Town Creek Indian Mound: A Native American Legacy

367 Pages·1995·44.398 MB·English

by  Joffre Lanning Coe

Town Creek Indian Mjjjjjjjjjjjjjoujjjjjjjjjjjnd
Town Creek
With contributions by
Thomas D. Burke,
S. Homes Hogue,
Billy L. Oliver,
Stanley South,
Michael Trinkley, and
Jack H. Wilson, Jr.
Foreword by
Leland G. Ferguson
Indian Mound
A Native American Legacy
JOFFRE LANNING COE
The University of North Carolina Press / Chapel Hill and London
© 1995 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coe, Joffre Lanning.
Town Creek Indian Mound: a Native American legacy /
Joffre Lanning Coe, with contributions by Thomas D.
Burke ... [et al.]; foreword by Leland Ferguson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2176-4 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8078-4490-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
i. Town Creek Site (N.C.) 2. Mississippian
culture—North Carolina. 3. Indians of North
America—North Carolina—Antiquities. 4. Excava-
tions (Archaeology)—North Carolina. 5. North
Carolina—Antiquities. I. Burke, Thomas D.
II. Title.
E78.N74C64 1995 94-V931
975.6'74—dc20 CIP
99 98 97 96 95 5 4 3 21
Epigraph by Clarence Pickernell reprinted courtesy
Sovereign Nations i, no. 6 (1992) 14-5.
The University of North Carolina Press gratefully
acknowledges the generous support of the North
Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division
of Archives and History.
To Sally
Town Creek and related sites
In the race of life
We seldom see
The baton that's handed
To you and me ...
The meaning and purpose
Of what's to be,
The reason we're born,
... Our legacy.
—Clarence Pickernell,
Quinault Tribe
Aerial view of Town Creek. (Photo: Company C, ist Battalion, yth Special Forces Group, U.S. Air Force [Fort Bragg])
Contents
Foreword by Leland G. Ferguson xiii
Preface xix
Acknowledgments xxi
Some Names and Abbreviations xxvii
Parti i. History 3
Introduction Early Records 4
-^ Early Explorations 6
2. A Fifty-Year Program, 1937-1987 11
The First Year, 1937 n
The Second Season, 1938-1939 16
Town Creek Comes of Age, 1939-1942 20
Postwar Planning and Development, 1949-1954 24
Restoration and Interpretation, 1955-1969 32
The Final Phase, 1969-1987 38
Part 2 3. Field Methods 45
Excavations Site Identification 46
The Grid 46
43
The Photographic Mosaic 49
4. The Mound 61
Excavations 62
A Reconstructive Summary 77
5. The Plaza 85
Excavations 85
Major Features of the Plaza Area 87
Part 3 6. Stone Available and Used / Billy L. Oliver 103
Natural Background 103
Resources Analysis and Comparisons of Selected Samples 108
Conclusions 115
101
7. Plant Resources / Michael Trinkley 117
Natural Environment 118
Procedures and Biases 120
Plant and Plant Food Remains 122
Summary 133