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New Evidence in the Upper Mississippi Valley for Premississippian Cultural Interaction with the American Bottom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James B. Stoltman ,
Danielle M. Benden  and
Robert F. Boszhardt
James B. Stoltman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 (stoltman@wisc.edu, benden@wisc.edu )
Danielle M. Benden
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 (stoltman@wisc.edu, benden@wisc.edu )
Robert F. Boszhardt
Affiliation:
Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI 54601 (boszhard.robe@uwlax.edu)
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Abstract

The recovery of anomalous (red-slipped, shell/grog/sandstone-tempered) pottery from three sites in the Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) prompted a petrographic analysis of thin sections of 21 vessels from these sites. The goal was to evaluate their possible derivation from the American Bottom, the nearest locality where such pottery commonly occurs. Among the 12 UMV vessels tempered with shell (nine red slipped), ten were determined, based on comparisons to thin sections of stylistically similar pottery from the American Bottom, to have essentially identical physical compositions. Additionally, four vessels suspected of being limestone-tempered were determined to have been tempered with a type of sandstone that out-crops only farther south in Illinois and Iowa. Of the three UMV sites, only the Fisher Mounds Site Complex (FMSC) produced the presumed exotic pottery in undisturbed, dated contexts. The petrographic evidence is consistent with the C-14 age and lithic assemblage at FMSC in suggesting an actual influx of people from the American Bottom into the UMV. The time of this influx, the Edelhardt phase of the Emergent Mississippian/Terminal Late Woodland period, ca. cal A.D. 1000-1050, is earlier than previously believed, i.e., precedes the main Mississippian period in the American Bottom.

Résumé

Résumé

La recuperación de cerámica anomálica (engobe rojo, templada por concha/grog/piedra arenisca) de tres sitios del Valle Mississipiano Superior (UMV) inicio un análisis petrográfica de las secciones delgadas de 21 vasijas de estos sitios. La meta había evaluar su derivación viable del Americano Bajo, el sitio más cercano de dónde esta cerámica ocurre generalmente. Entre las 12 vasijas de UMV templadas por concha (nueve engobe rojos), se realizaron diez-basado en comparaciones a secciones delgadas de cerámica similar al estilo del Americano Bajo-a tener esencialmente composiciones físicas idénticas. Además, cuatro vasijas originalmente consideradas de ser templadas por piedra caliza se determinaron templadas por una tipa de piedra arenisca que aflora solamente más al sur en Illinois e Iowa. De los tres sitios de UMV, solamente el Sitio Complejo de Fisher Mounds (FMSC) mostró la supuesta cerámica exótica en contextos anticuados y desalterados. La evidencia petrográfica es consistente con la ensambladura lítica de edad C-14 en el FMSC en sugerir una afluencia actual de personas del Americano Bajo hacia el UMV. La época de esta afluencia-la fase Edelhardt del periodo Mississipiano Surgimiento/Arbolado Ultimo Terminal, cerca D.M. 1000-1050-es más temprano que creencias anteriores, por ejemplo, precede el periodo Mississipiano principal en el Americano Bajo.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 317 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2008

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