. 195 Discussion .......................................................... 214 Summary ........................................................... 226 Chapter 8 • Stone Artifacts from Turner and Snodgra.s.s........ 231 J . Eric Gilliland and Michael J. O’Brien Chipped-Stone Artifacts............................................. 232 Groundstone Artifacts .............................................. 260 MiscellaneousTools and Other Items ............................. 262 Summary........................................................... 263
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