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Geoarchaeological Evidence for Prairie-Mound Formation in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Southeastern Missouri

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael J. O'Brien ,
R. Lee Lyman  and
Thomas D. Holland
Michael J. O'Brien
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri at Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211
R. Lee Lyman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri at Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211
Thomas D. Holland
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri at Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211
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Abstract

Archaeological materials in several prairie mounds in the northern Western Lowlands of southeastern Missouri indicate that mounds began forming prior to ca. 5000-3000 yr B.P. The mounds subsequently were inundated and built up to their modern configuration by aggradational and reworking processes. Human use of the mounds may have been tied to exploitation of aquatic animals residing in backwater habitats during periods of prolonged flooding. Principal features of the sampled portion of the mound field include preoccupation topographic highs, early occupation (ca. 5000-3000 yr B.P.) layers that drape the topographic highs, and later occupation (ca. 3000-950 yr B.P.) layers that drape earlier occupation layers and extend onto intermound areas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 1989 , pp. 83 - 93
Copyright
University of Washington

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